Is God simple or complex? Well of course we would answer that question with a yes. But the real question we want to ask is which of the two you would classify him as. One of my kids answered both then when pressed said simple. The other just answered complex. I only had a few minutes to think about the question prior to asking the first child and I would also have gone with simple.
Honestly I do not recall this being part of any doctrine either taught or implied in the churches I have been involved in. Also I was trying to determine if my answer was jaded by one of the books I am reading – The God Delusion – but I do not think it was. The reason I believe this – I remember not being able to put my finger on the “problem” with the infinite regress discussion on God. When I read this most recent section of the book, Richard Dawkins discussed the topic again. This seems to be the primary proof of God’s lack of existence so far.
I challenged the theologians to answer the point that a God capable of designing a universe, or anything else, would have to be complex and statistically improbable. The strongest response I heard was that I was brutally foisting a scientific epistemology upon an unwilling theology. Theologians had always defined God as simple.
Is it possible that God is complex? If God is complex does this lead to God being statistically improbable because of infinite regress? It may be best to define simple and complex but is that possible? It seems like it would be an arbitrary definition. And if you find a definition that you agree on, how do you classify God into one of those categories?
If God is simple does this eliminate the statistical improbability of God and the problem of infinite regress?
I must say this has been one of the most mentally stimulating books I have consumed in quite some time.