Arguments & Comentaries on God by Drange/Sabella

Theodore M. Drange in his article Incompatible-Properties Arguments: A Survey (1998) uses the incompatibilities or incoherence found in the divine properties usually attributed to God, to logically argue against the existence of God. The divine properties Mr. Drange focuses on are:

(a) Perfect (g) Personal

(b) Immutable (h) Free

(d) Nonphysical (j) All-just

(e) Omniscient (k) All-merciful

(f) Omnipresent (l) The creator of the universe

He considers pairs of properties from the above list and for each pair, he constructs an incompatible-properties argument for God's nonexistence. An example of one of Mr. Drange’s arguments is given below:

The Perfection vs. Creation Argument

Consider the pair (a) & (l), which takes God to be perfect and also to be the creator of the universe. It seems that those properties might be shown to be incompatible in two different ways. The first way is as follows:

Version #1
1. If God exists, then he (Following tradition, and for simplicity, Mr. Drange and myself use the male personal pronoun

for God. My apologies to anyone who finds that linguistic practice offensive.) is perfect.
2. If God exists, then he is the creator of the universe.
3. A perfect being can have no needs or wants.
4. If any being created the universe, then he must have had some need or want.
5. Therefore, it is impossible for a perfect being to be the creator of the universe (from 3 and 4).
6. Hence, it is impossible for God to exist (from 1, 2, and 5).

In a manner similar to the example given above, Mr. Drange analyzes the following pairs of divine properties for incompatibility:

1. Perfection-vs. -Creation 6. Transcendence-vs.-Personhood

2. Immutability-vs.-Creation 7. Nonphysical-vs.-Personhood,

3. Immutability-vs.-Omniscience 8. Omnipresence-vs.-Personhood

4. Immutability -vs.-All-Loving 9. Omniscient-vs.-Free

5. Transcendence-vs.-Omnipresence 10. Justice-vs.-Mercy

In each case he logically shows their incompatibility and thus by inference proves that the ideas about a being with these properties (God) are internally incoherent and therefore could not exist. The cruxes of Mr. Drange’s arguments are all based on the way he defines the various divine properties. Defined in a certain way, from a certain point of view these properties are going to be incompatible or incoherent, thereby “proving” that the ideas about a being with these properties (God) could not logically exist. Define the various divine properties from a different point of view, give them a different meaning, and they become compatible, converge, or coherent, thereby “proving” that the ideas about a being with these properties (God) could logically exist. Mr. Drange himself states towards the end of his article, “In a sense, it is all a matter of semantics, for the issue of whether or not certain property ascriptions conflict with certain other property ascriptions depends very much on what exactly they mean. Theists could defend against the arguments by denying that the property terms in question mean what the proponents of the arguments claim they mean. Often such denials lead to still other difficulties for the theist. A full presentation and defense of incompatible-properties arguments should explore such implications and fully pursue the many issues, whether semantical or not.”

Mr. Drange is not really proving that God doesn’t exist, but he is proving that the ideas about a God with divine properties as he defined them could not logically exist. In this I have to agree with him 100%. The ideas about a being with divine properties as defined in his arguments can not logically exist. However that doesn’t mean the ideas about a being with the same divine properties defined in a different way couldn’t logically exist. In this paper I do not seek to prove whether God exists or not, because I don’t believe that’s possible. What I do seek to do is:

1. Define the same divine properties Mr. Drange used in his arguments so that they are:

a. Scientifically Coherent, i.e., consistent with the latest scientific thoughts in areas such as, physics, cosmology, and near-death experiences.

b. Morally Coherent, i.e., consistent with giving meaning and purpose to human pleasure, suffering, life, and death.

c. Internally Coherent, i.e., able to logically exist simultaneously within a divine being

2. Use these definitions to rebut Mr. Drange’s arguments and provide a case for the logical existence of the idea of a Coherent God.

3. State some conclusions and implications about the idea of God.

To accomplish these ends I have divided the article into two parts. Part 1:

A) Explores scientific and moral coherency and summarizes its main points.

B) Redefines the same twelve divine properties used in Mr. Drange’s arguments, in light of scientific and moral coherency.

C) Concludes with some implications about the idea of God.

Part 2 - Uses the redefined divine properties from Part 1 to rebut each of Mr. Drange’s eleven arguments and provide a case for the idea of a Coherent God.

Part 1A - Exploring Scientific & Moral Coherence

A Scientifically Coherent God

A Coherent God must be able to withstand the bright lights of science and logic. He cannot hide behind a shroud of mysticism, old conceptions, and illogical properties. Science is the logical and persistent search for truth about the nature of our reality. If God is truly a factor in that reality, then His divine properties have to be consistent with and causal to the latest scientific theories. In this scientific age, a God that is not integrated into the scientific language of our time becomes a relic of the past and loses His ability to reach the people who need Him the most. To understand the divine properties of a Coherent God in this context, my journey took me into the worlds of physics, cosmology, and near-death research.

Universe vs. Multidimensional Reality

If God exists, and He is the creator of the universe, it becomes very important to define what is meant by universe. An inaccurate or outdated definition of the universe will incorrectly reflect on the nature of its creator. The more accurately we can define the universe the closer we get to a truer idea of God.

When people hear the word “universe” they frequently think of it meaning the whole of creation, i.e., the earth, planets, stars, and galaxies. Physicists refer to our “universe” as the space-time dimension. They call it the space-time dimension because it is measured in space by length, width, height, and in time by seconds, minutes, hours. The latest scientific theories and data indicate that our universe, the space-time dimension, is not the whole of creation. There’s more to it and most of it is invisible.

String Theory[1] is science’s most recent attempt to explain our whole universe. It seeks to combine Einstein’s Theories of Relativity which governs the macroscopic universe (our everyday world, the planets, stars, etc.) and Quantum Theory which governs the microscopic world (atoms, neutrons, electrons, subatomic particles, etc.) String Theory is new and no one claims to understand all of it, though, it does seem to combine Relativity and Quantum Theory very nicely. There is, however, a price for this nice fit. String Theory requires at least 10 or 11 other dimensions beyond our space-time dimension.

String Theory says that in order for our space-time dimension to be the way it is, there must be other dimensions that are currently undetectable by the best measuring devices of today. In other words these dimensions are invisible to us. We suspect they are there but we can’t see or measure them. In fact current astrophysicists[2] lend support to this idea by reporting that the vast “universe” science can see and measure may comprise no more than 5% of the whole universe. The rest of creation is thought to be 20-30% dark matter (matter that is currently undetectable) and 60-80% dark energy (energy that is currently undetectable).

In light of the current scientific thought that:

1. The whole of creation seems to consist of an uncertain number of dimensions.

2. Most of these dimensions are invisible and undetectable.

3. Our “universe,” the space-time dimension, is but one of these dimensions.

it then seems more accurate to refer to the whole of creation as “multidimensional reality” rather than the universe. A person might say, “I’ll grant you the term “multidimensional” but why use the term “reality” and give up the term universe. Couldn’t it be multidimensional universe?” They would have a good point but please bear with me and I hope you’ll see why reality is a much more accurate description of what’s going on.

To get a sense of what a multidimensional reality might mean I’d like to use the different states of water as an analogy. Water can exist in three states; ice, liquid, and vapor. These three states could be called the three dimensions of water. Imagine that in each dimension there were living beings composed of ice, liquid, and vapor. The ice beings would have a very different view of reality than the liquid or vapor beings. To ice beings, reality would be solid, hard and very ordered. They could not imagine the flow, mutability, and flexibility of the liquid beings. Nor could they imagine the dimension of the vapor beings; a reality where beings have a ton of energy and are so small that they can fly all over space. Each of these beings would have different realities because of the dimension they lived in.

In this analogy the ice, liquid, and vapor beings are unidimensional beings, that is, they are living in one dimension. The ice being is living in the ice dimension, the liquid being in the liquid dimension, and the vapor being in the vapor dimension. However, water, the essence of all these beings is in all three dimensions; ice, liquid, and vapor. Therefore water would be called a multidimensional being, i.e., a being living simultaneously in more than one dimension.

Just as ice, liquid and vapor are various dimensions of the same multidimensional being, water; I believe our “universe,” the space-time dimension, and the other dimensions predicted by String Theory are various dimensions of the same multidimensional being, God. Water at its most essential level is composed of two elements, hydrogen and oxygen. These elements combine as H₂O and allow water to have its three dimensions of existence and three different realities. I believe God, like water, has essential elements or properties. Some of these essential properties are: eternal and infinite vital energy, unconditional love, creative intelligence, and receptivity. I believe these essential elements combine, in a way analogous to water, and allow God, the multidimensional being, to create and be in, an infinite variety of dimensions causing an infinite variety of realities. Thus the term multidimensional reality seems more accurate than universe when referring to the whole of creation.

Near-Death Experiences

Death is a universal experience in this dimension and a Scientifically Coherent God must be presented in terms consistent with the latest research on this subject. Death is usually considered under the realm of religion, metaphysics, or philosophy, not science. However, for over two decades Mr. Kevin Williams has been gathering the latest research and scientific evidence on death and near-death.