Process Theology (I) - a changing God

Process theology makes some good attempts in explaining the changing world with a new understanding of how ones can view God and His creation from a different perspective. Advocates of process theology found many contradictions within the traditional theism.

According to their view, they see God less as an entity but more as a process. This process changes over time and is carried out by the agents of free will including human’s will. Thus, God in process theology’s view is not omnipotent as classical theist understood. To them, God is actually offering possibilities to influence human’s free will to make things happened. Reality in process theology is not material substances that endure through time, but serially-ordered events, which are experiential in nature.

Process theologians believe traditional theists developed their view of an absolute God from ancient Greek philosophers, and they have claimed something more than what should be understood from the doctrine of God. Process theologians claim the God in the Bible changes His mind and at certain point in time He decides thing differently when humankind acts in certain way. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Scripture was not a God who abandoned His people after the creation. Indeed, this God was perceived in the Bible as the God who interacts closely with His creatures. They argue unless the future is open to change otherwise human being will not have any kind of freewill.

Process theology advocates or thinkers question how humanity could have any freedom if God is in control of everything. If God is eternal and in control, where is the devil from? The goodness of God and the evil of the devil cannot exist at the same time. And if God is in eternity, then He is unchangeable, and as such the prayer or the persuasion of humankind to God is meaningless and futile. Since nothing can change or affect God why does He want us to change. If God is Spirit, how can the material things come out of spiritual thing; it is metaphysically impossible to get something out of nothing.

Process theology no doubt offers a new way of looking at how God can interact closely with His creation, especially with human beings from a distance when He is not in or under the creation. On the surface, process theology seems to make a better connection that creation is actually the overall changing process of all free will agents, which come into existence. However, this theory also does not scientifically explain how the universe comes about. Much of the development of process theology is derived from human own wisdom and understanding of the physical world through observation and power of reasoning. It is philosophical, and not based on empirical studies. It comes with more flaws than the traditional theism.