(November 20, 2014 at 9:03 am)ManMachine Wrote:(November 20, 2014 at 8:30 am)Lemonvariable72 Wrote: What could a omnipotent God possible want with human worship? I mean he's supposed be basically omni-all with or without us, so why spent so much time and energy obssessing over and obtaining human worship. He is so obsessed, that when he has ten rules to give humans the first three are devoted to him. So again I reiterate the title.
Omnipotence is an interesting concept. Averroes the Islamic Philosopher posed the question 'Is it possible for god to deny himself?' again, invoking the question of Omnipotence (albeit a more refined version of the paradox).
The Theological answer appears to be that god can only do anything within his nature, that is to say, he cannot make 1+1=3. A position reiterated more recently by the Pope, when he said, 'god is not a magician'.
I think all of this is the culmination of years of Theological debate and discussion that has come to a head in this significant shift in Theological positioning, god is no longer the almighty.
If we accept this repositioning of Christian Theology, then any paradox inherent in the concept of Omnipotence, is rendered moot.
A neat bit of re-branding of god worthy of the most devious ad-agencies. God is a commodity that must survive come what may, it would seem that god needs us to survive, just as predicted by the Holy Prophet, Terry Pratchett.
MM
Actually - that is still not the case regarding the inherent concept of Omnipotence. While the religion has finally accepted that the god cannot do all things - it still makes claims that cannot be true regarding what the god supposedly CAN do. AND it MUST do that - or why worship a god that cannot actually do supernatural things.
However - "god" is not the commodity - religion is the commodity. As long as people continue to give to a religion - they really do not care what you believe - they are not in it for that. And since they have realized that a "god" must comply with reality - or the "religion" faces extinction - then they have to back off the claims that simply cannot actually work - or actually disagree with reality. They survived their first brush with reality only because it was the middle ages and they could silence the people who were actually telling the truth.
The archdiocese of NYC is not closing 114 parishes because the god is something less than was once claimed - or even because less people believe - it is closing them because it doesn't have the money to keep them open.
Today - the future of religion rests on a generation who has not been educated by religion (Catholic schools are almost extinct) - and through studies - say that they only go along with the religious stuff to prevent family problems - do not actually believe in it - and have no intention of raising their children in it - when they have the say so.
And while religion continues to expand in the third world of South America And Africa - it is steadily going extinct in the areas of Europe and America where the MONEY came from. And the third world cannot pay its way - much less support the infrastructure. 50 Years from now - the non belief will have turned into no monetary support - and churches will have to be turned into some other form of use.
