The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience by Clifford A. Pickover is a thought provoking book in which the author examines several well-known philosophical paradoxes and some lesser known ones. Many of them revolve around the idea or attributes of God or another omniscient or omnipotent being that is given another name to examine the paradox without attacking anybody's god. Given today's world in which cartoons can provoke bloody, murderous rampages, Pickover may have been attempting to show the way we can examine beliefs without attacking them. Maybe.
It becomes clear rather quickly that Pickover doesn't believe in the "traditional God" of the Old Testament but almost as quickly he shows that most Christians don't either, if they really understand what the Old Testament is saying. He also points out that logic prevents a god who is both omniscient and omnipotent although it does allow for partial or mutable omniscience with omnipotence.
Of course the paradoxes and logical thought trains that are presented in this book are likely to give many people headaches so they will simply close the book and say something to the effect: The Bible tells me God is true and God tells me the Bible is true so I believe it and that's the end of it. Pity, it would make such an interesting Sunday School lesson manual.
No comments:
Post a Comment