Does God Necessarily Have To Be Omnipotent?

[Donald Baker]

First of all, we need to agree on a definition of "omnipotence."  Does it mean God can do anything without limits?  Or can it mean "sufficiently powerful/capable enough?"  I ask this because of the philosophical problems of evil and of course the obligatory atheist paradox queries such as "Can God create a rock that He cannot lift."  Finally, does God necessarily have to be omnipotent in order for you to worship Him and devote your life to Him?

[Phidippides]

Omnipotence = all powerful.  I think this necessarily means that "capable enough" implies weakness, or the idea that something stronger exists, which cannot be.  A question such as "Can God create a rock that He cannot lift" would be an illogical question because of the way it is framed.  It would be like saying, "Can this mechanic, who can fix anything, fix this car that can never be fixed?"

I recall back during my college years wondering about a related problem concerning God: what if God as we know Him is merely the Master of our world/universe, but He is actually subservient to another, greater god whom we do not know?  We might never know because we only know God.  And we could continue that to say that this "greater" god could himself be subservient to yet another god who is still greater?  And we could keep this going.

I think that many answers regarding the nature of God can be answered by considering the explanations discussed in Thomas Aquinas' "De Ente et Essentia" (On Being and Essence). 

[Donald Baker]

I would love to read that.  I will download it I think.

[Phidippides]

Well, I don't know if I would call it "fun reading"....like other Aquinas writings, it's quite dense.  The key is to forget about thinking of God in terms of something akin to a glorified Zeus-like figure.

I'll give you a hint: have you ever wondered why, when Moses speaks to the Burning Bush, God responds with His particular answer in Exodus 3:14? 

[Donald Baker]

Okay I downloaded a full pdf copy of the Summa Theologiae translated by the Dominican Fathers.  Over 9400 pages lol.  But it is setup to go to whatever section I want to study so it's easy to navigate.

[Phidippides]

That's some good reading as well, but I'm not sure whether "De Ente et Essentia" is included (I assumed it was separate, but could be wrong).  I had to read the latter in college for a class on the Philosophy of Being.

[skiguy]

We might never know because we only know God.  And we could continue that to say that this "greater" god could himself be subservient to yet another god who is still greater?  And we could keep this going.
 

How could He be the Alpha and the Omega if He was subservient to another god? 

[Donald Baker]

We might never know because we only know God.  And we could continue that to say that this "greater" god could himself be subservient to yet another god who is still greater?  And we could keep this going.
 

How could He be the Alpha and the Omega if He was subservient to another god?

Yes that declaration pretty much signifies there is no other God but God.  But it doesn't really explain what "omnipotent" entails.

[Phidippides]

You could argue that we live in a universe which had a start billions of years ago and has an end, but that we're simply in one universe in a timeline of many universes, each of which is many billions of years old.  At least, this is the way the issue could be framed.