Philosophical theism commonly ascribes to God the attribute of “immutable” - the idea that God cannot and does not change. Whatever God is like now is the way that God was for all of the past and the way God will be for all of the future. It doesn’t matter what happens elsewhere, God always and inevitably remains the same. Why do people believe this? Does it make sense to say God cannot change?
The impetus for this attribute comes from the more fundamental idea of God being perfect. If God is perfect right now, then it would not seem possible for God to change. Any change would either add to God (like learning something new), which suggests that God wasn’t really perfect before, or it would take away from God (like forgetting something), which suggests that God would no longer be perfect.
Thus, if God was always perfect in the past, is perfect right now, and will always be perfect in the future, then nothing can either add to or take away from God. It is then concluded that since any change must either take away or add to God, then God must be incapable of ever changing. Although it may not seem obvious that any change would affect God’s perfection, it must be remembered that God is absolutely perfect.
The origins of an immutable God lie more in Greek and Neoplatonic ideas about the need for a perfect God than in the ancient Jewish ideas about a God who lives in and acts within human history. Because of this, although the attribute of immutability has been popular, it has also come under serious challenge. It should not be assumed that this popularity has only existed among philosophers — average believers have also been drawn to this idea because an immutable God would seem to offer a stable focal point in a universe filled with changes, often for the worse.
Nevertheless, arguing for an immutable God would seem to remove many of the personal connections between us and God which are the point of arguing for a personal God. How, for example, can we be “made in the image of God” when our existence is so completely unlike God’s existence? How can an immutable God understand our fears, our hopes, our dreams? If God’s perfection includes immutability and we should be striving for perfection, then perhaps the common sorts of worship services found in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam should be abandoned in favor of something more like the teachings of Buddhist monasteries.
An immutable God cannot learn anything because learning implies change. If God cannot learn anything, then there are things which God will never know (thus conflicting with God’s alleged omniscience) or God has always known absolutely everything. That, however, would raise the question of just what the point of creation was.
This is one reason why people have not only rejected the doctrine that God is immutable, but also the general Neoplatonic argument that God must be perfect. This has helped lead to the development of process theism, a theistic position which postulates a God who grows and develops and lives alongside us.
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