In discussions with atheists I am occasionally told that I’m only a theist to my own God and an atheist to everyone else’s. This line of attack does not work well against me. For one I freely admit the possibility of multiple gods, and angels, devils, jinn and ministering spirits which could be confused for gods. This is an agnostic position not an atheist one.
The other issue that makes the complaint much less effective for me is that I am still looking for a perfect god. The claim that God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnibenevolent, and Omnipresent seems to have some fatal flaws to me. I think such a god is unlikely. But that unlikely god is also the one that seems most perfect to me. A god who is benevolent would not have power over evil. A god who is powerful would be complicit with that evil. A perfect god would suffer neither of those flaws. But overcoming both those flaws seems mutually exclusive. So none of the gods I can believe in are perfect and an imperfect god might not be a god at all. I give people the benefit of the doubt when I discuss their gods which might seem less than perfect to me, so I’m not really an atheist to them.
Latter Day Sinner 
10 responses to “A Perfect God”
I like your reasoning. I think there is value to embracing the mystery. Also…there is a practice where instead of defining what God is we define what God is not. This seems very inline with your thoughts. In defining what God is not it leaves open quite a lot of space for the possibility of what He/She is.
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Thank you. I do think it’s easier to define what God can’t be than what he can. It’s better not to approach strangers with the attitude that I’ve got The One True God and that they have got to listen to me or else.
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“This line of attack does not work well against me. For one I freely admit the possibility of multiple gods, and angels, devils, jinn and ministering spirits which could be confused for gods. This is an agnostic position not an atheist one.”
which means they aren’t gods. plenty of theists try this excuse and not one can show that their god, which they made up to please themselves, exists nor that anything else supernatural exists.
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Welcome back. I was talking elsewhere on WordPress about what people take as authority. If a person only accepts peer reviewed science as authoritative then you are correct that nothing supernatural can be shown to exist. If one takes Scripture and personal revelation as authority as I do then there is sufficient evidence. But you are free to choose any authority you want, just don’t expect to agree with me on much. God bless you path to spiritual healing.
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So, Mark, do you accept the scripture and personal revelation claimed by a person of a other religion or a different version of Christianity than you have?
if not, then you know why I find your claims to be unbelievable.
Since your god doesn’t even bless its followers, why should I think it would bless me?
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Yes I take other people’s scriptures seriously though not literally. I love the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Tao TE Ching to name a few. Everyone has access to the truth, it’s certainly not just Mormons.
You come here and call me a liar and accuse every theist of making it all up. That is why you find my claims unbelievable and that is entirely on you.
The LDS Church teaches that a person can repent, live righteously, and be blessed. That holds a lot of weight with me. I can call you to repentance and the blessings that come with it, but again you are free to think and do as you wish. That again is entirely on you.
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So, you don’t take the other cult’s scriptures literally, so you don’t believe they are true, right? And curious how each scripture contradicts the others, so how does that work out when you claim you “love” them?
Not one of these cults, including yours, has any access to any truth. You all make up imaginary nonsense and not one of you has any evidence for your claims at all.
I find your claims unbelievable since you have no evidence for them. Your garbage about jesus being in the Americas is hilarious and baseless. Same with your imaginary planets for every mormon man, etc. Just as utterly ridiculous as any other cult.
Every cult claims that their members will be blessed, etc, and not one of you cultists can show this is the case. You all live and die and fail just like everyone else. You aren’t the special chosen like each cult claims. You are all quite the amusing frauds.
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And you are a broken record. You never type anything interesting. Just pejoratives and accusations. This is not a fruitful conversation and I don’t know why you bother.
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I see you can’t explain how it works that you “love” other scriptures, and strangely they contradict each other. I “bother” since your lies cause real harm.
If your silly cult is the right one, do explain why you and your fellow cultists can’t do what Jesus promises? Not even your “elders” can do those things.
Show evidence that Jesus was in the americas. Curious how all of these cults manage to misplace their magic items constantly. No magic gold tablets, no magic glasses, no magic ark, of either version, no steel sword of Laban, nothing.
and no blessing of any cultist at all. Your lives are no different than any other human’s.
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You do what you want. Maybe call the police because I’m “doing real harm.” We’ll see how that flies in Wisconsin. I will be here if you ever decide to be a civilized human being. Thanks for continuing to advertise my blog.
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