Friday, March 18, 2022

Difficult to Explain

I have a thought that's somewhere between wishful thinking, hopeful pessimism, and willful self-delusion. I hope that God is not omnipotent. I hope that (at least part of) the reason He doesn't explain certain things to us (or rather, to me, specifically) is because He can't. I hope that the reason God doesn't explain some things to me is because He can't explain it to me in a way that I would understand.

I mean, that's plausible, right? We might understand complex thoughts like advanced mathematics, but good luck trying to explain those concepts to a dog. In theory, an omnipotent being could implant such knowledge into the mind of a dog, but we, lacking said power, are unable to teach even the smartest dogs math beyond basic arithmetic (at least, I'm pretty sure someone taught a dog how to add and subtract, but still, anything approaching calculus is clearly out of the question).

Perhaps the same is true in our case. God has knowledge beyond our understanding, and I have prayed for God to give me some of that understanding, but maybe He just can't. Maybe He can't give me the answers I'm looking for because I just can't understand them, and He lacks the power to help me understand.

So, yeah, I hope God's not omnipotent. I hope that there are some things that God can't do, including explaining certain things that, as it turns out, are just too difficult to explain.

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