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Can God do anything?

Xelor

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Can omnipotent God literally do and be anything?
  • Can God commit suicide?
  • Can God, not a version of God, do be in all respects truly mortal?
    • If God can commence existence as immortal and choose to become mortal, how can that choice be undone?
 
God can't even provide any proof of his/her/its/ existence so I would say that a god can do nothing.
 
:thinking~ I suppose the answer depends on the definition of 'God' and an individuals belief/faith ...
 
:thinking~ I suppose the answer depends on the definition of 'God' and an individuals belief/faith ...

Surely there is an existential truth of the matter.

For my part, I'd say that if God is fictional, sure, God can do anything that humans, fiction writers, can conceive of God doing.
 
Surely there is an existential truth of the matter.

For my part, I'd say that if God is fictional, sure, God can do anything that humans, fiction writers, can conceive of God doing.
~ Sort of like a religious placebo ?
 
Can omnipotent God literally do and be anything?
:thinking~ I suppose the answer depends on the definition of 'God' and an individuals belief/faith ...
Surely there is an existential truth of the matter.

For my part, I'd say that if God is fictional, sure, God can do anything that humans, fiction writers, can conceive of God doing.
~ Sort of like a religious placebo ?

Red:
??? -- What?

The topic and thrust of discussion here is whether God can do anything. It is not what God can be or what be God's nature.

You can use the following sentence structure model to help you structure your response to the question and to evaluate others' responses to it:
  • "God ____________." All you need do is replace the blank with the auxiliary verb can + a main verb. Depending on what be the main verb one uses, For example:
    • God can sing.
    • God can swat flies.
    • God can do cartwheels.
So, no, not "sort of like a religious placebo." because "God can religious placebo" or "God can do religious placebo" makes no sense whatsoever. "God can be a religious placebo" makes sense as a sentence, but that sentence notes defines God's nature rather than describing the range of things God can do.


Off-Topic/Blue:
"God" is the name of the Christian god. "Allah" is the name of the Islamic god. "Yahweh"/"Jehovah" is the name of the Jewish god.

How one "defines God" is irrelevant because there is only one god having the name "God," and that god is the one described in the compilation of texts called the Bible, the first five books of which are the Torah. The Islamic god, Allah, must logically be the same entity as God because Christianity, Judaism and Islam all allege that there is only one god. Thus, if there is only one god, then, even though the three religions have differing beliefs about that god's nature, words and deeds, the god of which each faith remarks must yet be the same being and the respective faiths (and their respective texts telling of that god) have either misconstrued that god's nature and/or omitted from their telling of that god's nature, deeds and words all that the god is, said and did.

One can easily see that if one has a name by which one is to some population known and another name by which another population knows one. For instance, I have a brother whom, growing up, we called "Skip." That name stuck with him until he commenced his professional life, at which point he simply didn't tell folks to call him "Skip" -- as a kid he didn't have much choice; Granny, Momma and Dad called him "Skip," so we kids and all our relatives did too. Since he didn't tell his professional associates that he went by "Skip," none of them use that name for him.

The consequence of Skip's being known by two names and being one person is that were folks in my family to chronicle the nature, words, and deeds of Skip, the story we'd tell would differ in places from the one his professional associates tell, and in other places they'd be essentially the same. So it is with Allah and God. Two names; same "guy."
 
God is mind-like, a mind-like force, a spiritual power, an intelligence.
Following the strictures laid down in post #7 by Xelor, that is, not confusing God per se with any of the various anthropomorphic conceptions of God contained in any organized religion, including my own, God does not have a physical brain, God does not have a physical body, and so all the physical actions falling under the concept of physical doing are not to be credited to God. God cannot pick its nose, because God does not have a nose, or fingers.

God is a mind-like being, and like the mind-like things we are most familiar with, namely, human beings, God can do whatever mind can do whatever mind can do, but at the high divine level. Mind-like beings can express, can create, can imagine, can reason, can think, dream, hope, love, and so on.

Of course even our extrapolations from our own puny embodied minds are anthropomorphic.

God is beyond conception.
 
God is mind-like, a mind-like force, a spiritual power, an intelligence.
Following the strictures laid down in post #7 by Xelor, that is, not confusing God per se with any of the various anthropomorphic conceptions of God contained in any organized religion, including my own, God does not have a physical brain, God does not have a physical body, and so all the physical actions falling under the concept of physical doing are not to be credited to God. God cannot pick its nose, because God does not have a nose, or fingers.

God is a mind-like being, and like the mind-like things we are most familiar with, namely, human beings, God can do whatever mind can do whatever mind can do, but at the high divine level. Mind-like beings can express, can create, can imagine, can reason, can think, dream, hope, love, and so on.

Of course even our extrapolations from our own puny embodied minds are anthropomorphic.

God is beyond conception.

Interesting analysis; however, it rejects the omnipotent quality God is alleged to have for a "mind-like" entity that cannot, as you wrote, "pick its nose" is not able to do anything that is doable.

I haven't an issue with the rejection of the premise that God is omnipotent, but I realize too that existential omnipotence requires one be able literally to do anything.
 
Can omnipotent God literally do and be anything?
Yes
Can God commit suicide?
Sure. But the totally must then be seperate from the aspect capable of the action.

An example, might look like the concept of a soul within a body.

A body can die as it is temporal. It is said a soul can not because it is immortal.

If fred is a soul plus a body, without both body and soul, fred is not fred, yet without a body Fred neither is completely gone.
 
Can omnipotent God literally do and be anything?
  • Can God commit suicide?
  • Can God, not a version of God, do be in all respects truly mortal?
    • If God can commence existence as immortal and choose to become mortal, how can that choice be undone?

Your question implies that God is subject to the laws of physics, to cause and effect, etc

However, if the myth is to be believed, then God is not subject to those rules; He makes them, and he can break them
 
Your question implies that God is subject to the laws of physics, to cause and effect, etc

However, if the myth is to be believed, then God is not subject to those rules; He makes them, and he can break them

Myth being the operative word. Nothing to do with reality.
 
Yes

Sure. But the totally must then be seperate from the aspect capable of the action.

An example, might look like the concept of a soul within a body.

A body can die as it is temporal. It is said a soul can not because it is immortal.

If fred is a soul plus a body, without both body and soul, fred is not fred, yet without a body Fred neither is completely gone.

Be that as it may, after killing himself, Fred's omnipotence must necessarily end for that which requires a viable body to do can no longer by Fred be done.
 
Can omnipotent God literally do and be anything?
  • Can God commit suicide?
  • Can God, not a version of God, do be in all respects truly mortal?
    • If God can commence existence as immortal and choose to become mortal, how can that choice be undone?

Unknown. Doubtful that, if there is a God with God being defined as the all-powerful creator of the Universe, would have a reason to commit suicide. A common mistake of humans is to anthropomorphize an entity that is so far beyond their ability to comprehend, than an amoeba trying to comprehend the Sun doesn't even come close.
 
I once asked a group of theists if God could cause itself to cease to exist. The answer by all was no because that 'goes against God's nature.'. So, based on that response, if that response is correct.....God is limited, therefore not 'Omnipotent."
 
Unknown. Doubtful that, if there is a God with God being defined as the all-powerful creator of the Universe, would have a reason to commit suicide. A common mistake of humans is to anthropomorphize an entity that is so far beyond their ability to comprehend, than an amoeba trying to comprehend the Sun doesn't even come close.

TY for directly answering the thread question.

The thread question isn't about why God might commit suicide; it's about whether God can do so.
 
TY for directly answering the thread question.

The thread question isn't about why God might commit suicide; it's about whether God can do so.

IMO it's a flawed question. To commit suicide is to assign human feelings, frailties, faults and abilities on a power that we're assuming to be all powerful. It's like asking "If God is all powerful can 'he' (assuming God has a gender, also flawed) grow a beard?" It goes to a fundamental misunderstanding of what "God" would be should such an entity exist.

EDIT: Anthropomorphizing God is a common mistake. The Bible is full of such mistakes. God is God. It's like asking "How old is God", an entity which is assumed to be outside time: i.e. eternal.
 
Last edited:
TY for directly answering the thread question.

The thread question isn't about why God might commit suicide; it's about whether God can do so.

Can an imaginary being commit suicide?
 
Red:
??? -- What?

The topic and thrust of discussion here is whether God can do anything. It is not what God can be or what be God's nature.

You can use the following sentence structure model to help you structure your response to the question and to evaluate others' responses to it:
  • "God ____________." All you need do is replace the blank with the auxiliary verb can + a main verb. Depending on what be the main verb one uses, For example:
    • God can sing.
    • God can swat flies.
    • God can do cartwheels.
So, no, not "sort of like a religious placebo." because "God can religious placebo" or "God can do religious placebo" makes no sense whatsoever. "God can be a religious placebo" makes sense as a sentence, but that sentence notes defines God's nature rather than describing the range of things God can do.


Off-Topic/Blue:
"God" is the name of the Christian god. "Allah" is the name of the Islamic god. "Yahweh"/"Jehovah" is the name of the Jewish god.

How one "defines God" is irrelevant because there is only one god having the name "God," and that god is the one described in the compilation of texts called the Bible, the first five books of which are the Torah. The Islamic god, Allah, must logically be the same entity as God because Christianity, Judaism and Islam all allege that there is only one god. Thus, if there is only one god, then, even though the three religions have differing beliefs about that god's nature, words and deeds, the god of which each faith remarks must yet be the same being and the respective faiths (and their respective texts telling of that god) have either misconstrued that god's nature and/or omitted from their telling of that god's nature, deeds and words all that the god is, said and did.

One can easily see that if one has a name by which one is to some population known and another name by which another population knows one. For instance, I have a brother whom, growing up, we called "Skip." That name stuck with him until he commenced his professional life, at which point he simply didn't tell folks to call him "Skip" -- as a kid he didn't have much choice; Granny, Momma and Dad called him "Skip," so we kids and all our relatives did too. Since he didn't tell his professional associates that he went by "Skip," none of them use that name for him.

The consequence of Skip's being known by two names and being one person is that were folks in my family to chronicle the nature, words, and deeds of Skip, the story we'd tell would differ in places from the one his professional associates tell, and in other places they'd be essentially the same. So it is with Allah and God. Two names; same "guy."

It is even simpler than that. Allah is just Arabic for God. Arabic speaking Christians call “God” “Allah” also. In Spanish speaking countries “God” is “Dios”.
 
Can omnipotent God literally do and be anything?
  • Can God commit suicide?
  • Can God, not a version of God, do be in all respects truly mortal?
    • If God can commence existence as immortal and choose to become mortal, how can that choice be undone?


This is why I gave up on religion.
 
This is why I gave up on religion.

Giving up on religion is one thing, giving up on one's spirituality is another. Just because we don't understand it, like dark matter or dark energy, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
 
Giving up on religion is one thing, giving up on one's spirituality is another. Just because we don't understand it, like dark matter or dark energy, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I don't need to understand dark matter--it doesn't affect my life. Someone telling me I have to believe in God is nothing like believing in dark matter. And 'mystery' is proof of nothing.
 
I don't need to understand dark matter--it doesn't affect my life. Someone telling me I have to believe in God is nothing like believing in dark matter. And 'mystery' is proof of nothing.

The effects of dark matter can be observed. Gods not so much.
 
I don't need to understand dark matter--it doesn't affect my life. Someone telling me I have to believe in God is nothing like believing in dark matter. And 'mystery' is proof of nothing.

No problem. Not everyone has a desire to see what is over the horizon.

BTW, I never suggested you believe anything, so inferring I did is a falsehood from you. I've repeatedly said everyone is free to believe as they wish as long as they harm no others.
 
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