I guess my next question would be why would it be impossible? I’ll accept that he can’t do logically impossible things, like make a square circle, but the idea that he could have made changes to nature is not logically impossible.
His wish is for the creation to be free of suffering. If he forced that, there wouldn’t be freedom. And by freedom I’m not speaking about human agency, but the metaphysical capacity of the cosmos to be something God doesn’t want.
No, this metaphysical capacity is the universe’s, not God’s. Freedom is the human form of a cosmological reality : the capacity not to be what God wants. God is the one who created the word that way, because he wanted a universe he doesn’t control. Because if the universe can’t not love God, then it can’t love it. Love must be free.
I guess my next question would be why would it be impossible? I’ll accept that he can’t do logically impossible things, like make a square circle, but the idea that he could have made changes to nature is not logically impossible.
He can change nature. But not in a way that would preserve freedom and make nature obey all his wishes at the same time. That is the squared circle.
I’m not talking about obeying his wishes, I’m talking about unnecessary suffering. Could he make a world with free will and no baby cancer?
His wish is for the creation to be free of suffering. If he forced that, there wouldn’t be freedom. And by freedom I’m not speaking about human agency, but the metaphysical capacity of the cosmos to be something God doesn’t want.
Either God created that capacity (literally nothing can exist if he does not will it), or there are higher metaphysical concepts than God.
I wouldn’t call logic a metaphysical concept. But yes, God can’t go against it.
I mean that. So God is constrained by something other than logic.
No, this metaphysical capacity is the universe’s, not God’s. Freedom is the human form of a cosmological reality : the capacity not to be what God wants. God is the one who created the word that way, because he wanted a universe he doesn’t control. Because if the universe can’t not love God, then it can’t love it. Love must be free.