14- Problem of the philosophers part 2- Thinking irrationally about God and the problem of evil

14- Problem of the philosophers part 2- Thinking irrationally about God and the problem of evil.

When God is an unsensed reality

The errors in thinking and doubt increases when discussing the reality of God.  This has been a source of  contention and criticism between philosophers in the western and Islamic world debating the attributes of god which then in some cases leads to doubting his existence and in other cases creating assumptions about God and what He will or should do. For example the question of evil : whether a God that was omnipotent could prevent the evil that exists and if not then that means he is not all-powerful and unlimited; but if he could but chooses not to then that would mean he is not omnibenevolent- all loving- so if not a good god or all-powerful god then why worship him?

Similarly the mutakallimin philosophers of the Islamic world would debate how God's attributes could be understood such as His Knowledge and predestination. Famously, the  Mu'tazilite school of thought believed the speech of Allah in the form of the Quran was  created. They came to the conclusion of this belief through the examination of His attributes via the application of logical deduction as follows:

 Major Premise: in the phenomenal (tangible) realm, the Word of God is manifest in the texts of the Scriptures (i.e. the Qur'an and other religious scriptures)

 Minor Premise: these texts are composed of letters and sounds that are embodied alternately (which are part of this created universe)

 Conclusion: the Qur'an -that is the embodiment of God's factual speech (Kalam)- is created

 

This conclusion contradicted another by their opponents built on    a different premise:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 Major Premise: The Word of God (Kalam  Allah) is a product of the speech nature which is inherent in  God‟s Essence

 Minor Premise: All that become the attributes of God‟s Essence are eternal as the eternity of God 

Conclusion: the Word of God is eternal.

 

Likewise another group emerged believing that humans have no responsibility due to God controlling man’s actions , again by using logic to delve into the unseen nature of God as such:

 

Major premise: God has no partners in creation

Minor premise: If man creates his actions then he is sharing creation with God

Conclusion: Therefore God creates man’s actions

 

Thus  the debate over God’s  attributes  created a lot of confusion and even schisms within elements of society as these were matters of belief and used to define (and attack) one's identity as a proper believer. Some of these beliefs even have repercussions on our actions- for instance if God creates our actions then can man be held responsible for his crimes? Should the ruler’s subjects be discontent with the injustice of a ruler whose actions are ordained by God? Similarly, the debate of the createdness of the Quran opened up many conundrums and contradictions. For instance, if the Quran is uncreated like God then it becomes eternal like God and therefore there is more than one eternal thing. From a strict belief in the Oness of Allah (tawhid) perspective, this is totally unacceptable. There can be only one thing that is eternally existent and that is Allah; all else is contingent on the existence of Allah. However if you believe that the Quran is created then this meant that it was contingent upon the cultural matrix it emerged into, and if that cultural matrix disappeared, it would lose its validity. They thus saw the doctrine of Qur'an-createdness as undermining the foundation for a sound aqeedah among the believers and eroding the authority of the Revelation that had elevated Islam to the forefront of world civilization in such a short time- and therefore undermining the socio-political order it built.

 

Again the problem here is how the unsensed reality of God can be applied to our sensed reality; how can the infinite qualities be understood by limited beings? As already discussed, the components of rational thinking include a sensed reality linked to previous information. In this case because there is no sensed reality to study we must only rely upon (correct) previous information to give any thoughts upon an unsensed reality. Any extrapolations of how this unsensed entity operates is purely speculation because no one has ever witnessed a creator to be able to store information about it and then to be able to use that information for passing any judgements. Even when Allah the creator describes Himself through revelation to us with qualities that we have as humans, that does not mean that Allah has human attributes because we cannot rationally verify that. Rather, any description is a way of helping us to form a relationship with Him but we cannot start to equate the description to our reality. So if Allah says that He has hands we cannot assume that this also means fingers too or even literal human hands; rather the rational person will just leave the description at that and add no more or no less to the description. It was when philosophers started extrapolating from this that caused problems in their thinking. A final example to illustrate the point: 

in surah (chapter) 95, verse 8, Allah (God) says: “Is not Allah (God) the most just of judges?

If we try to impose our human reality of justice upon God then we could end up contradicting other revelations. So according to the human notion of equity and justice, the one who does not fulfill their end of a contract would not expect a judge to reward them in a court of law. Also in the Quran it is mentioned many times that those who believe and do good will be rewarded by God. So according to the human notion of justice the one who does not do good  should not be rewarded. However God also mentions that He can forgive those who do not obey Him to do good:

Allah says: “Say: O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah: for Allah forgives all sins: for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” [Sûrah al-Zumar: 53]

and that He punishes whom He wants to:

“And Allah's is the kingdom. of the heavens and the earth; He forgives whom He pleases and punishes whom He pleases, and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” [48:14]

This shows us that there can be a difference in the human concept of justice and equity, with God’s justice and so it would be incorrect to superimpose our reality upon God’s reality. This is the case for any issue that concerns God. Any discussion upon an unsensed reality will therefore be laden with doubts and speculation. 

-A further consequence of such irrational thinking is that it  has led some philosophers  to presuppose God’s actions and to deny his miracles:

Using the mind to think about God and his nature has lead some people to pre-suppose what God does and what He does not do and how He must behave (similar to the modern day irrational philosophers of infinity mathematicians- who discuss the different theories of infinity and how infinity operates- more on this later). This has led some to believe that God will not intervene in the universe after setting up the laws of the universe -and then to deny the existence of miracles as it would imply the removal of these laws of cause and effect.  They then go on to argue that this supports God’s existence because it shows the existence of His law and order within the universe. 

This reasoning then generates the problem of establishing the proof of the creator’s message to us. This would mean that there is no objective proof for any messenger; and belief in them and their message becomes a subjective opinion. This is not a method to ensure certainty in the truth of a message. If the acceptance then becomes subjective then it renders no universal truth since one can choose to follow any message they want from any so-called God. This would be incongruent with the last verse from the Quran to be revealed in which Allah says , “...today I have perfected your religion for you and perfected my blessing for you and have chosen Islam as your religion….” (TMQ Maidah 5:3). It would also be incongruent with all the verses warning that  those who have disbelieved will be punished on the Day of Judgement for rejecting the truth- for how can the message  be a truth if there is no proof for its divinity because the miracle is subjective?

Notwithstanding this problematic reasoning, the above argument has a philosophical error in it. As shown above it is irrational and speculative to discuss the reality of what we cannot sense. As God is out of our reality we cannot presuppose how He operates. We cannot put restrictions upon Him to say what He should and should not do. If He wants to intervene to give a sign of his authority to a messenger then how can we say he is not allowed to do so or that he cannot do so? Just because it doesn't agree with our observation of the rules of the universe and what we expect to happen? Divine interventions or miracles do not mean that there is no rule of causality and order within the universe; on the contrary- they only make sense as miracles because of those rules of causality that they break. So for instance if a human being was to defy gravity and start flying naturally- that would be deemed a miracle because of the law of gravity that it broke. Furthermore, the messengers who display any such miracles do so declaring their mechanism as due to God and not in defiance of God - so how would they serve to demonstrate that God has no control over His universe? The existence of miracles therefore do not contradict the necessity of God's existence and His absolute power to design the universe according to His systems and laws.

 However as a result of not placing restrictions on what God should or should not do, some people may then argue that according to this reasoning then God may decide to renege upon His promise to reward the believers on the Day of Judgement. The answer to this is  twofold: Firstly of course God has the power to do that and cannot be bound by anything otherwise this contradicts the nature of absolute power. However He has  promised in numerous verses to reward the believers; and the nature of faith is for the  believer who believes in His message and follows it   to believe in the promise of his  Lord. Secondly, the rational behaviour of a human is to judge his choices based upon his reality and not upon God’s reality. The human choice is thus dependent upon the message that is given to him within his reality with the promise of God to consider as a reward. it makes no rational sense to base a decision upon information that is not within your reality. Therefore to say I will base my decision of submitting to the miraculous message - not based on the proof in front of me- but upon what I think God might or might not do is non-sensical, irrational and as stupid as the one who crosses a road in front of a car based on the thinking that the driver could swerve out of the way!

 

The above examples show us that it is futile trying to discuss the unseen including God’s nature whilst having no knowledge of it as it is out of our sensed reality. The most we can do is limit the discussion to any knowledge that He reveals to us.

 

 

Dealing with illogical questions of the nature of God:

The previous discussion  is dissimilar to the problems that arise when we start to go into questions of the infinite nature of  God. Here we again are trying to understand it when we don’t have access to its reality. Because it describes itself as infinite in it’s existence then again if we start to entertain discussions on its infinite nature we end up in problems- because we have never sensed an infinite being in our physical reality to be able to give any rational judgement. So for example if we take the question,  “If God is all-powerful then can He create a stone that is too heavy for Him to lift?” If you answer yes, then how can He be all-powerful if He can't lift the stone? And if you answered no, then how can He be all-powerful if He can’t create such a stone?

This question seems to suggest that such a being cannot therefore exist. However the paradoxical nature of the situation only appears because the question itself is a non-sensical question (also known as a logical impossibility)

If we break down the question it is actually asking can an unlimited being be limited? Can an all-powerful entity not be powerful? Can an infinite also be finite? It is a nonsense question because by its definition it contradicts itself. Because the situation of being unlimited in power is dichotomous to being limited in power- there is no middle ground – therefore you are either limited or unlimited and you cannot be both by definition. Similar to a lightbulb being on or off only with no middle or other option. Therefore as it does not make sense as a question then we can disregard its challenge to this idea of the existence of an infinite creator.)