Mike Theus who I speak with who would like to convince me that God exists really put a great deal of emphasis on God's control so-called God's Providence that God's in absolute control is going to make everything happen just the way God promised and fulfill his promises how important to you is this concept of Providence God's capacity to control everything that will happen for my view it's difficult to uh have God too much in control I have it the other way around where um I so here here's how it works on my view you got all
these possible worlds and God sort of has to deal with what he's dealt so so if you think of the worlds as kind of cards being dealt to you right that's what he gets um and but what he gets it's all the possibilities yeah he gets all the possibilities so so no matter what he does here he's going to realize some other world over here right so so it there's not a lot of space in the view I I think this is probably a problem for me um there's not a lot of space in the
view I hold for God to to be really deeply invested in controlling the worlds right there are some worlds in which things are highly controlled there are some worlds in which that's not the case I think so that's an objection to the kind of view I'm defending that if you think of possibility every possibility is being open to him and he can't make that be fewer possibilities he can't make there be more possibilities okay I can accept that that God is is finds himself with all the possibilities yes whatever there are there are can't make
them fewer or less but he can actualize make real the ones he chooses or not yeah that's true but but all of these that's exactly right there's only one actual World well he could do multiple actual roles right I mean but he makes an affirmative decision with all the possibilities out there the possibilities he has no choice correct but the choice is which ones he makes real depends on what you mean by real yeah actual actual sorry right so we act all the possibilities are real they're all real things they're all real possibilities but God
has a choice in making which real possibilities into real actual worlds is that right yes it's true it's true but you know Don't Take Your Eye Off the other worlds that's what I'm urging keep your ey the other worlds because whatever he does there he could have done here those those are real possibilities absolutely so don't think oh he did this so there's a temptation to think they're just possible they couldn't be actual no no no no if they're really possible they could be actual anything that's possible is possibly actual right right I would urge
okay so now how does this affect Pro God's Providence though I think that you know sort of if you think of God as sort of deeply providential then it would look to you like I think the the range of possible worlds is probably more limited than it is right or the the range of possibilities are all out there but God just chooses a much more limited subset of that and of the ones he he will actualize or only actualize one of them yeah this is so this is you're thinking this way you're thinking what really
matters is the one he actualizes but but that's not what I'm urging that's not what really it does really matter but not the only thing that matters you know so you think okay this is the one he actualizes but there are these other possibilities and if they're possible there is literally no reason why God could not have actualized that world corre instead okay so the actual world isn't special in in that respect that it's actual these others are possible and they couldn't be actual no they're possible and they could be actual so you are shrinking
the distinction between what God actualizes and and the and the real possibilities that God could actualize that the the distance between those which I'm making very Stark you're making very thin I think you should yes I think you should play down the difference between possibility and actuality when it comes to God okay because because it's easy for us to to think well what really matters what's actual because this is where I am okay I and I think it's that's that's how I think yeah I'm worried about the actual not my not my counterpart in some
other the worlds okay but God's in all those worlds so when God right so he's he's literally in every possible world so what he does here affects what happens in these other worlds too it turns out so he's making decisions concerning all of logical space right that's how you've got to think about it is though god making decisions in all of logical space or is all of logical space imposing itself on God the latter I I I agree with that that is that's that's the hand he finds himself with and and what type of active
process does he have in any of those world I think well let me say this his his Divine activity his Providence if you think of Providence as somehow affecting what could happen or what might happen it doesn't it can't but it affects what does happen not what could happen exactly right right by it doesn't have it doesn't shrink the range of possibilities so but it selects out of the possibilities that which does happen yeah but sort of remember he's in all these other worlds so if he select maybe it's maybe it'd be easy to think
of those other worlds as concrete worlds just for a moment right and so he's in there and they're all concrete beings and then he say like look if I help these guys out I'm going to hurt those guys over there then every possibility God is doing and so we don't even we don't need God that why do we need God in this seriously why do why why do we need God in all of this because possibilities are imposing on God so take out the middleman right so we don't need God for possibility no we don't
we have all possible world I'm on board I agree so sort of the reason I believe in God or one should believe in God is not because hey we need an explanation of possibility I don't think you need any explanation of that at all any more than you need an explanation of mathematics or logic or any of the disciplines that have necessary truths in that right or any other necessary truth what's necessary is unchangeable by God and I think that's a really rather common view among theists right the the unusual view is that God actually
shapes logical space in some way right and there are those who think that but that's the unusual position right so I mean focus it down then to to this world how does your concept of all the real possibilities affect your view of God's Providence in this world right I think what God can do um is he he can modify things in Worlds so answer prayers maybe um respond to people's suffering um help in various ways but he can't make it impossible that you go through those things so maybe it's enough right this is me thinking
out loud now okay maybe it's enough that God just reduces all actual suffering right maybe maybe that's enough he doesn't have to reduce all possible suffering that wouldn't address the problems of evil right it would sort of it's sort of a a pastoral thought you know I feel better if I can think that we got to at least actually get rid of all the suffering but certainly your concept of God's Providence is significantly um more ephemeral more wispy than traditional theists I I'll say this it's a it is a problem for the view I want
to defend that is it's really hard to make get a robust view of Divine Providence given everything else I want to say yeah
