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What is the philosophical rationale behind the idea of a tri-omni, utterly perfect God?
r/askphilosophy
What is the philosophical rationale behind the idea of a tri-omni, utterly perfect God?

Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this, since it’s more of a theological question than a philosophical one.

To clarify, by “tri-omni” I refer to three characteristics traditionally ascribed to the monotheistic God- omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence. I would like to understand why so many theologians and philosophers who forward the idea of a monotheistic God seem to insist that it must fulfill this criteria. It seems to me that a lot of issues could be solved by simply granting God some degree of ignorance or incapacity.

Why does God allow suffering? Why is the universe bound by a particular set of arbitrary laws? Well, maybe God is just doing the best with what they have! The insistence that God must be utterly perfect in every conceivable way seems to cause more issues than it solves.

I would prefer to skip over explanations based in scripture or religious dogma - I want to know how serious religious philosophers address this question, and why they put forward this idea. Thanks!!


Looks fire, this is exactly where I’m trying to get my hair


You look like you’re about to go up against Kimbo Slice in this pic


Saint Catherine once experienced a vision where Jesus proposed to her using his own circumcised foreskin as a wedding ring

There were some freaky ass saints back in the day!!


I think it’s absolutely meant to parallel a transcendent mystical experience, and I feel like in that moment Caleb does experience it as genuine communion with the divine. It could be that he was genuinely ‘saved’, or it could be the Witch poisoning his mind, or it could just be the hallucinations of a scared boy in his last moments. Up for interpretation I suppose


The word “sniveling” in particular just smacks of revenge fantasy


Just to play annoying devil’s advocate, some people do believe that inflicting pain on those who “deserve it” is in fact a moral good. Not just to prevent future evil, but actually as a form of retributive justice.

So while I certainly agree that pain is bad full-stop for the person experiencing it, I’m not sure it’s quite so simple to say it’s always objectively morally bad