William Dembski - Is God Perfect?

What does it mean for God to be perfect? Perfectly knowledgeable? Perfectly powerful? Perfectly good? Perfectly free? Did God create the 'perfect world'? That'd be hard to believe.

[jrcurious]

This discussion is based on an erroneous ontological conception. While objects and persons do have attributes or qualities, goodness is not an intrinsic attribute of anything. Goodness or evil is a value, an axiological entity that depends on its being on a relational reality of two beings, in which one can consider the other good, if the net effect of one increases the well-being or happiness of the other. Therefore, --aside from the issue of God's existence, not under discussion here--the concept of God's perfection, or for that matter any perfection, is absent in any real life situation. As logical positivists would put it, perfection is not a concept that describes any real entity encountered in human experience. The only accessible experience of perfection would refer to a set of intrinsic qualities of one object that satisfy the well-being conditions of another. And if we project these concepts towards the metaphysical or transcendent world of deities and perfection, we would have to conclude that God fails miserably in his goodness, because no rational being in this universe actually experiences happiness. Instead of postulating infinitely perfect gods and tormenting ourselves with "best possible worlds", our energies would be very best utilized if used to fulfill a much better world.

[MrSidney]

God's perfection isn't human qualities run up to the flag pole?
What!? No! it''s exactly that. And in approach through negation or through affirmation still gives you humans assigning attributes to God based on interesting qualities that they lack of possess in limited proportion.
Plus Whatever happens to " we're created in the image of God?"

[radiophodity]

Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
Voltaire [François-Marie Arouet]

The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.
Psalm 145:9 NIV

[FishHeadSalad]

For Dumbski to imply that the god of the bible is not anthropomorphic and just a version of a human "run up the flag pole" to the point of geniehood is nonsense. Bible god is described in the Bible in no other way. It has a human appearance with arms, legs, a butt, eyes, ears, etc... and human emotions.
And he says it pretty directly @ 0:46...
."whatever we ascribe to god".
In other words...we all create god in our own image.
Intelligent design is nothing more than an argument from ignorance.
"I don't understand how a bacterial flagellum could work the way it does...therefore god."

[bonnieuk]

I don't buy this "God permits evil in order to bring a greater good out of it" that Mr Dembski states. Tell that to the people who are at the sharp end of having evil done to them. But it's even worse than that in terms of Christianity, unless you accept Jesus as your savior, ..the evil continues for eternity in hell.. the key word here being "eternity".

[smartrecords]

I believe the God is so Good that is Holy and anything or anyone that wilfully refuses Him in anyway commits a sin.

[IHaveYourSealab]

From now on we shall all refer to God as Smeev. Smeev is his name. After all, the absolute god is probably the being running the machine that runs our simulated cosmos. So, calling this guy God in the traditional sense is really inappropriate. Let's call the almighty Smeev, Smeev from now on, make it so.

[WISE]

Why all the hate and negativity? Dembski is merely attempting to understand the nature of God. Why find fault?
To those who claim there is "no God" is equally - at minimum - an exercise of the mind. Our finite minds attempting to grasp unknowns, realities beyond our own, the vastness of the cosmos and beyond, ultimate wisdom and truth, and yes, an infinite, supreme mind (and being) behind it.
Keep searching.. and never say never!

[zatoichiable]

God must be perfect since no one among human can claim they are perfect.

[ChronosWielder]

God is not perfect but his Spirit/inner being is upright and perfect.

[sendtoanthony]

Future episodes to include: Are all aliens into butt-probing? Is the Loch Ness Monster a vegetarian? Is Bigfoot a Conservative? Does the Boogeyman use deodorant?

[brigham]

God is... anything you want God to be. So if you want God to be perfect, then God is perfect. But in the end, the truth is, there is no God. Gee, that was easy. And keep in mind, this God that so many people believe in has never even been truly described or agreed upon. Which brings me back to my opening statement.

[IHaveYourSealab]

Good ol' Smeev isn't perfect he's just a Smeev. As Smeev does, you know. There's no changing that!

[redirishmanxlt]

Dogmatic conviction is a greater enemy of truth than falsehood.
(this is a slightly modified Nietzsche quote)

[avatarion]

Which deity and which pantheon is he talking about?

[vaultsjan]

4:40, so what can this god actually do?

[MrFranciss]

I m really shocked to see Dumbski in the same channel that shares Searles interviews.

[BradHolkesvig]

Why do you keep interviewing these fools who have no clue what the voice of God is or why it exists.

[innerlocus]

God… _He_ knows when you're sleeping… _He_ knows when you're awake, and if you have been paying attention… then you know that _Gods_ a fake.