Editing Open theism (section)

==Philosophical arguments==
Open theists maintain that traditional classical theists hold the classical [[Attributes of God in Christianity|attributes of God]] together in an incoherent way. The main classical attributes are as follows:<ref>[[Classical theism]]</ref>
* [[Omnibenevolence|All-good]]: God is the standard of moral perfection, all-benevolent, and perfectly loving.
* [[divine simplicity|Simplicity]]: God has no parts, cannot be differentiated, and possesses no attribute as distinct from His being.
* [[Theomorphism|Immutability]]: God cannot change in any respect.
* [[Impassibility]]: God cannot be affected by outside forces.<ref>{{cite book |title=Divine Impassibility |first=Richard |last=Creel |page=11}}</ref>
* [[Omnipresence]]: God is present everywhere, or more precisely, all things find their location in God.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/110101.htm |series=Church Fathers |title=Confessions |at=Book&nbsp;I |author=St. Augustine |author-link=St. Augustine |via=newadvent.org}}</ref>
* [[Omniscience]]: God knows absolutely everything: believes all truths and disbelieves all falsehoods. God's knowledge is perfect.
* [[Omnipotence]]: God can do anything because he is all-powerful and not limited by external forces.

Alleged contradictions in the traditional attributes are pointed out by open theists and atheists alike. Atheist author and educator [[George H. Smith]] writes in his book ''[[Atheism: The Case Against God]]'' that if God existed, God cannot be omnipotent because: "If God knew the future with infallible certainty, he cannot change it – in which case he cannot be omnipotent. If God can change the future, however, he cannot have infallible knowledge of it".<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=George H. |url=https://archive.org/details/atheismcaseagain00smit/page/74 |title=Atheism: the case against God |publisher=Nash |year=1974 |isbn=0-8402-1115-5 |location=[[New York City]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/atheismcaseagain00smit/page/74 74] |oclc=991343 |author-link=George H. Smith}}</ref>

Open theism also answers the question of how God can be blameless and omnipotent even though evil exists in the world. H. Roy Elseth gives an example of a parent that knows with certainty that his child would go out and murder someone if he was given a gun. Elseth argues that if the parent did give the gun to the child then the parent would be responsible for that crime.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Elseth |first1=Howard R. |title=Did God Know? A Study of the Nature of God |last2=Elseth |first2=Elden J. |publisher=Calvary United Church |year=1977 |location=[[Saint Paul, Minnesota]] |page=23 |oclc=11208194}}</ref> However, if God was unsure about the outcome then God would not be culpable for that act; only the one who committed the act would be guilty. An orthodox Christian might try, on the contrary, seek to ground a [[theodicy]] in the resurrection, both of Christ and the general resurrection to come,<ref>N. T. Wright ''Evil and the Justice of God''</ref> though this is not the traditional answer to evil.