VALIDATION/ DEFENSE OF "BEYOND OMNIPOTENCE" IN SUGGSVERSE aka HEIR TO THE STARS
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LIMITS OF OMNIPOTENCE/ JEYA AND DEFENCE OF
SUGGSVERSE/ HEIR TO THE STARS BOOKS*
*JEYA/ JEY = Jehovah, Elohim, Yahweh, Allah (Abbreviation)*
Just looking online u will find many philosophies and conventions on the Limits of Omnipotence from both sides of the aisle i.e: Theists/ Religious and anti-Theist/ non-religious.
Abrahamic god "Yahweh" aka "Elohim" aka "Jehovah" (abbreviate as JEY for short), whom is Judeo-Christians commonly refer to as "God" (even though this term does NOT belong to Abrahamic religions but can also refer to ANY supreme creator Godking of any religion) has been used as the basis for the representation of Omnipotence in debates going back to the medieval era and therefore the contents of holy books like the Bible, Quran and book for Judaism all come under scrutiny about what they say of the omnipotence of their God so with Christianity being the most popular religion (more predominantly in the West) therefore it's the Bible that endures the heaviest scrutiny.
Even Judeo-Christian theologists and theists have accepted and agreed that there are things that their "Omnipotent" God can NOT do directly based on what in written in the Bible such as...
*(1) GOD CAN NOT LIE*
Hebrews 6:18). Other verses supporting this truth are Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Romans 3:4; ;1 John 1:10; and 1 John 5:10.
*Humans can do this easily!!!!*
*(2) GOD/JEY CANNOT CHANGE.*
“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). To verify, compare Psalm 90:2,4; Psalm 102:27; Hebrews 13:8; James 1:17; and Revelation 1:8.
Whatever decision JEY makes, he is trapped by that decision because his decisions are supposed to be perfect.
Yet *Humans can easily change their minds on whatever decision they make!!!!*
*(3) GOD/JEY CANNOT BREAK A PROMISE.*
“My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips” (Psalm 89:34). Also see: Leviticus 26:44; Jeremiah 14:21; and Jeremiah 33:20–22. This further validates (2).
*(4) GOD/JEY CANNOT TOLERATE SIN.*
“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1–2). See Proverbs 15:29; Jeremiah 5:25; Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Ezekiel 39:23–24; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 6:9–10; Galatians 6:7–8; and 1 John 3:4.
This is why JEY does NOT allow presumed "sinners" into his heaven yet Abrahamic religions claim that JEY/ their "God is Love" and "all forgiving father" ...if this were true then his ability to forgive would be boundless and yet he despises sinners???
*(5) Logical limitation- GOD/JEY CAN NOT CREATE ANOTHER GOD/ OMNIPOTENT BEING* ....either in equal power or of greater power!
*Humans can do this easily, ability to create something that has more strength, power, intellect, speed, faster self duplication, etc than its human creator through advancement of sciences and technological innovations.... keep a keen eye on the advancement of a.i robotics*.
This is simple logic which is also a limitation therefore this specific point also *proves that Omnipotence is confined to logic*. The Omnipotence Paradox of "Can God create a stone he CAN NOT lift" also fits here.
*C. S. LEWIS* argues that when talking about omnipotence, referencing "a rock so heavy that God cannot lift it" is nonsense just as much as referencing "a square circle"; that IT IS *NOT LOGICALLY COHERENT* in terms of power to think that omnipotence includes the power to do the logically impossible therefore God/ Omnipotent being equivalent is limited to the logic of possibility *NOT* impossibility.
Then we proceed to the philosophy of *SCHOLASTICISM* and the limitation that GOD CAN ONLY DO "POSSIBLE THINGS" aka LOGICAL POSSIBILITY *WITHOUT SELF-CONTRADICTION* which perfectly aligns with th nature of an Omnipotent/ God being incapable/NOT able to change. Therefore if God can not change then it is incapable/can NOT be self-contradictory this can NOT to breach paradoxes.
*THOMAS AQUINAS* acknowledged difficulty in comprehending the deity's power: "All confess that God is omnipotent; but it seems difficult to explain in what His omnipotence precisely consists: for there may be doubt as to the precise meaning of the word 'all' when we say that God can do all things. If, however, we consider the matter aright, since power is said in reference to POSSIBLE THINGS, this phrase, 'God can do all things,' is rightly understood to mean that God can do all things that are possible; and for this reason He is said to be omnipotent."
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 1a, Q. 25, A. 3, Respondeo; quoted from The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, Second and Revised Edition, 1920
*Christian philosophers, such as Norman Geisler and William Lane Craig*, have said that the paradox assumes a wrong definition of omnipotence. Omnipotence, they say, does NOT mean that God can do anything at all but, rather, that he can do anything that is possible according to his nature. The distinction is important. God CAN NOT perform logical absurdities; he CAN NOT, for instance, make 1+1=3. Likewise, God CAN NOT make a being greater than himself because he is, by definition, the greatest possible being. God is limited in his actions to his nature.
https://www.alwaysbeready.com/images/stories/alwaysbeready/geisler%20norman%20-%20how%20to%20approach%20bible%20difficulties%20a.pdf
https://www.equip.org/article/any-absolutes-absolutely/
*(6) GOD/JEY CAN NOT SELF-TERMINATE aka COMMIT SUICIDE/ ABSOLUTE DEATH*
*Humans can do this easily, commit suicide!!!!*
*Philosopher Augustine of Hippo* took in his The City of God stated...
"For He is called omnipotent on account of His doing what He wills, not on account of His suffering what He wills not; for if that should befall Him, He would by no means be omnipotent. Wherefore, He cannot do some things for the very reason that He is omnipotent."
Thus Augustine argued that God could not do anything or create any situation that would, in effect, make God not God. In other words, God is incapable/ CAN NOT of making himself non- Omnipotent and CAN NOT kill himself.
NPNF1-02. St. Augustine's City of God and Christian Doctrine
*Then there are TYPES OF OMNIPOTENCE...*
*ESSENTIALLY AND ACCIDENTAL OMNIPOTENCE*
...The notion of omnipotence can also be applied to an entity in different ways. An ESSENTIALLY OMNIPOTENT being is an entity that is necessarily omnipotent. In contrast, an ACCIDENTALLY OMNIPOTENT being is an entity that can be omnipotent for a temporary period of time, and then becomes non-omnipotent. The omnipotence paradox can be applied to each type of being differently.
Hoffman, Joshua, Rosenkrantz, Gary. "Omnipotence" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2002 Edition). Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
*FIRST ORDER AND/OR SECOND ORDER OMNIPOTENCE*
In a 1955 article in the *philosophy journal Mind, J. L. Mackie* tried to resolve the paradox by distinguishing between first-order omnipotence (unlimited power to act) and second-order omnipotence (unlimited power to determine what powers to act things shall have). An omnipotent being with both first and second-order omnipotence at a particular time might restrict its own power to act and, henceforth, cease to be omnipotent in either sense.
Mackie, J. L., "Evil and Omnipotence." Mind LXIV, No, 254 (April 1955)
The Power of God: Readings on Omnipotence and Evil. Linwood Urban and Douglass Walton eds. Oxford University Press 1978. Keene and Mayo disagree p. 145, Savage provides 3 formalizations p. 138–41, Cowan has a different strategy p. 147, and Walton uses a whole separate strategy p. 153–63
In addition, some philosophers have considered the assumption that a being is either omnipotent or non-omnipotent to be a false dilemma, as it neglects the possibility of varying degrees of omnipotence.
Haeckel, Ernst. The Riddle of the Universe. Harper and Brothers, 1900
*In the 11th century, Anselm of Canterbury* argues that there are many things that God cannot do, but that nonetheless he counts as omnipotent. He also said...and believed to be the first, and best-known, ontological argument was proposed by St. Anselm of Canterbury in the 11th century C.E. *In his Proslogion*, St. Anselm claims to derive the existence of God from the concept of a being than which no greater can be conceived. *St. Anselm reasoned that, "if such a being fails to exist, then a greater being—namely, a being than which no greater can be conceived, and which exists—CAN BE CONCEIVED".* *(in Suggverse case... BEYOND OMNIPOTENCE has conceived).*
Anselm of Canterbury Proslogion Chap. VII, in The Power of God: readings on Omnipotence and Evil. Linwood Urban and Douglass Walton eds. Oxford University Press 1978
*Ethan Allen's Reason* addresses the topics of original sin, theodicy and several others in classic Enlightenment fashion. In Chapter 3, section IV, he notes that "omnipotence itself" could not exempt animal life from mortality, since change and death are defining attributes of such life. He argues, "the one cannot be without the other, any more than there could be a compact number of mountains without valleys, or that I could exist and not exist at the same time, or that God should effect any other contradiction in nature." Labeled by his friends a Deist, Allen ACCEPTED THE NOTION OF A DIVINE BEING, THOUGH THROUGHOUT REASON HE ARGUES THAT EVEN A DIVINE BEING (referring to God/JEY/ Omnipotence) MUST BE CIRCUMSCRIBED BY LOGIC.
Allen, Ethan. Reason: The Only Oracle of Man. J.P. Mendum, Cornill; 1854. Originally published 1784.
*This is where Theists/ religious folks will throw in DIVINE COMMAND THEORY aka THEOLOGICAL VOLUNTARISM* in support of limitlessness of Omnipotence but the criticism of Voluntarism/ Divine Command Theory exposes it's massive undeniable flaws which in turn leads back to limits of Omnipotence... I will leave this to your research on that.
*THE EUTHYPHRO DILEMMA...another limitation of Omnipotence* whereby God may NOT be the source/ creator of morality.*
This one of the criticisms of Divine Command Theory/DVT originated in philosopher Plato's dialogue in Euthypro between him and Socrates.
It was modernized by *German philosopher and mathematician GOTTFRIED LEIBNIZ* presented this version of the dilemmas "It is generally agreed that whatever God wills is good and just. But there remains the question whether it is good and just because God wills it or whether God wills it because it is good and just; in other words, whether justice and Goodness are arbitrary or whether they belong to the necessary and eternal truths about the nature of things."
*Leibniz 1702, p.516*
*Euthypro dilemma basically says*... if will of God/Omnipotent being is the source of morality.....whereby if it's true that whatever God says is moral including doing inherently heinous horrid acts eg: eating babies, mass genocide, necrophilia, etc...which is wrong therefore implying the morality did NOT originate from God/Omnipotent being whereby people who are not aware of the will of God/s/ Omnipotent beings can still do and be good (caring, sharing, empathy, sympathy, charity, honesty, being just, etc) by self-choice/ ABSOLUTE free-will...which in turn questions the absolute-ness of "free-will" in religion directed at omnipotence of God/ omnipotent being because absolute true free-will is... apparently...supposed to be absent of foreknowledge by a third party unless there manipulation on some level which violates the purity and definition of free-will.
*You all can do further research on this!!!!*
There is much more. Look into "What God can NOT do"; "Omnipotence paradox (es)" and criticisms of Divine Command Theory / Theological Voluntarism.
Etymology of the word "Omnipotence" only scratches the surface giving only origin to the word but not a full understanding of the word... it's implications, application, technicalities, etc... which is where schools of thought and philosophies came and delves much much deeper.
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