It seems that the letters that have so far critiqued Nick Christie's Feb. 22 column have not attempted to counter his main argument, which he derives logically from the precepts that God is both compassionate and omnipotent. The letters that have criticized Christie's reasoning have asserted that "those who commit despicable acts," to borrow a phrase from Duane Mitchell's March 1 letter, are the only ones guilty of the acts. However, if God is both omnipotent and compassionate, one might expect Him to intercede in said despicable acts. As Christie points out, He, apparently, does not.
Mitchell's letter suggests that God is a parent-like figure, in that He suggests but does not direct. As an omniscient and omnipotent parent, however, could He not create all His children to be perfect? If not--which seems unlikely as an omnipotent being--could he not "see" that one of His children was starting down a path of evil, and stop His child from doing some horrific deed? I'm sure that any responsible parent, with forewarning of all his or her child's actions, would at the very least have a heart-to-heart chat about the validity of any immoral or worse activities that the child was planning.
To put oneself in God's shoes, if one were a compassionate and omnipotent being in New York--or elsewhere if one were omniscient--Sept. 11 and saw the aircraft heading toward the World Trade Center towers, would one not have interceded with these awesome powers? And if God is both omnipotent and omniscient, why did He not intercede in this and countless other instances?
I have no clear answer to that question. Unless the commonly accepted definitions of "compassion" and "omnipotent" differ from those applied to God, I can see no reason for any such being or deity to not intercede in situations where its assistance would be welcome and appreciated.
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