Is the Christian God a logical concept?

Answer 1

Answer

If one accepts Thomas Aquinas' arguments based on contingency, design, purpose and movement, then the concept of God as Creator make sense (is logical) but it tells us nothing about God except that He is Creator; it does not even answer the question of whether or not God continues to be interested, or involved, in Creation. It says nothing about the attributes of God.

For the attributes of God, we depend on the revelation that comes to us in the Scriptures; for Christians, the ultimate revelation is Christ, who is God-incarnate. Through the Scriptures we learn that God is just, powerful, loving,wise, concerned, patient and merciful. In Christ we learn that God is totally self-giving and amazingly humble.

Problem: all-powerful God

There are those who postulate arguments that the Christian belief that God is all-powerful is illogical. Accusation: He cannot be all-powerful because He cannot write a book He is unable to read or make a rock He is unable to lift. However, these are contradictions and nonsensical, fickle statements. It is like saying why is a triangle not a circle. God is all-powerful in that He can do anything which does not contradict His nature. For example, God is Love itself, and we know that love is given voluntarily; we cannot make anyone love us. Therefore, God cannot make human beings love Him because that would contradict the very nature of love.

Problem: loving God

Some say that because there is evil and suffering God it is not logical for Christians to say that God is loving. There are 2 kinds of evil: natural and moral.

Natural evil is the suffering caused by such things as earthquakes, volcanoes and disease. Accusation: the Christian belief that God is loving is illogical because of the sufferingn caused to innocent people by natural disasters, However, any basic course in geology and climate will quickly show that the Earth needs such things as hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes for life, as we know it, to exist. If there were no earthquakes or volcanoes, there would be little life on Earth - and certainly no human life. The problem is not the earthquakes, hurricanes and volcanoes but that people insist on living where they occur, and are thus impacted.

The issue of disease is more complicated, but is tied to pain. Pain is one of the body's warnings that something is wrong e.g. place a hand above a naked flame and it feels pain; if it didn't the hand would be destroyed. Of course, why does disease exist? Well, some diseases occur because of poor hygiene, but what of things like cancer? Quite simply, this is an issue that Christian theologians wrestle with to this day.

Moral evil is that which is caused by human beings. Accusation: Surely, if God were loving, He would stop people from doing horrendously things to others? He doesn't stop them so it's illogical to say God is loving in the way Christians do.

Well, it's all about free will. If God were to take away the free will of those who do evil, they would be robots rather than humans. Free will means that human beings can say "No" to the most powerful Being in existence. Like any good parent, God has shown us the right way to live by giving us Commandments and most of all by the example of Christ. The thing is, free will not only means we can say "No" but also "Yes". We cannot blame God for the evil people and at the same time want to keep our freedom.

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answer

No. God is a real being who created the Heavens and the Earth. As far as logic is concerned noone can explain God's existence since none of us were here before God . When we get to Heaven and stand before Him then we will know how God always existed. Friend, God is not a concept. God is very real.

answerMost people answer questions like these without actually knowing what logic is, they just seem to replace the definition of logic with the definition of 'common sense' (small insignificant facts known without being taught). Logic is a linear, step by step thought process by which one determines rather something is possible or plausible. When we apply this thought process to the concept of the Christian God, or any belief in God for that matter, we find that wether or not it's logical depends on what ones definition of God is; if God is simply 'a being that existed sense the beginning of time that makes no mistakes and knows everything and also takes three forms; the father (God himself), the Son (Jesus Christ), and the holy spirit (the part of God that lives in all of us)' then we find that it is not logical at all but when God is defined more like this; 'a being consisting of a vast collection of intelligence manifested into a life form, having the ability to use parts of its own self to create other life forms and the Earth, one who became human as Jesus of Earth to help aid and teach the life forms it had created, and also generating an energy of it's intelligence and self being that flows through the Earth and through people, often described as a "holy spirit".' we find that logic can result in this concept. AnswerWhat is logical to some may not be logical to others.

Our own personal logic is the sum total of our biases, prejudices and conditionings.

To answer your question; Three is one and one is three (Trinity) is not logical to me.

AnswerOne in three is logical. Look at H2O - Water consists in three properties: solid, liquid and vapor. This is the picture of God which is totally logical in proportion to properties in nature. You have past, present, and future all consisted in relative time. Natural properties can be investigated as both scientific and mysterious as people begin to look into the nature of things.

God is very logical. In fact, He is more logic than emotion. He creates order in chaos and bring balance to the universe. Kill off one planet in this solar system and we are all dead. He created all things from a logical prospective and put in motion things that must be in order for existence to survive. That is pure logic.

We are spirit, soul and body and the three is one.

AnswerCognito ergo sum, I think therefore I am. Descartes most famous words. The brilliant mathematician got himself in trouble with these words as part of a logic treatise he wrote to "prove" the existence of the Christian concept of God, using logic. He started with establishing that God exists. The proof he has is that he can think and from this he extrapolates the existence of the Creator. There are very, very few logical flaws and I believe that he put these in on purpose. This is the closest anyone has ever come to using logic to prove God. However, he did not actually believe the parts of the proof that proved God.

The concept of a higher being that is infinitely more powerful and knowledgable than we are is neither provable nor disprovable using logical thought. It is generally considered a matter of faith. Faith is defined as a firm belief in something for which there is no proof. Logic, by the way, does not vary from person to person. Logic is a science in and of itself and has very strict rules. Most people never learn them and don't apply them in every day life. One of the most common errors is that people say 'If A then B means that if B then A." Which is the same as saying: The sky is blue. If a thing is blue then it is the sky. This is clearly false. But, say: this criminal is black; if a person is black then he is a criminal and you have a much more common logical fallacy. That lots of people believe on some level. It is however the same bad logic from the sky example and is known as stereotyping and racial profiling.

AnswerThe Christian understanding of God is said to be many things, several of which are illogical concepts. He is said to be omnipotent and benevolent, which is impossible with the existence of suffering.

"The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing to do so, cannot; or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are both able and willing. If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent. If they can, but will not, than they are not benevolent. If they are neither able nor willing, then they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent. Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, how does it exist?"

- Epicures, 300 B.C.

This is known as the problem of evil, and Christians rationalize it by saying that all evil is a result of free will, which must exist for our life to be meaningful - this ignores however the gross amount of suffering which does not result from free will like plagues, most cancer tumors, birth defects, posonous plants, reptiles and insects, tornados, floods etc, etc, etc.

The problem of evil has never been solved.

Another quality of the christian god which is impossible is omnipotence, the ability to do "all things".

The old question "can God make a rock so big he can't lift it" has always amused us, but it's really a mis-statement of a real philosophical dilemma.

I say mis-statement because the question is worded to assume that the omnipotent God exists.

A more appropriate way to ask the question is to ask one of these sorts of questions:

Can an indestructable thing exist?

Can an unmovable thing exist?

Etc.

Now, lets ask them assuming an omnipotent god does not exist, and then assuming one does.

If an omnipotent god does not exist the answer can be yes or no and there is no logical contradiction. If say a black hole turns out to be indestructable or unmovable, then the answer is yes - if it is not, the answer is no.

No contradiction.

If however we insert into that universe a being which can "do anything", then we have a paradox, because that being must either be able to make something indestructable OR be able to destroy whatever it creates. Must be able to make something unmovable OR be able to move whatever it creates.

If it can create something indestructable then it is not omnipotent since it cannot destroy it, if it can then it was never indestructable, etc.

People claim that the contradiction is in the wording, that the things themselves are impossible, not the quality of omnipotence, but as I demonstrated there is no contradiction until you invoke an omnipotent god.

The questions make sense without an omnipotence, they do not make sense with an omnipotence.

.....the above answer has a couple of problems, but let's just stick to the last point. Can a black hole be so indestructable that it can be destroyed? Can the sky be so blue that it's no longer blue?

These are closer examples of asking the same question about non-omnipotent things. when one poses the question "is God so powerful that he can create a rock that he cannot lift/desroy it" another way of wording it is, "Is God so all powerful that he's not all powerful?" and the answer of course is no. He is all-powerful. since when has not being able to destroy or lift something been considered all powerful? God is so powerful that he can create something that can only be destroyed by himself and so powerful that he can create something that only he can lift. He is even so powerful that he can decide not to destroy anything he doesn't want to destroy. He is even so powerful that he can decide to let bad things happen to good people because, in his all-benevolence, he understands that free will is a must for life to have meaning, and that free will must still be held accountable and punished and taught lessons, and that since free will must be held accountable and punished, bad things have to happen, but these bad things must also be seen by the free will as an opurtunity to learn. since accountability and punishment are musts (he is a just God), leting bad things happen can be more benevolent than taking them all away. this is how one mixes benevolence with justice. of course, the explanation for why evil exists goes much deeper and can be explained to an extent, although not entirely except by God, but as far as the answer for omnipotence and benevolence goes, that should be enough for now.

Answer

God is outside human understanding. His majesty is so supreme that we only know a part of it. Explaining God using human standards is impossible. One cannot quantify the existence of planet Mars using The Bible. Same with God. You cannot prove his existence using your science text books. He exceeds explanations and defies all that is natural and known to man. That is how he exists.

AnswerWhile a person cannot know all about the existence of God one can ask God and then wait for Him to answer. God does and will share a lot with us about Himself. He is the one who initiated a relationship with us.

God also knows how to explain in human terms what man can understand and grasp. That is, after all His nature who created the Earth's languages that I'm sure He has mastered. Ask Himwhat a black hole is and you might be surprised why He created it and what its function is.

No, the Bible will not explain Mars to a person but God will, if you desire to have a relationship with Him, He will explain much.

People think that God doesn't desire to speak with mankind, where on earth did man get that?

Answer

Yes the Truth is very logical for those who accept it. For those who do not believe, it cannot be understood this is the Father's will. Jesus said: This is why I speak to them in parables, because 'they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand' (Matt 13:!3)

Such depends on the logic you use and how. It can logically be shown that a god of some kind is necessary, and even expanded with the proper logical assumptions to define a Christian god as logically valid. However, logic can be used - much more strongly, as a sidenote - to completely disprove any notion of any god. Thus, it really depends on how you mean logic, and how good the logic has to be.

Answer 2

The early Christian debated this question. Gnostic Christians believed that the Christian God could not be the same God as the Old Testament God, so therefore the Old Testament God must be an inferior God, who, they called the Demiurge. Orthodox Christians refused to consider the possibility that monotheism was logically inconsistent with the Christian God as they understood him. Faith does not require logic or consistency, so Orthodox Christians won the day when Gnostic Christianity ceased to exist.