Perfection and God

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" -Epicurus

Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher, rejected the concept of the gods of ancient Greece. He stated that the gods are perfect, therefore they cannot be the imperfect beings depicted by Homer and others. Their gods have human flaws, including jealousy. Perfect beings would not be troubled by anything, including the behavior of humans.

That is a very strong statement, and is the foundation of this entry: Indifference is the primary characteristic of perfection. One cannot be perfect unless he is indifferent to the world around him. While many people have different ideas of what defines perfection, the general consensus is that being perfect means being in a state of flawlessness with nothing more that needs to be changed.

And therein lies the paradox that disproves the "personal" god. Not only is the idea of a perfect being creating the universe self-contradictory (to create is to indicate a lack, and thereby an imperfection), but a perfect being who is intimately involved in the lives of its subject creates bias. A truly omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and benevolent (all good) god would have to be completely indifferent to the universe. Any involvement or interest would go against the definition of god.

Therefore, there is no "personal" god aka the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God.

And yes, billions of people can be wrong. They were wrong about the world being flat, and they were wrong about the Earth being at the center of the universe. Quantity proves nothing.

Next time I feel like discussing the topic, I'm going to go through a couple of websites "proving" god exists, and why the same argument can be made for Santa Claus.