On continuity

I write this as I contemplate a proper answer to a message. I posit something else in the meantime - is it easier to ask a question, or is it easier to answer one?

Now to the matter at hand - my problem with the God of Christianity stems in some part from the concept of omniscience and omnipotence. I was going to go into a huge discussion about the issue using newtonian and quantum mechanics, but then I realized that was mostly just me enjoying the sound of my own voice (so to speak). The crux of the matter is - if God is omniscient, truly omniscient, can there be any free will? If the universe is a closed system, with no outside interference, then the answer would have to be no. If God knows the future, then he knows exactly how each of us will behave indefinitely far into the future. Everything we do is nothing more than the motion of cogs in a great machine, wound and set to spinning at the dawn of time.

Now...I do have to entertain the notion that perhaps God does know the future, but he may act to change it. That, however, would actually argue against God's omniscience. After all - if he knew how things would turn out, why didn't he just set them in motion the right way to begin with, without necessitating later intervention? Anyone who says here, "He moves in mysterious ways..." is going to get smacked, because I like the idea of an arbitrary God even less than the idea of a limited one. Anyway, this knowledge includes accounting for intervention from certain other outside sources, such as the Devil. Omniscience is OMNISCIENCE, after all. Knowing all things.

I think it's been posited that if the future doesn't exist yet, then there isn't anything to know. God can't know it because...well...it doesn't exist. You can't know what's not there. I, however, think that's a cop-out answer. The future may not exist, but an omniscient God certainly knows every single variable in the present and past universe. He knows precisely where everything is, how fast they're moving, and what forces are acting upon them. He knows me, and how I think, far better than I know myself. After all, I don't know what motivates me half the time. He doesn't need to guess what my reaction would be to certain stimuli - he knows. This is God, after all.

So if he knows all this, even if the future is unknowable, he should be able to predict what will happen to an indefinite amount of time into the future. Now, at this point, it would be reasonable to toss in that little kicker, entropy. The tendency of things for things to fall into the lowest energy, most disorderly state. Maybe some things happen simply because they happen. No rhyme, no reason. The bowling ball has fallen onto the cow because...it was there and the cow was convenient. But this would suggest that something like chaos and entropy could balk the infinite mind of God. If his predictions, his knowledge, and his will can't pierce the veil of entropy...then he's hardly omniscient and omnipotent, now is he?

It's a conundrum either way. Logically and reasonably, I can't see any way around it. Either what I believe to be my choices have no meaning, and therefore I have no hand and no responsibility for the things that I do, or God is not omniscient and omnipotent.

But now...now we enter a rather more abstract realm. What if I were to say - "My choices have meaning. I have free will, and God is indeed omniscient and omnipotent." Well, I'd have said it, in the loneliness of my apartment, and I would likely feel a mite silly because all it really did was stir up the dust on my monitor. But if God were to say it, if an omnipotent God were to declare it so...then it kind of has to be so, doesn't it? In spite of all its apparent inherent contradictions, if an all-powerful being declared this statement to be true, then for him to really be all powerful the statement must then be true. And the rational order of the universe breaks down.

But of course God must realize that, and therefore he is free to declare, "The universe remains a rational, orderly place that follows certain rules." And so it does, forced into it by nothing more and nothing less than the infinite power of God's will. This brings up an interesting thought. What if all these contradictions and inconsistencies exist within the universe, following no law or regulation, but bound together into existence by the simple and inescapable power of God's intentions. I keep getting this mental image of a man with an inescapably strong rope, tying shut a massive suitcase that really just wants to fly open and spew underwear all over the place.

Which is the entire point, but brings me to my third problem with the Christian God.

When everything springs from you, it makes your decisions a bit arbitrary. But I'm sleepy, and don't feel like touching on that right now.

And yes, these are things I think about while riding the subway.