William A. 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. Must God, in order to be God, be the greatest conceivable Being? Is there a difference between what is conceivable and what is possible, especially for God?



William Albert Dembski is an American philosopher and theologian. He is currently a Professor of Culture & Science at the Southern Evangelical Seminary at Matthews, North Carolina, and a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.


Closer to Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

[ultimateman]

Ah yes, the moment an obvious, logical contradiction is brought to the attention of a believer, the mysterious nature of god saves the day. "God is good!" Then why do children die miserable, painful deaths every day?

*He works in mysterious ways*

[thomashartl]

If I were a perfect God, I would not create creations who slaughter each other by the millions and destroy their world. I would do so only if I were an evil God.

So I am left with the hope that we do all this because there is no God.

[hzhz]

If God is perfect, then how can it be that He created an imperfect creation? Perfection can only bring forth perfection. If Perfection brings forth something imperfect, then that must have been ON PURPOSE which would make Him (at least partially) evil

[scooby]

To even answer that question without resorting to imagination, the god character has to be demonstrated to be more than imaginary..

[ChuckBrowntheClown]

The simplicity of God is believing in Jesus Christ, and trusting in Him, which is having faith in him, and since Jesus Christ and God are one, that makes Jesus Christ God.

[junevandermark]

If a god existed, it would be anything "but" perfect. Within theology, the moment Lucifer dared to disagree with the god, while they were both in heaven, that was the first sin. So sin did not start on planet earth. And by the way, if sin was allowed in heaven then ... it will still be allowed in heaven now. Those mythical stories of gods and goddesses are archaic nonsense.

[michaelpott]

God is a man made construct. He is as perfect or not as we want him to be.

[robroy]

It still boggles my mind that in these modern times, seemingly intelligent people still subscribe to a being that has only been known through a story book, and has now the optimum opportunity to reveal himself and have everyone follow and worship....yet has failed to do so.
I have more belief in Harry Potter....at least he has decent morals and does not condone slavery.

[waerlogauk]

In summary if you can think of any binary opposite quality, God will be both. This will be said confidently by people who equally confidently state that God is beyond human knowledge.

[chyfields]

Please could you define the terminology in your videos? Everyone has a different understanding of what ‘perfect’ actually translates to.

[anthonycraig]

I love to know how does he know that god is outside time, or inside time? They are just making it up as they go along.

[anthonycraig]

Gosh! This guy is really tap dancing.
This kind of explanation is no different from when a Trekkie starts to explain how the equipment in Star Trek works.

[colinjava]

How does a non-physical thing have thoughts? A thought comes from brain activity.
How is a spirit different from nothing?
And how does it manipulate physical things?

[matthewratcliffe]

Blows my mind people still believe in God this day and age.

[dsanti]

God is outside of time. God is never changing. God is absolute . The alpha the omega. Missing nothing. Humans cant fathom GODs power and perfection. Just like a ant, cant truly understand its vast surroundings . We must humble ourselves like children and seek GOD for wisdom and understanding.

[enfomy]

There’s always progress when trying to understand nature, whereas there’s never any progress in trying to understand religion. Should tell u something.

[kalxite]

Why would imperfection come out from something that is perfect

[evaadam]

Is God Perfect ?

The word "perfect" to attribute to God was coined by imperfect men and has nothing to do with who God really is. The truth out there is independent from man's opinion, fyi.

From understanding the light that I received, the IMPERFECTIONS of this Universe was PERFECTLY created by God to give hint to mankind that there is a state of suffering (after death) being labelled as "Hell" which is opposite to "Heaven" where love warmth and comfort abound.

This question about "Is God Perfect?" is no different to the subject about "The Fallacies of Fine-tuning" that I commented on. Allow me to repost this, as follows, to understand why there are imperfections in this physical world :

[JungleJargon]

God is not limited by time or distance.

[aneurinellis]

Making a God through various descriptive words is not the message of the Christian Bible. The message is to know God, and the symbolisms of Jesus (the death & resurrection) makes it very clear how you can know God.