Epicurus says...
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
the hypotheses
- god is willing to prevent evil, but not able to
- god is able, but not willing
- god is both able and willing
- god is not able nor willing
deterministic
we throw a rock in the air and it falls down. why do we say that? because every time we throw a rock it falls down? we assume that the mechanics of the rock falling down are deterministic. that is we can determine the position of the rock if we know the speed we threw the rock at etc.
there is a rock thrown and four targets. the rock will hit one of the four targets or none, esp if the rock is smaller than the gap between the targets. the mechanics of this happening are deterministic.
similarly we would assume that only one of the able can be true. e.g. if "god is both able and willing" then how can "god is not able nor willing"?
probabilistic
quantum mechanics have shown to me that the "classical" deterministic rational thought is not the only form of "states" to exist
that is, there could be a system of rules which allow me to throw a rock and make it hit all four targets simultaneously or two at a time or three targets, or any combination of targets.
perhaps the reason why the previous "deterministic" model happened is because there were set of rules by which the rock behaved.
similarly there could be an instance where
- god willing to prevent evil, but not able to
- god is able, but not willing
- god is both able and willing
- god is not able nor willing
then why call him/her/it/them god(s)?
if someone is
- willing to prevent evil, but not able to
- is able, but not willing
- is both able and willing
- is not able nor willing
in a probabilistic sense, why call him/her/it/them god(s) when we humans are also like that?
it could be because god's behavior probability function and the human behavior probability function are complementary? (speculation)
for example. humans are willing to prevent evil but not able to so they ask god to be in state #3.
when humans want revenge or are being vengeful then they ask got to be in state #2.
if two humans are asking for #2 then god will have to be #4
something like that i guess :)
why do i call him/her/it/them god?
i don't! i'm just trying to understand why those who call him/her/it/them god(s)
:p