Religion

Religion is belief in, and sometimes worship of, one or more deities. Many polytheistic religions have held that the various gods struggled for power and various other goals, using humans as pawns to further their agendas. This would explain the existence of both good and evil in the world. The three most popular monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, hold that there is one perfect, omniscient and omnipotent God who frequently, or even continually, intervenes in human affairs. Ludwig von Mises notes that the praxeological implications of this are self-contradictory.^[1]

References

↑ Mises, Ludwig von. "The Limitations on Praxeological Concepts". Human Action. http://mises.org/humanaction/chap2sec11.asp. "Scholastic philosophers and theologians and likewise Theists and Deists of the Age of Reason conceived an absolute and perfect being, unchangeable, omnipotent, and omniscient, and yet planning and acting, aiming at ends and employing means for the attainment of these ends. But action can only be imputed to a discontented being, and repeated action only to a being who lacks the power to remove his uneasiness once and for all at one stroke. An acting being is discontented and therefore not almighty. If he were contented, he would not act, and if he were almighty, he would have long since radically removed his discontent. For an all-powerful being there is no pressure to choose between various states of uneasiness; he is not under the necessity of acquiescing in the lesser evil. Omnipotence would mean the power to achieve everything and to enjoy full satisfaction without being restrained by any limitations. But this is incompatible with the very concept of action. For an almighty being the categories of ends and means do not exist. He is above all human comprehension, concepts, and understanding. For the almighty being every 'means' renders unlimited services, he can apply every 'means' for the attainment of any ends, he can achieve every end without the employment of any means."

[1] Mises, Ludwig von. "The Limitations on Praxeological Concepts". Human Action. http://mises.org/humanaction/chap2sec11.asp. "Scholastic philosophers and theologians and likewise Theists and Deists of the Age of Reason conceived an absolute and perfect being, unchangeable, omnipotent, and omniscient, and yet planning and acting, aiming at ends and employing means for the attainment of these ends. But action can only be imputed to a discontented being, and repeated action only to a being who lacks the power to remove his uneasiness once and for all at one stroke. An acting being is discontented and therefore not almighty. If he were contented, he would not act, and if he were almighty, he would have long since radically removed his discontent. For an all-powerful being there is no pressure to choose between various states of uneasiness; he is not under the necessity of acquiescing in the lesser evil. Omnipotence would mean the power to achieve everything and to enjoy full satisfaction without being restrained by any limitations. But this is incompatible with the very concept of action. For an almighty being the categories of ends and means do not exist. He is above all human comprehension, concepts, and understanding. For the almighty being every 'means' renders unlimited services, he can apply every 'means' for the attainment of any ends, he can achieve every end without the employment of any means."

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