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Here is Issue I of The Daily ComMUNication, the daily newsletter brought to you by the International Press of ShriMUN'17. Read an introduction to your Executive Boards, this year's news agencies and agendas in this edition!

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Drawn by Saisha Vasudeva, Batch of 2020.

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“The houses of Italy form a colour wheel.”

Clicked by Dhruv Goswamy, Batch of 2019.

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The Technical Fallacies in the Internal Qualities of  

God

This article focuses on the God that is mentioned in Judeo-Christian scriptures, 

and whose image is widely accepted across Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Philosophers like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, who were heavily influenced 

by the writings of Plato and Aristotle, came up with a set of attributes that are 

widely accepted across all the Abrahamic religions. Although none of these are 

mentioned in any religious book like the Bible or the Quran, philosophers 

agreed that these attributes have to exist if God is perfect. These attributes 

include ‘Omniscience’, which is the ability to know all, ‘Omnipotence’, which 

refers to the state of being all-powerful, ‘Omnibenevolence’, or the quality of 

possessing perfect goodness, ‘Omnipresence’, or the ability to exist in all 

places, and ‘Omnitemporality,’ which is the ability to exist in all times.

The first problem, typically known as the 'omnipotence paradox,' arises when 

we look at Omnipotence.

Can God create a rock so heavy that he himself can't lift it? Since he is 

omnipotent, he has to be able to, otherwise there is one thing he can't do. 

However, if he creates such a rock, he won't be able to pick it up, hence 

proving that there is one thing he cannot do.

This is just the first of the internal contradictions that arise when we study the 

qualities of God. Some of these contradictions regard not just God, but people 

as well.

Humans are believed to have been given free will. But is free will just an 

illusion? When it is said that God is omniscient, it means that he knows 

everything that is going to happen. Arguable, knowing is not the same as 

causing. However, hypothetically, God knows that you are going to finish an 

entire glass of Coke, but you drink that glass of Coke because you can, out of 

free will. If you do not drink it, again out of free will, you will have proved God 

wrong, single-handedly stripping him of his Omniscience. Yet, since it is an 

absolute quality that God possesses, you cannot do something to prove him 

wrong, hence stripping the illusion of free will.  

Can God sin? Since he is omnipotent, it would seem that he can, since he can 

do anything. But if he is omnibenevolent, it means that he can’t. This is known 

as divine impeccability.

If God is impeccable and incapable of sin then doesn't that mean that he is not 

omnipotent? After all, anybody can sin, very easily in fact. It would seem 

strange that a mere mortal can do something that God can't. An argument 

contradicting this says that sin doesn't apply to God. That implies that even 

though God might do something that would be considered a sin if a human did 

it, the idea of sin simply doesn't apply to God, because as a result of his 

omnibenevolence, everything He does is, by default, perfect. This is troubling as 

it negates the value of God's goodness. Saying God did a thing is the same as 

saying God did a good thing; therefore, his goodness doesn't mean anything.

It's is hard to understand how God can have a personal relationship with his 

creatures (as claimed by numerous religious scriptures) if he doesn't experience 

time in the same way or feel the same way we do. If he already knows what is 

going to happen, is it even possible to change God's mind via a prayer?

"If God knows what's going to happen in the future, (which he does if he's 

omniscient) and if he has the power to bring about any state of affairs, (which 

he does if he's omnipotent) and if he always wants to bring about the best state 

of affairs, (which he does if he's omnibenevolent) then God has already decided 

what's going to happen in every single case, to everyone, always." - Eleanor 

Stumps, contemporary American philosopher.

So either a prayer is asking God to do something he was already going to do, 

making it a waste of time, or a prayer is asking God to do something he had 

already decided against because it wasn't the best course of action. It would be 

undesirable if God did change his mind because of a prayer, because that 

would not be best for mankind and we would end up sitting in some sort of a 

nuclear wasteland- hypothetically, of course.

Needless to say, God's qualities are, at the very least, internally inconsistent; 

they can't all exist at the same time.

Vanaj Moorthy​, Batch of 2020.

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Decoding Hindi Slangs

The official dummies guide to Hindi slang for the 92% of students at TSRS that dropped Hindi in class 9 itself (myself included).

1. Bakra  

Literal meaning - Goat

Slang - “Aaj kaun sa naya bakra pakad ke canteen jayega?”

2. Dal Roti

Literal meaning -  Pulse & bread

Slang - “If you don’t get a good job how will you earn your dal roti beta?”

3. Fattu

Literal meaning -  Coward

Slang - “Fattu mat ban. paper ke answers dikha,”

4. Chamcha

Literal meaning - Spoon

Slang -  “Teacher ka chamcha hai, top maarega.”

5. Chindi

Literal meaning - Cheap

Slang - “Don’t be chindi, buy 2kg bhindi.”

6. Waat lagna

Literal meaning - To be in a problematic situation

Slang - “Yaar, physics UT mein waat lag gayi.”

7. Jugaad

Literal meaning - A patchy work around

Slang - “Chem practical file khatam karliya? Nahi yaar, jugaad karna padega.”

8. Chikna

Literal meaning - A fair person

Slang - “Ladka chikna hai, bahut girlfriends milenge.”

By Arjun Sawhney, Batch of 2018.

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Made by: Anika Taneja, Batch of 2023.