Board index ‹ Creation and Evolution

[Eyepatch]

If humans are not perfect why did god create sinful humans? Could not he create a race which is perfect.

Why did god create a species which needed to be saved by jesus?

[jimwalton]

God is, by definition, uncreated. Anything created, therefore, is not God and is less than God, and therefore susceptible to mistakes. They're not flawed, they're just not God.

There is no indication in Genesis that humans were created perfect. A lot of Christians even believe in evolution, including human evolution. God guided the process of evolution, and when people had actually become human, that's when he invested them with a soul and revealed himself to them. But we're not to be under any illusion that they were ever perfect. The whole idea is that they (we) always needed God. We were never sufficient without him.

> Could not he create a race which is perfect.

Correct. He could not create beings incapable of making the wrong decisions. Only God Himself will never make a mistake.

[Eyepatch]

So god is not omnipotent? A person who can create an entire universe, can not create the perfect species?

[jimwalton]

Yes God is omnipotent, but omnipotence doesn't mean God can do anything and everything. For instance, God can't sin, He can't lie, He can stop being God. God can't make a square circle, a married bachelor, or a red that is blue. These things are either absurd or contradictory or both. That's not what omnipotence means.

In the same sense, God can't create an uncreated being. He can't create something that divine (since true deities are uncreated). And therefore He can't create a being that is perfect. It's just as contradictory and absurd as the previous items. That's not what omnipotence means.

People misunderstand this a lot. God is also omniscient, which means He knows everything. So smart alecks ask, "Does God know what it's like to not know everything? If He doesn't, then He's not omniscient." It's both absurd and ridiculous. That's not what "omniscience" means.

> A person who can create an entire universe, can not create the perfect species?

Right. The universe that He created is separate from Himself. The universe is not divine and doesn't have divine characteristics. Nor can He create a perfect person. Created things cannot be divine, and they can't have divine characteristics. Human beings are not divine and don't have divine characteristics. It's a contradiction, and we all know that such contradictions are illogical, absurd, and impossible. We can't claim that God is rational and absurd at the same time.

[Eyepatch]

Man can you cite any relevant scriptures?

[jimwalton]

For one, there aren't any Scriptures that say "God can't be self-contradictory." I'm pretty sure we're supposed to use our own brains to come to that conclusion. A can't equal non-A. It's a "duh" kind of conclusion. If it's a square circle, it's not a circle. This is obvious to all who have brains.

The Bible affirms that God is omnipotent: Anytime the Bible names him as El Shaddai, it's an affirmation that He is all-powerful, the Almighty. Nothing is impossible for God (Matt. 19.26).

God can't sin: 1 Jn. 1.5. Sin is death (Rom. 6.23), but God is life (Jer. 10.10).

God can't lie: Heb. 6.18

God can't create something that is divine: Rom. 3.30. YHWH is the only God (Jer. 10.10; Rom. 1.20 [He's the only one with a divine nature]; 1 Tim. 1.17; Ps. 102.11-12)