Gods at odds

Re-reading some of Richard Dawkins' tomes on the subject of the rank outside chance of there being a higher being, and stumbled across a clever little logic rhyme that shows the Big Beardy Man to be rather at odds with himself:

Can omniscient God, who

Knows the future, find

The omnipotence to

Change His future mind?

(Karen Owens)

So if you're big, clever (and beardy) enough to know what's going to happen in the future, that's one thing. But if you're powerful enough to change anything you want, then how about changing the future? But if you're able to change it, can you really claim that you know it as you would know a fixed thing - or is omniscience only about the here and now?

Anyway, possibly a dodgy choice of literature out here, where the phrase 'insha'Allah' (if God wills it) seems a rather too convenient excuse to try and alter your own destiny - or at least a rather too frequently used excuse for the omnipresent traffic problems and one's own associated and projected tardiness to meetings.

And speaking about knowing the future and not being able to affect it, I'm going to try and squeeze in my first ever skiing lesson at the above indoor slope on Thursday. Once I'm in motion, my biggest fear is not being able to stop. So on seeing a tree, a slalom post, or in this case probably a shop selling bling stuff, I'd simply cruise towards an inevitable and painful interface.