A God of Limited Power

[Philosophy Now]

Philip Goff grasps hold of the problem of evil and comes up with a novel solution.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/165/A_God_of_Limited_Power

[Impenitent]

gods of limited power is nothing new

(every other planet in the solar system is named after them...)

-Imp

[Walker]

gods of limited power is nothing new

(every other planet in the solar system is named after them...)

-Imp

From the OP:

The challenge for the traditional monotheist is to explain why God chose to create intelligent life through such a horrific process as natural selection, rather than, say, just bringing people into existence fully formed in a world with free will but without suffering.

A fully formed life with free will but no suffering is the life of a limited god.

Getting inside the limited god realm …

Because gods are immortal and immortality is permanent, the immortal, limited gods are static and have little comprehension of change in the realm of life. Humans do possess the capacity for the kind of comprehension that comes with change, which is why a human birth is the most rare and precious in the realm of living things (animals being limited in their capacity for change.)

Limited gods are immortal. Immortality is permanent. Limited gods can rightly be attached to what is permanent.

Humans are mortal. Mortality is transitory. Humans can wrongly be attached to the assumed permanence attached to mortality; which is numero uno delusional because life is impermanent for all living things.

However, because only humans (even moreso than immortal limited gods), can be truly cognizant that all life is transitory, limited humans can transcend the delusions of permanence where permanence cannot exist (the realm of life), and because all life is impermanent which makes the nature of awareness unbound from form, humans have a greater capacity than mere limited gods for experiencing the wisdom of poignancy.

What does the term immortal life reference?

Because life arises with form, immortal life implies life is not limited to a particular form, but still bound to a form. Even thoughts need the form of words to have life.

[Impenitent]

thoughts without words have no life?

-Imp

[MikeNovack]

Humans do possess the capacity for the kind of comprehension that comes with change, which is why a human birth is the most rare and precious in the realm of living things (animals being limited in their capacity for change.

We really need an eco-ethics section of the forum where things like this can be properly challenged. It's what philosophy is all about, challenging why we believe what we believe.

Are animals different from us in any fundamental way, in kind instead of in degree? Of course given my position, that should be "are other animals different from us". Yes we are different, but isn't it really a continuum of differences with no way to justify the placing of a hard boundary. I will grant that an awful lot of people are uncomfortable with "I am an animal". That's why science, with no Biological justification, places chimpanzees and Bonobos in genus Pan and us in genus Homo. Really d=should be one genus, but the fight just not worth it.

No, a human birth is NOT the most rare and precious in the realm of living things. Does not come close to how rare and precious the birth of a animal whose species is close to extinction. There are already too many of us humans for any possibility of a sustainable existence and too little time left to correct that before we will crash. And the crash will be horrific. When things get tight, my species does not peaceably share. Only one technofix offers any hope, controlled fusion. But success at that has remained "twenty years ahead" for more than half my life.

[Walker]

thoughts without words have no life?

-Imp

Shakespeare lives.

[Walker]

Human life is extremely hard to find,
by Geshe Sonam Rinchen

https://buddhismnow.com/2010/07/15/human-life

[Walker]

(continued)

No, Shakespeare is dead. His words, which were thoughts before they were words, still live.

Well then, I stand corrected. Yes, Shakespeare is dead. However, his thoughts are alive, because they took form as words.

*

Life requires form. Perceiving form is more a matter of reception than transmission.

Can limited human senses perceive all varieties of form?

No.

[Fairy]

“ What a comedy God’s Lila is What a lunatic asylum! He himself is sporting with himself”

[Walker]

No, a human birth is NOT the most rare and precious in the realm of living things.

Numbers of Insects (Species and Individuals)
https://www.si.edu/spotlight/buginfo/bugnos

“At any time, it is estimated that there are some 10 quintillion” (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) individual insects alive.


Comment: That’s alotta life. In comparison to all known life, human life is as rare as the Buddhists say ... and as precious as Christians say because man is made in God's image. The one and only God.

(Oh dear. Mixing traditions. Is that allowed in the ordering of the universe?)

[Walker]

“ What a comedy God’s Lila is What a lunatic asylum! He himself is sporting with himself”

As one "grasps hold of the problem" others can join in.

[Walker]

How Much Bacteria Is On Earth?
https://www.worldatlas.com/how-much-bac ... earth.html

“There are five nonillion bacteria in the Earth’s ecosystem, including the ones found in living beings. That is 5 x 10 on 30th power.”

Man alive … That sounds like alotta life entities.

It’s good to be a man! It's even ... rare and precious.

[Walker]

Are animals different from us in any fundamental way, in kind instead of in degree? Of course given my position, that should be "are other animals different from us". Yes we are different, but isn't it really a continuum of differences with no way to justify the placing of a hard boundary. I will grant that an awful lot of people are uncomfortable with "I am an animal". That's why science, with no Biological justification, places chimpanzees and Bonobos in genus Pan and us in genus Homo. Really d=should be one genus, but the fight just not worth it.

No, a human birth is NOT the most rare and precious in the realm of living things. Does not come close to how rare and precious the birth of a animal whose species is close to extinction. There are already too many of us humans for any possibility of a sustainable existence and too little time left to correct that before we will crash. And the crash will be horrific. When things get tight, my species does not peaceably share. Only one technofix offers any hope, controlled fusion. But success at that has remained "twenty years ahead" for more than half my life.

Maybe those who say they like Dolphin music are just pretending.

Stinkfoot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH8s3rz ... rt_radio=1

“You can’t say that!!”

[Impenitent]

thoughts without words have no life?

-Imp

Shakespeare lives.

the javelin thrower has epilepsy

-Imp

[Eodnhoj7]

Given evil seems to be the standard that puts God into question, it appears evil is the top of the hierarchy of human experience and thus a God to many.

What if "horror" is God?