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| Drina Gorge, Serbia_trekearth |
PhD Edit
Mill rejects
Christianity[1]
and traditional Christian doctrine concerning omnipotence.[2] Mill’s deity is similar to the ‘Platonic
Demiurge’ and this deity simply develops matter from preexisting chaos and
therefore would not only be limited in power but also finite in nature. Mill supports a concept of a first cause as
in a series of events[3]
but this leaves the nagging question and problem of what was the cause of the
Demiurge? An infinite eternal God can be
understood as the first cause not needing a cause. A finite deity, although
admittedly logically possible, requires further explanation. If the being is
not revealed through Scriptural revelation, it is a God of primarily
philosophical speculation and requires further elaboration on the part of Mill
in regard to, for instance, why humanity should believe in and follow this type
of deity, assuming that there is not a greater, infinite, eternal first cause
that would necessarily exist behind that being.
October 21, 2014
Further
I take a Biblical,
Reformed view that God causes and wills all things. It is demonstrated that God
has sovereign control of creation from Genesis to Revelation as eternal God.
God, therefore would
have complete omnipotence. God would be the first cause.
God would also have
omniscience in regard to future events.
However, for balance, even if in
reality somehow philosophically and theologically, God cannot be logically
omniscient, as in the future cannot be known by an infinite, omnipotent
being; God as first cause would cause the future along with secondary causes,
and therefore the results would be the same.
Therefore, I
hold that God does have omniscience, but even if God does not, God being infinite
and omnipotent is still ‘virtually omniscient’ and still able to predict the
future in Scripture and bring about eschatological events.
God certainly would
be able to control the secondary causes, and each requires a primary cause.
A secondary cause having significant moral freedom as long as not forced or coerced to commit thoughts, acts, actions.
MILL, JOHN STUART
(1789-1861)(2003) Utilitarianism and On
Liberty, Mary Warnock (ed.), Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.
MILL, JOHN STUART
(1825-1868)(1984) Essays on Equality,
Law, and Education, John M. Robson (ed.), University of Toronto Press,
Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
MILL, JOHN STUART
(1833)(1985)(2009) Theism: John
Stuart Mill, The Collected Works of
John Stuart Mill, Volume X - Essays on Ethics, Religion, and Society, Toronto, University of Toronto Press.
MILL, JOHN STUART
(1874)(2002) The Utility of Religion,
London, Longman, Green, and Reader.
MILL, JOHN STUART (1874)(1885) Nature
the Utility of Religion and Theism, London,
Longmans, Green and
Co.
