As a nerd who inexplicably likes to watch debates on Youtube of people debating the existence of God, I’ve become somewhat well versed in the various tactics people take when tackling the oldest debate known to man. Inevitably the debate turns into a different, related debate, discussing whether religion makes our society more moral. I heard Christopher Hitchens say “With God, anything is permissible”, implying that all one needs to do to make any action moral is to say they’re acting for God, and that sentiment got me thinking. Does morality emanate from God? Though theologians have devoted lifetimes to the subject, I shall attempt my take in a couple pages.
Though it seems arrogant to presume that one knows not only the nature of God but his mind, and to assume that they know what God wants, in the absence of any actual, testable data, most theists agree that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, and that we will in some way be held accountable for our actions, through a judging process that will be perfect. We don’t know how exactly it’ll take place, but we don’t need to worry, as God designed it perfectly, and we just need to be good. Though this is simplistic, this is a decent description of Mormon theology, and hence a description of the basic beliefs of essentially anyone who will read this posting. It seems a good place to start, at least.
To assert that God can do and knows everything raises a few problems though. What is the point of the judgment? If God wants us to be good, so that we can join him in heaven, why doesn’t he simply forgo the test, and declare us all winners? Why did he let one third of all the host of heaven simply fall into inequity with Satan? In fact, why is there Satan? Can’t God just make him be good?
These have easy answers. It is a test, and God has given us agency so that we can choose right from wrong. Closer inspection upon the ideas of omnipotent and omniscient, however, reveal agency to be nothing more than a myth, if we are to first buy the premise of a completely divine being.
If God is omniscient, he knows everything that is happening, everything that has ever happened, and everything that will ever happened. He knows every action we will ever do, and every thought we will ever have. He knows every reaction to every action and every thought we’ll ever have, so we can pretty safely say he knows exactly how life will unfold for every single person that will ever live. Thought of in this way, there is no way that life could every deviate from the single path that God has already known. God knows I’m writing this blog entry, he knows the thoughts that went into it, and he knows already that nobody will read it.
If God is omnipotent, He knows exactly how to shape this linear view of time that He knows about. He can plan time in the exact way he wants it. In fact, we can probably assume he already has, as he knows how it’s going to play out. He knows when we are going to pray, how much we’ll believe in him, and whether or not he’ll respond.
How, then, are we to have agency? The only actions that ever occur are those actions God permits. God knows every action we’re ever going to do, so waiting until after we die to judge us seems like a waste of time. God knows what we’ll do, and he is permitting us to do them. If he didn’t want us to, we wouldn’t do them.
So without agency, how can there be morality? Boiled down to it’s most basic definition, morality consists of choices of good from evil. If we never have any choice but to choose the very actions God has known we will do and has permitted us to do, whose choice is it really? God obviously invented evil, and he’s invented every single evil action. He seems to be judging himself more than anything.
Taken together, it seems that morality CAN’T exist with a God that is omniscient and omnipotent. All we have is the illusion of choice, as God is just judging us on the actions that he has permitted and has always known will happen.
So, in closing, either God doesn’t exist or he is far more limited than we might otherwise feel. I like to feel that I am in control of my life, and this God feels more like a dictator than a father. I like to think of a God that we can surprise, and who can feel proud of us or disappointed in us. Most of all, I like to think of a God that doesn’t prove Christopher Hitchens right.
