If God lost all his powers; would you still praise him?

Great Debates
21

If some being shows up and says “I’m God, and I’ve lost all my powers” why would anyone believe him? I mean, how do we know he’s not just some magical entity like a Genie or something? If he is the God of the Bible, then how do we know there’s not a bigger God out there with some bigger set of rules who’s responsible for creating this God?

Do Christians define God as omnipotent? If they do, then a being which has lost its powers isn’t God, is it? I’m not a Christian, so maybe I’m misunderstanding the question.

22

[QUOTE=SHAKES]
Let’s just say somehow, someway God screws up and turns himself into a mortal.
[/QUOTE]
According to my understanding of God, in one sense this is impossible, and the question doesn’t even make sense. God couldn’t “lose all his powers” and still be God any more than a triangle could lose all its angles and still be a triangle. God couldn’t “screw up and turn himself into a mortal” any more than Shakespeare could screw up and turn himself into a character in one of his plays.

But in another sense, God did indeed turn himself into a mortal (i.e. the Incarnation; the mortal life of Jesus), and shared the suffering that all the rest of us are prone to.

And yes, I know it’s paradoxical to assert both of these things.

23

I’d buy him a pint. Would God, rendered mortal, want praise?

24

Well, remember, we’re making the huge leaps that God exists and becomes a mortal.

I would imagine that his explanation would be sort of like that smile that Douglas Adams describes as making you think, ‘Oh. Well, that’s all right, then.’ Something that makes sense in a way that I, as a human, who has not heard this explanation, can not describe.

On the other hand, if he just stonewalled, sod 'im. If, on the gripping hand, he literally no longer knew the explanation, as it was part of the godhead which was ripped away… I have no idea.

As far as a malicious answer? Well, then, God is evil. Yep. Eh. Not like nobody expected that, either.

I’m just willing to theorize he might have an acceptable answer for all the evil in the world. Assuming he, you know, was a person down here without powers.

Bright: I have no idea how we’d know he was God. The Op just posits he is.

Why should anyone fear Hell, anyhow?

25

[QUOTE=Czarcasm]
Interesting question. How would a Christian treat God if they no longer had to fear him, and no longer had a chance at an eternal life?
[/QUOTE]
If he were gay they’d shun him, black they’d lynch him, a woman they’d degrade her, a muslim they’d declare war on him, and if he were a white, male, American Christian they’d try and recruit him to join Amway.

26

[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink]
God couldn’t “screw up and turn himself into a mortal” any more than Shakespeare could screw up and turn himself into a character in one of his plays.
[/quote]

And God hold the world together, no God, or no power of God, the universe will fly apart - we won’t exist.

But in another sense, God did indeed turn himself into a mortal (i.e. the Incarnation; the mortal life of Jesus), and shared the suffering that all the rest of us are prone to.
[/QUOTE]

In this case we have the answer, we nail him to a cross to die. GQ answered!

27

The laws of Thermodynamics prohibit energy from being destroyed.

It can be moved, transformed, dispersed…not destroyed.

Where would God’s Power go? :confused: :confused:

Also–

28

[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]
Interesting supposition, that Christians fear God.

I certainly don’t.
[/QUOTE]

You’d be the first Christian that I’ve ever met or heard of that didn’t fear God.

Hell, I’m atheist and even I have a very small dark corner of my brain that still thinks: “Shit what if I’m wrong?”. I never let it bother me tho’ because I know that’s just a byproduct of growing up in a society saturated in Christian dogma.

It’s been my experience that more people fear God than love him.

29

Eh, not that there aren’t people like you describe, but I’d say most believers really do feel more fuzzy warmth and love and whatnot towards God than fear. Put it this way, lots of people find God comforting and the possibility of his absence scary; entirely backwards from how you’re viewing it, but that’s how it is.

As for the original question, if God was turned into a mortal, well, like people say, I’d have to hear his explanations before judging him for his actions. But, hell yeah, if he was at all friendly, I’d want to befriend him. He’d be the most interesting person in the universe. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with him, hear his stories and views, etc.? Of course, the thrust of your baited question is that I should think he’s a total dick, interestingness be damned, but, well, if he’s not going around killing babies and clubbing seals as a mortal, I don’t think I could stop myself from wanting to be friends.

30

[QUOTE=E-Sabbath]
Yes, Voyager, but God, qua God, is a different class of being than a human. You can’t try a bear under the same laws as a human, and I posit that it would be equally meaningless to try God. Maybe he does have reasons. We should ask him.

[/QUOTE]

Being more moral than God, we have things like trials, where God could defend himself. Like I said. So sure, we ask him. Who knows, he might have done the flood because his petunias needed watering. Or we might acquit him on grounds of insanity. But he would need a really, really good excuse for killing millions of innocent babies.

31

I think I’d be more likely to praise a weak God who appealed to us from his weakness than a strong God who commanded us from his power.

32

[QUOTE= SHAKES]
You’d be the first Christian that I’ve ever met or heard of that didn’t fear God.
[/QUOTE]

Why in the world would I fear God?

My love for my fellow man is proof of God in me. That I can put aside my own wants and love my neighbor, not because I fear punishment, but because it is the first thing that comes to mind, is proof of God in me. Why would I fear God when it is my nature to be like Him?

Sure, I’m going to fail at this. I have “failed” at it yesterday, I “failed” at it today, and I am likely to “fail” at it tomorrow. But God isn’t standing over me with a candy held just out of my reach and watching me jump for it in a futile effort like someone does with a cat and a piece of yarn.

God teaches me to swim by telling me to swim to Him, and, when I get close, He moves further back- showing me that I can do what He believes I can do. I trust Him- He won’t let me drown. I am not judged by whether or not I “reached” God- it’s not subjective. I am judged by whether or not I tried to- by how hard I swam.
One day, I will give an accounting before God. I don’t fear that day- I don’t have to justify myself to God. On that day, I will show God what I’ve done: that I loved my neighbor as myself; that I welcomed the stranger, fed the hungry, loved the sinner, comforted the sick. And those things aren’t just my gift to Him, they’re what I would have done anyway, because God does not make me do things for Him- I feel love for my fellow beings and that proves to me that God exists.
So if God were to come before me one day, powerless and alone? I would treat him as I would anyone else- with compassion. Because, one day I am going to go before God, powerless and alone. And every day I spend alive, I treat those around me as I would like God to treat me. The chance to actually DO that wouldn’t be much different.

My love for God is unconditional. I don’t feel it because I want something He can give me, or because I fear something He might do to me. I feel it because it is a reflection of the Divine in me. It is, and that is enough.

I hope that makes sense to you. It does to me.

33

I think that would depend on what kind of mortal that she or he became.

I would at least try to be compassionate and forgiving. If God became bitter and negative, I might not want to spend too much time around her or him.

<snip>

Forgiveness is required of me. It would be difficult being friends.

Is there really a parallel with God here? Has God been shown to be mercenary?

We haven’t yet fully glimpsed what is offered beyond the suffering.

That is such a strange concept to me. I grew up in a Southern small town of mostly Protestants. When I was in high school in the late 1950’s, we read Jonathan Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The concept of an angry God was very bizarre to us and we laughed at the fearfulness of the timid Christians.

I don’t think I’m fearful of God. I can imagine a God who loves me fully. I can imagine that there is no God. But for the life of me I just can’t imagine being afraid of God. I don’t believe in hell and I don’t believe that God experiences emotions in quite the same way that mortals do.

Speculations is one thing, but don’t tell us what our feelings are.

34

I saw a slob once. He was just a stranger on a bus, trying to make his way home.

35

[QUOTE=Der Trihs]
Hydrogen came from the Big Bang, and it was fused into heavier elements in ancient stars ( we aren’t made only of hydrogen, you know ). After condensing into planets around young stars, some of this matter underwent enough self organization to become life, after which evolution took over. After a billion plus years, evolution happened to make us; no God required.
[/QUOTE]

I see so the ‘bigbangdidit’.

36

[QUOTE=Valteron]
As amazing as it may sound, it has been hypothesized that the mechanics of evolution can operate even BEFORE life arises, as long as the driving forces of the “evolution machine” – repoduction and competition – are present in some way.
[/QUOTE]

How did the rules that govern these cycles come into existence?

37

[QUOTE=mswas]
I see so the ‘bigbangdidit’.
[/QUOTE]
Ah, yes, the desperate, stupid attempt by the religious to create a false equivalance between their incredibly stupid, evidence free belief in God creating the universe and a natural event for which we have plenty of evidence.

38

[QUOTE=Der Trihs]
Ah, yes, the desperate, stupid attempt by the religious to create a false equivalance between their incredibly stupid, evidence free belief in God creating the universe and a natural event for which we have plenty of evidence.
[/QUOTE]

With what machine can we observe the formation of all the elements in the universe?

I am sorry that I am so ignorant that I am unaware of this machine.

39

[QUOTE=mswas]
With what machine can we observe the formation of all the elements in the universe?

I am sorry that I am so ignorant that I am unaware of this machine.
[/QUOTE]
We can detect the Big Bang with a radio telescope. We can analyze the elemental abundances in things like ancient stars, meteorites and galaxies. We can create conditions duplicating the first moments after the Big Bang, use them to predict what would come from it, and match them to reality.

Do we have any evidence at all for a God ? Nope. Stop pretending science and religion are in the same intellectual weight class; when it comes to evidence, reason and truth, religion is the Terminator and religion is a blind two year old with a pointy stick.

40

Whoa there, mswas- are you seriously trying to use evidence to disprove science, and therefore bolster the case for the supernatural? I mean, seriously?

With what machine can we observe god?

At least with cosmology and evolution, we’ve got some evidence and reasoning which supports a scientific, rational cause for the universe. What’s more, every day we find more and more evidence.

With religion? Nothing. Just a book of mythology and the rabid insistence of believers such as yourself.