Most of the world's religions have some concept of gods or a God, with some notable exceptions such as Buddhism.
Theologians claim to have discerned the essential attributes of a monotheistic God, such as
omniscience (perfect foreknowledge),
omnipotence (unlimited power),
omnipresence (present everywhere),
omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), and a
necessary and eternal existence.
Information philosophy offers a simple test of the "revealed truth" of these attributes, specifically the visions by inspired thinkers that have no empirical evidence. Although these visions are in the realm of "pure ideas," we can speculate that if every world religion agreed completely on the attributes of God, it would increase their believability. As it is, the comparative study of religions with the incredible diversity of their claims, renders the idea of God as implausible as Santa Claus.
In theism, God is the
creator and sustainer of the universe. In deism, God is the creator, but not the sustainer, of the universe, which is now assumed to be running itself following
deterministic laws of motion. Open theism denies that God's foreknowledge has already determined the future. Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one God or in the oneness of God. In pantheism, God is the universe itself. Polytheists hold that there are many gods. For atheists, no gods exist.
Intelligent Design is the anti-evolutionary and creationist idea that God not only sustains the physical universe, but also oversees every step in the creation of new species. Nothing is the result of
chance. All the information in the universe was present in the Mind of God at the earliest moments in the universe (some theologians say that God has this knowledge/information
outside of time).
God is sometimes conceived as an
immaterial being (without a body), which information philosophy accepts, since God is quintessentially an idea, pure information. Some religions think an avatar of God has come to earth in the past. Some religions see God as a personal being, answering human supplications and prayers. A God intervening in human affairs is thought to be the source of all moral norms. Logical proofs of God's existence are based on various of the assumed attributes.
Now that information philosophy and physics has identified the essential attributes and properties of the
cosmic creation process, the problem for theologians is to reconcile their views with these discoveries.
Yes, There Was A Creation
Modern cosmology confirms that the universe came into existence at a definite time in the past, some 13.8 billion years ago. Although this does not need the Creator some religions want, it does empirically confirm a creation. Information philosophy attributes this to a
cosmic creation process. This process continues today and human beings are co-creators of our world. Deists are wrong about a single creative act at the beginning of time which
pre-determines in the Newtonian mechanical clockwork universe ever since.
Theodicy (The Problem of Evil)
The problem of evil is only a problem for monotheists who see God as omnipotent. "If God is Good, He is not God. If God is God, He is not Good." (J.B., by Archibald MacLeish). The information philosophy solution to the problem is a
dualist world with both entropic destruction and ergodic creation. If ergodic information is an objective good, then entropic destruction of information is "the devil incarnate," as
Norbert Wiener put it.
The Logical Contradiction in an Omniscient and Omnipotent God
The idea of God as an
omniscient and omnipotent being has an internal logical
contradiction that is rarely discussed by the theologians.
If such a being had perfect knowledge of the future, like
Laplace’s demon, who knows the positions, velocities, and
forces for all the particles, such a God would be perfectly impotent, because the future is already
determined.
If God had the power to change even one thing
about the future, his presumed perfect knowledge of the future would
have been imperfect. Omniscience entails impotence.
Omnipotence some ignorance.
Of course, true believers might argue that God has the power to change both the future and his knowledge of the future at any time, as in the Philip K. Dick short story, "Adjustment Team." And perhaps God can even change the past? But then, solutions that explain everything may explain nothing?
The discovery by
Albert Einstein of ontological
chance poses an even greater threat to the omniscience of God and the idea of foreknowledge. The inventors of probability always regarded chance as
atheistic. The use of statistics was to make estimates of outcomes of many independent events when detailed knowledge of those events is not possible because of human ignorance.
In quantum physics, if knowledge exists of which slot a particle will go through in a
two-slit experiment, the outcome of the experiment will be different. The characteristic interference caused by the
wave function passing through both slits disappears.
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