On the Perfections Attributed to God
by P.D. Magnus
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Scholastic philosophy made an industry of enumerating the perfections
of God. Although such work is unlikely to result in an academic
appointment in today's atmosphere of secular, naturalistic philosophy,
it may be helpful to review the possibilities; perhaps it would
allow one to enumerate the perfections that can be attributed
to the Brain. What follows is a cursory list of perfections, with
interpretive gloss and illustrative examples where appropriate.
- omnipotence
- the perfection of being all powerful
- omniscience
- the perfection of being all knowing
- omnipresence
- the perfection of being everywhere; ubiquity
- omnibenevolence
- the perfection of being all good; the problem of evil has motivated arguments that an omnipotent God could not possess this perfection
- omnidoxence
- the perfection of being all believing; this relativized form of omniscience may be used interchangeably with "gullibility"
- omniabsence
- the perfection of not being anywhere; one of the few perfections an atheist will admit of God
- omnimalevolence
- the perfection of being all evil; the problem of good has motivated arguments that God could not possess this perfection
- omnisyllogence
- the perfection of following as a conclusion from oneself as a premise; this appears to be the perfection critical to the success of the ontological argument
- omniontologence
- the perfection of being all things; observing that omnisyllogence only establishes the de dicto existence of God, some medievals claimed this was the perfection central to the ontological argument; yet, God is not a poached egg, and thus God is not omniontologent
- omniomnience
- the perfection of being all things to all people
- omnicorpulence
- the perfection of being every body; although some sources attribute this to God, one imagines that it would require a consensus
- omnicrapulence
- the perfection of being all messed up
- omnihilism
- the perfection of not meaning anything; the perfection granted to God upon his death
- omnitemperence
- the perfection of refraining from everything; renders omnipotence moot