Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnibenevolence

Abstract

Currently, one could probably learn more about the attributes of God from philosophers of religion than from Christian theologians.1 Philosophical interest in the divine attributes is due in part to the role the omni-attributes have in theodicy formulations.2 One of the main atheological attacks based on evil is against the theist qua theist. After all, isn’t the existence of evil incompatible with the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent God? If the attack has bite, a central reason is the fact that the theist holds that all three predicates are central to the nature of God. Take any one away the charge fizzles. If God is not omnipotent in some sense, then although he might know of every occurrence of evil in the world and desire to remove them all because he is perfectly good, his lack of power might stand in the way of his doing so. Or, God may possess the power and desire to remove all evil from the world, but if he does not have omniscience in a significant way, he may fail to remove every manifestation of evil in the world because he may not be cognizant of every evil. If he is not perfectly good in some straightforward sense, then he may have it in his power to act and know of every instance of evil in the world, but he may not remove every evil because it is not according to his desire to do so.