The Rational Case for God: Part I
As per request by several atheist commenters on another blog, I have endeavored to lay out what I think is the most rational case for God’s existence. I shall do this in a series of posts which will be composed throughout the next several weeks, and if needs be, I will respond to any questions or concerns at the end.
First of all, we need to decide on an acceptable definition for the word “God.” By God, I mean a Being upon which other beings depend, or from which other beings derive. This God has several attributes, and the main ones are omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, atemporality, and omnibenevolence.
Omnipotence: The power to do anything that is logically possible. By definition, that which is logically possible cannot be contrary to God’s own nature, because God gives existence to the rules of logic, and in a real sense is Logic (Logos).
Omniscience: God knows all things past, present, and future. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that God is the Knowledge of All Things. As the Determining Principle of the universe, it is obvious that God should contain such perfect knowledge, since all things are contained within him.
Omnipresence: God is present everywhere and in all things, but is not synonymous with each thing considered apart from the whole, just as a foot cannot be said to be a man.
Atemporality: Since God is the source of motion, defined as change of any sort, his essence must not be within time, since time is a measure of motion. Moreover, we know that the future already exists potentially in the present, and that the past exists necessarily, so God must sustain all three.
Omnibenevolence: God is the law that determines what is good, just as he is the law that makes objects attract one another or water flow downhill. Evil exists as a byproduct of good, since the freedom to love is impossible to have without the freedom to hate, and the good of victory cannot be had without the evil of struggle. Therefore, God is Goodness itself; he is the reason something is good; he is the law that makes an act pleasurable, etc… And the fulness of Goodness cannot be had without permitting the existence, or at least the potential, for evil, defined as a defect or deviation from a particular object’s good, relative to that object.
Now that you know what I mean by God, we should be able to proceed with minimal misunderstandings. If you’re still confused by my definitions, it might be helpful to think about God just as the set of all universal laws, considered as a whole, because that is exactly what God is. All the divine attributes can be discerned from this one fact.
