The godandscience.org part (with some additions) will be in blue, the response in red.
I already have some thoughts on my response to this and will love to discuss it with any of you further
Peace and Blessings
If we are arguing about the Christian God, then we have to argue about it based on it's own parameters, right? So, the Bible then is an obvious place to begin. The word "omnipotent" is never used in the Bible. It has been inferred primarily by one of God's Hebrew titles, "Shadday," which is most often translated "almighty." However, the Bible never claims that God can do all things. In fact, the Bible makes a point that there are things that God cannot do. Therefore, biblical omnipotence does not mean that God can do all things. God cannot do anything that is contrary to His character. However, God can do anything that He determines to do. This is a true meaning of omnipotence - "the ability to do anything that one sets out to do".
This is ludicrous, God is either omnipotent or not, saying omnipotence doesn't include being able to do anything that is contrary to their nature dilutes the word "omnipotent" to meaningless drivel. By this definition I'M omnipotent(and everyone/everything else), I can do anything!...as long as it doesn't contradict my inherent properties. This is a common and clearly ridiculous theist argument.
Also, if you take this definition as omnipotence, even if you somehow think you can argue the first point, your very bible states that human's are omnipotent by god's own word, this is simply not even debatable.
Genesis 11:5-6
"5) But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6) The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."
Clearly, if you accept your definition of omnipotence it loses all meaning. Additionally this shows a great proof of god's apparently LACK of omniscience, not being able to see a mere 4000-5000 years into the future and knowing that this act would have done [love] all except delay the inevitable, a massive failure what with everyone on earth being able to communicate rather easily now. But of course god can't fail...right? We could of course go on to talk about how tall a structure built at that time would've been compared to the everyday skyscrapers of today as well as this silly idea of heaven being physically "above" the earth...or the fact that God was clearly fearful here, not fearful for others, but fearful that mere humans could ruin his plan for the world...yeah, real omnipotent.
Since an all-powerful being will always be able to accomplish whatever He sets out to do, it is impossible for an all-powerful being to fail. The argument you, and other atheists present, is that the God of the bible cannot exist because if we claim God is all-powerful, He can do anything - even fail.
I haven't made any actual arguments about this yet, but I will at the end, and these "rock too heavy" idiotic arguments won't be them. The argument can be watered down to it's base though without some stupid rock analogy and hold weight however, could god create ANY task that he would be incapable of doing, if he can, then he becomes no longer omnipotent. If he can't, he never was to begin with.
This is like saying that since God is all-powerful He can be not all-powerful. Obviously, this is absurd. An all-powerful being cannot fail. Therefore, God can create a rock of tremendous size, but, since He is all-powerful, He will always be able to lift it. The ability to fail is not a part of omnipotence. The Bible makes it clear that God is able to do anything He wants to, and that nothing He wants to do is too difficult for Him to accomplish. This is the true meaning of omnipotence.
If the bible claims the God can do "anything he wants" then that goes against your previous definition of omnipotence, which is: "anything he wants, except those things that are logically impossible or against his inherent nature." This once again brings us to the problem of absolute omnipotence as stated above. That's the problem with the God of the bible, he's either omnipotent, and therefore cannot exist because of the inherent logical fallacies therein, or he's simply very very powerful...in which case he's NOT omnipotent. theists are the ones who can't seem to decide on a definition for omnipotent, not atheist. Atheists just have to keep changing their arguments because theists take omnipotence from meaning the ability to do absolutely anything, to the ability to do anything as long as it doesn't contradict with its nature, to a being that is just extremely powerful until the word loses all veracity and meaning and ends in a no longer all-powerful deity. We don't set the definition to define God, Christians do...by definition.
In regards to omniscience, even though God never really repented, isn't the assertion that God knows everything brought into question when God feels sorry over some decision He has made or changes His mind? After all, if God was really omniscient, wouldn't He have known what was going to happen, so that He could have chosen another path?
No. God's omniscience does not mean that God changes His character to pretend that everything is fine when human beings sin. For example, in Genesis 6:6, the Lord was sorry because of the rampant sin that mankind had fallen into and the sadness that was causing. We basically have the same reaction to our own children. We grieve when they make bad choices, although if we had it to do over, we would still have brought them into the world. We KNOW for 100% certainty that they will make mistakes, but does that mean we change who we are?
This is absolutely false. God is clearly disappointed with his creation at multiple points, the story of Adam and Eve, the Flood and so on and so forth. Disappointment, by its very nature, is the non-fulfillment of what one hopes, an omniscient being does not hope, it knows. In your very own example you miss the key factor, sure we may choose to have children if we could do it over again, but to claim that we wouldn't try to take steps to avoid the mistakes made, is simply ludicrous, we absolutely would do our best to do so if given a second change, God is allowed infinite chances, because he is not bound by time, of course he shouldn't need them since he's also perfect, omnipotent, and omniscient. God is purported to be infallible and he has his omnipotence to back it up. The very fact that creation ISN'T perfect by God's wishes is proof that he is either not omniscient or not omnipotent. God, in the bible, acts like the fall from grace of Adam and Eve happened in the past and is irreversible, however, the God of the bible isn't bound by time and given that he's made HUGE grievances against free will in the bible itself, a minor one there to save the the majority of the human race from eternal damnation would rather insignificant. Additionally, he wouldn't even have to impede free will to save the human race, just don't put the bloody tree there, it's that simple. This doesn't impede free will in any way and maintains his perfect creation. Honestly, the genesis story of creation is so full of holes as to make criticizing it feel like stealing candy from a baby and drop kicking it.
Repentance is irrelevant. God would have known beforehand that they would repent, but regardless these aren't the only issues. Any instance in which God tests someone's faith is a demonstration of God's lack of omniscience. The story of Abraham is incredibly barbaric and cruel, and anyone doing what Abraham was claiming to do today would be locked up(In fact people HAVE done exactly what Abraham was claiming to do...it's not different now than it was then, people listening to voices in their head to kill their children for God). The very fact that Abraham lies to the people that came with him as well as his son is paramount to show how evil this act truly was, whether to believe it was perpetrated by God, or a man with serious mental issues. Same with the story of Job, an absolute sickening account of God allowing people to die simply to have a bet with Satan. Why would Satan have even made a bet with God if God's omniscient...it makes no sense God would win every time, however, the crowning jewel of that story is that God lost the bet...so yeah...
All the things that are impossible in our universe are so because they are defined to be impossible by us. If you restrict God to our four dimensional universe, He would, likewise, be unable to do those things. However, God is not restricted to our universe. If we look to our universe and the rules we have determined to use to measure it, we must realize we are only capable of doing so within our own dimension of time and space, but as I said at the beginning, we can argue, and SHOULD argue, first and foremost from a philosophical perspective, the possibility of God.
Fair enough, which is why I don't. I give God all due allowance that the bible grants him and don't expect him to only be able to work in the dimensions of our universe, and yet, he still cannot exist as Christians define him.
Of course what I was originally talking about here is the combined attributes of omnipotence and omniscience cannot exist together in the same being, not those attributes independently, regardless of the feasibility of each. If a being is omniscient it knows everything, including everything it will do, it is therefore bound by this and cannot tread off of it. Now, the question is: can a being that is both omnipotent and omniscient choose to not do what it already knows it will do? This would be a change in mind regardless of cause, whether because people repented or simply because he wanted to doesn't matter in the slightest. The bottom line is, that if the being CAN choose not to do what it already knew it would do, it's not omniscient. However, if instead it cannot, then it is not omnipotent. Based on your own interpretation of the bible from your earlier statement regarding changing of mind, it seems you would side with the former, in which case, your God is not omniscient.
