1. God Created Suffering but Did Not Know How It Feels (Against Omniscience)
If God is omniscient, He must already know everything, including the experience of suffering, since knowledge of all things is an inherent attribute of an all-knowing being.
The argument that God needed to experience suffering through Jesus to "understand" suffering contradicts His omniscience. If God needs to learn or feel something to understand it, He was not omniscient in the first place.
Logically, how can a being create something (suffering) without understanding or knowing it? If God created suffering without knowing its nature, it questions His perfection and forethought.
This argument highlights a contradiction: the omniscience of God negates the necessity for Him to "learn" suffering through Jesus.
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2. God Sacrificing to Himself (Self-Contradiction)
Sacrifice implies giving up something for the sake of another, often at great cost. If God sacrificed Jesus to Himself, He essentially gave something to Himself.
Rationally, this is circular. It’s like someone transferring money from their left pocket to their right pocket and calling it a donation.
If Jesus' death was necessary for the forgiveness of sins, it portrays God as bound by some external rule requiring sacrifice to forgive—this undermines His omnipotence. A truly omnipotent God wouldn’t need a sacrifice to forgive; He could forgive unconditionally.
This also raises the question: Was God’s divine nature involved in the sacrifice, or just the human nature of Jesus? If only the human part suffered, it weakens the concept of divine sacrifice.
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3. The Nature of Jesus: Flesh and Divinity Combined
Claim: Jesus is 100% divine and 100% human.
Logically, this is problematic. A being cannot simultaneously be finite (human) and infinite (divine). These two natures are mutually exclusive.
If Jesus’ human nature suffered but his divine nature did not, then God did not truly experience suffering. This separation undermines the claim that God fully experienced human suffering.
Claim: Flesh (material) comes from divine nature.
How can a divine, eternal, and spiritual being produce a material, finite body? If God is immaterial, He cannot directly give rise to material forms.
This also raises questions about the immortality of divine nature: If Jesus' human body died, does that mean the divine nature also experienced death? If not, then the claim that God "died" is false.
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4. Can the Divine and Human Natures Coexist?
The Christian doctrine of hypostatic union (Jesus being fully God and fully man) claims that Jesus retained both natures without conflict.
Rationally, this is hard to reconcile:
Divinity implies perfection, omnipotence, and immortality.
Humanity implies imperfection, mortality, and limitations.
Combining these two natures creates logical contradictions. For example:
If Jesus was omnipotent, how could he experience hunger, fatigue, or death?
If Jesus was mortal, how could he also claim eternal existence?
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5. Suffering as a Divine Act
If God Himself suffered, does this mean that He subjected Himself to His own creation (suffering and death)?
Why would an all-powerful God need to "borrow" human nature to experience suffering? Couldn't He simply will Himself to know it?
If God is unchanging (as many theologies claim), then experiencing suffering would imply change, which contradicts the notion of divine immutability.
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Summary of Logical Problems:
1. Omniscience Contradiction: God cannot learn or experience something He doesn’t already know.
2. Circular Sacrifice: God sacrificing to Himself is illogical.
3. Dual Nature Conflict: A being cannot simultaneously be fully human and fully divine without logical inconsistencies.
4. Immaterial vs. Material: The idea of an immaterial God producing a material body raises metaphysical contradictions.
5. Suffering and Divine Immutability: If God suffered, He underwent change, which contradicts His divine, unchanging nature.
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Final Thought:
These arguments demonstrate that core Christian doctrines like the crucifixion, atonement, and dual nature of Jesus face significant philosophical and logical challenges when analyzed from a purely rational perspective. They rely heavily on faith and the acceptance of paradoxes, which many would argue defy reason.
