Hello Prismatic
I understand your argument. I simply don’t accept the premises, which is why I am arguing against the premises of your argument before even addressing the soundness of your argument, because when it comes to the problem of evil it is often human hubris that leads the way, man reducing everything to an extension of himself. With that in mind (and if you want to find Biblical precedence, use Romans), lets look at the following:
Lets imagine having this argument when the reality of the person in question is not in doubt.
1- Omar MUST be absolutely perfect-- (it says so in my resume?)
2- So that means that he MUST be good. (good at what precisely?)
3- According to our own laws of reason, Omar cannot be perfect at everything, if they are opposites. (I get pissed off from time to time; am I not free to do so?)
4- If there is any flaw then how can he be perfect. (Look man all I said on my resume was “I am That I am”. You are the ones talking about “perfect”)
5- We have found flaws in Omar…
6- Therefore Omar cannot exist. (But I do! Guy that did my resume simply added too much shit)
Six, in any case, only goes as far as disproving 1 and 2, at best, so we don’t know if God is perfect or perfectly good. If God is not absolute then He exists.
Evil is the total lack of good just as good is the total lack of evil. Such lack is essentially a human measure, thus finite; and it is not arrived by reason but by feeling (one feels that such moment is void of any good or of any evil).
As conceived by some, yes, but not everybody thinks of God in such a way. Hell, I say every concept of God is a non-starter.
I disagree with your conception of polytheism. In the greek pantheon you had Zeus as the most potent god and yet that did not mean that the other beings in Olympus were not treated and called “gods”- god of this, god of that, god of something else. This paternalistic view is still present in the Bible, covered only by the use of different terms. Thus you have Devil, angels, demons-- stronger than man but weaker than God. From that you can pass onto henotheism. To me theism in not the problem but monotheism. Monotheism has to deal with a multi-faceted reality with character to explain it all. Polytheism can bring (Zoroaster) twp characters to explain that multiplicity.
I think that the circumstances of people affect their conception of God. Satan was not the antagonist of God but of men…during their period of strength. In weakness and out of desperation, apologists emerge. The decline of a concept has little to do with its rationality than with the facts on the ground affecting the people who transact with these concept. As empires absorbed more and more people concepts began intermarrying, just as the people, creating a new form, not because the old concepts were inherently flawed, and recognized as such, but to accommodate the people of different backgrounds into a new whole. It is no accident that we celebrate Christmas on 25th December.
But you do understand that omnipotence does not lead to a problem of evil. The Unmovable Mover can be conceived as Omnipotent, yet indifferent to our fates, thus, no POE.