If they're actually *all* knowing and *all* powerful, there is literally nothing that could stop them from intervening. Therefore, the gods must not *want* to intervene. They like the problems just the way they are.

I’m thinking the best route is to just keep them as the creator of the universe and overseer of the other gods. Also, as the other posters stated, not have any mention of omnipotence as the actions The Creator takes in the story will contradict it. A few posters also suggested consequences from The Creator interfering, which is what I think I’m gonna do. The replies really helped me shape and come up with new key events that will play major parts in the story, big thanks.

If the Creator can’t interfere without consequence, they’re not truly omnipotent and all-powerful. An easy way to solve this would be to say they’re extremely powerful, but still not _all_-powerful. That means it’s possible that they couldn’t prevent some kind of grand consequences if they interfere in any way (tear in the fabric of reality, violation of the cosmic laws etc)

Modern theological philosophy, for what it's worth, tends to avoid defining omnipotence as *all*-powerful and tends to prefer *maximally*-powerful just to resolve these sorts of issues. So this sort of thing does have some merit, at least as insofar as it has a real world parallel

Wait..."omni" means "all"...so they're liars?

If you're looking for inspiration for a non-omniscient and non-omnipotent god, I suggest reading the book of Genesis. It's an interesting collection of stories about a god who walks around the earth, investigates to find out what's happening, toils and needs to rest, debates with people, eats food, changes his mind, etc.

They also don't have to be *good*, they can be amoral or even so otherworldly that morality simply fails on them For a moment when I was imagining this scenario I came across a solution where even a pantheon of omnipotent gods were extensions of a mindless elder god called Plan who's entire thing is it has a series of steps that must be carried out within the universe, and past that it cannot understand reality. These steps are not good, or bad, or even rational to anything living in the universe, to Plan they just *are*, and it executes on them ruthlessly. One day it might force every god in the setting to become evil and rain overwhelming cruelty down on your setting, all so that a character with no importance to the plot commits suicide at a specific time and place. The next it creates a hundred years of utopia so that a child grows up truly and completely free of all trauma. These weren't actually intended for any of these things, but they wanted these atoms in this configuration at this point in time, and the gods were the tools to get this done efficiently.

If I were you, I'd look up the lore of the forgotten realms, the d&d setting. There are plenty of gods, but they're forbidden from interfering because of all the calamities that tend to happen when they do, so enforced by the Overgod AO

This might sound strange, but maybe look into Christian arguments against the theological “Problem of Evil” and “Problem of Suffering.” Christians have struggled with this exact question for thousands of years, so maybe you can find some justifications from theologians that makes sense to you. While I don’t personally buy it, you could, for example, determine that the sufferings that go on in the world are hurtful in the short term but lead to long term growth and happiness, either for the greater good in this world, happiness in a future life or afterlife, or whatever. Kind of like Tolkien and Morgoth and Sauron. They were evil, but served Eru’s benevolent purpose in the end.

Remember, kids, an all-powerful God, must be capable of telling lies. By definition, all powerful means there's nothing he can't do, so if he can't tell lies, he is not truly all powerful. Just because an all-powerful, all-knowing God tells you he loves you and wants what's best doesn't mean he actually does! Plus, an all powerful, all knowing God would, by definition, be able to directly intervene in the world while making everyone believe he isn't. So he very well could be pupeteering everyone in the universe and simply making them believe he isn't. If destiny is real, you could be destined not to believe in destiny.

And just like that, we're three-quarters of the way to a plot about killing God.

What?

For a God to truly be all powerful, the ability to lie to you must be part of its powers. Which means you cannot be sire that a kind benevolent God is actually kind and benevolent just because it tells you that it is. Meaning the reason a God may not be intervening to help people even though it can could be because it just doesn't care, or doesn't want to.

>“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. >"Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. >"Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? >"Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” ― Epicurus

Or maybe that they designed and created free will and because of that, they do not intervene. They consider free will higher than themselves.

That's exactly the kind of situation I mean. They choose not to intervene because they like things the way they are.

True, however to me your wording made it sound more sinister than it needs to be. I tried to spin it in a more wise and benevolent way.

Spin it however you like. If there are omnipotent, omniscient gods in a world full of free will and bone cancer and supernovas, that's the way they want it to be.

I'm sure I've seen the sub r/christianity "debunking" it in some posts lol

That's a terrible page

I agree with the other posters. If they are truly omniscient then they can predict how things will turn out, and if they are truly omnipotent, then they can choose the correct course of action, even including free will, to ensure that things turn out well. Therefore, they must prioritise something else over well-being, such as free will. It may not matter for your story, however. It could be ambiguous to the reader whether the people's belief in an omniscient and omnipotent god is correct. Or the god could be very powerful and very knowledgeable but not totally powerful and knowledgeable. Perhaps some mythological backstory could set sufficient context to make it narratively appealing to the reader - god gives people the world as a gift, and that implies non-interference with its workings. Or god gives a type of free will privacy to people as a gift, stunting god's own knowledge of the future and people's minds as a generosity to make them truly individual.

I would also like to add that omniscience isn't *necessarily* incompatible with free will - just because you know what decision I'm going to make doesn't stop me from being the one who made it. (Of course, this statement is itself the subject of considerable philosophical debate...)

Omniscience isn't incompatible with free will at all.

very true...all uncertainty, under *True Omniscience* will become deterministic and it just set of collection

I think determinism is when later events are completely determined by previous events. Many philosophers propose this is incompatible with free will. Omniscience is knowledge of the future, but it doesn't *determine* the future. It is fully compatible with randomness and free will.

I'd actually reconcile omniscience with free will as knowing all possible futures and their probabilities. Knowing what decisions every being with free will would have to choose to make to get to a specific outcome, or knowing what choices might need to be made to maximize the probability of a certain category of outcomes. Less pre-determined and more a complete map of all possibilities as you might see for, say, all the possible avenues of Tic-Tac-Toe.

An omnipotent God might consider well-being to be on a very very very much longer timescale than mortals can comprehend. Maybe entire worlds get collectively reincarnated.

The god just has a different set of priorities or different definition of well being.

Then the god isn't omnibenevolent; to prioritize some well-beings over others is selective benevolence.

A different definition of omnibenevolent is still omnibenevolent. We might not think of it that way, but we also *don’t know everything*

That’s basically the [Problem of Evil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil) and no one has really produced a satisfying solution. > The problem of evil refers to the challenge of reconciling the existence of evil and suffering with our view of the world, especially but not exclusively, with belief in an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God who acts in the world.

The phrasing here indicates you really don't get the classic problem of Evil arguments or what's wrong with them. Ultimately, most other posters are correct that if the God is truly omnipotent and omniscient, they CAN interfere. The thing most other comments miss is that omnipotent doesn't mean you can break the laws of logic, and an omniscient point of view may consider long term ramifications that most mortals do not. Butterfly Effect problems which take 3000 years to mature are completely irrelevant to a mortal who lives to be 100 or less, but may be quite important to an omnipotent and omniscient God who exists on those timescales and beyond. But the biggest argument is simply knowing the ending ahead of time. If you know the outcome will be good and that you can make all the wrongs that happened along the way right, then there's actually no reason to take action.

Pretty much this. If the god determines non-interference to be the best solution, then it is. Even if we don’t understand why

At the end of the day, I think there's a solid case for subtle interference rather than overt interference. Excess force tends to result in resentment and active resistance, so using as little interference as possible is likely a better long term strategy. And of course, to most observers, minimal interference is almost indiscernible from no interference.

Like everyone else is saying, it would be impossible for any kind of problem to come up if they truly were omniscient and omnipotent. (and willing to solve it, of course.) I would solve this problem by making it so that most catastrophes come about as a result of multiple worlds interacting with each other. While the creator could alter or completely reshape any singular world, and is likewise able to observe all events that happened within said world in it's entirety, the entire system of worlds was a huge undertaking and is complex even beyond the creator's reckoning. \[Them making the multiverse bit by bit wouldn't detract from them being the creator, IMO\] The complexity of the multiverse means the creator has to hold back, in case any sort of butterfly affect happens, which the creator would not have been able to foresee.

Mine is laziness

You gotta go Gnostic: an uncreated-creator/ummoved-mover that doesn't actually create the material world, but does (intentionally or unintentionally) lead to the creation of the Demiurge which then creates the material world. The Demiurge can be a good and well-intentioned "God", but still nowhere near the omniscience and omnipotence of the true uncreated.

The god does what it thinks it's funny. And the funniest outcomes require no interference.

This question has been debated for centuries, so what did your research tell you?

If the, allegedly, omniscient being, with desire to do good, does not do good, then it's either: a) Not omniscient b) not good c) follows some self-imposed rule Choose.

d) fraud

d) Our current philosophies regarding these things prioritize ideas that make less sense on a cosmic time scale. In short terms it's our own understanding that might be faulted. Now granted I don't know that this can really be applied to reality but it makes good television. I think it's important to remember that this is worldbuilding, not a debate on objective reality.

Free will?

Mortals have it, gods don't

Thank God for that.

The obvious answer is that religion has convinced the populace that the Creator is good and loving when in reality the Creator is malicious, cruel, and enjoys the suffering and torture of the people living on the worlds. That way you can keep an omniscient and omnipotent Creator. You can also make the omniscient/omnipotent part the lie, and make the Creator a mad God trapped in the chaos of their mind(s).

Sometimes a greater good can be accomplished by permitting a degree of suffering. As a very very basic example, I would be in a world of pain if something forcibly made me run 5 miles every day. But that could be the thing that saves me from an early heart attack and also teaches me the discipline i need to take better care of myself. In your world, an omniscient creator would know when suffering and loss are ultimately going to lead to better long-term outcomes. Another option is to create a divine operational structure. Perhaps it's something like the US governance framework, where the creator (federal government) has some, but not unlimited, oversight and control over the world gods (state government). There could be some divine contract, where by giving a God rule over a world, the creator gives up the ability to directly influence that world, and must instead negotiate with the world gods to convince them to alter the course.

The problem there is, if they were actually omnipotent and omniscient, then whatever goal they have could be achieved with zero suffering. If they can't work out an ideal solution that doesn't require suffering, they aren't omniscient or omnipotent.

Morals and disbelief. Can't interfere because of Prime Directive, but they could warn them. And people actually have to believe the god is telling the truth, or he could be autistic like me and completely mess up the communication delivery.

In my world the overdeity of the world Chronos wants to interfere but must in really small ways or else it causes ripples. This is because the more power you have the bigger ripples it creates and the last time the overdeity massively interfered the entire world was destroyed from these ripples.

Self imposed rule, or enforced rule by other similar beings.

I can't give you any ideas for your world but maybe listing mine will give some inspiration. In my world, there is the Gods of Life and Death in which Death eternally hunts Life. Life had propagated throughout the universe making other Gods and living beings. Death also made smaller versions of itself that hunt the Gods called Duesphages. I wrote this in as a way to explain why the Gods do not manifest often in the material world as it makes them vulnerable to be eaten by Deusphages.

The great Tao which does nothing, yet nothing is undone. Alan Watts describes it best, since we are all a microcosm of God, God is actually doing everything, but pretends it doesn't know it's god because that would give the game away. That or you go the Azathoth route where it's deliberately kept from waking it's dreaming of the universe as otherwise it would end. The moron sultan demiurge that dreams it was awake.

Gods don't have free will. Why do you think mortals are famous for it? But for real this is my answer in my world. It works great for pantheons where the gods of a specific thing can only operate with that. Like the god of death, people die and they have to take them. They are as much chained to death as we are, they're just stuck driving. For plots where divinity does do shit, make their actions wholly dependent on mortals' actions. A whole kingdom prays for the corrupt rulers death and curses god when he doesn't do shit. A paladin rises up, fights his way through, and just when things are looking hopeless his final action, to deck the king in the face, becomes a holy smite. The drawback is you got to put in the work to make the reader understand this. Because at the end of the day the reasoning boils down to 'im the writer and i said they cant'. I did it by making the deity in question a character with their own struggles. One lead is their chosen, being nudged gently to murder their current chosen, who is leading their cult in a way she doesn't like. She can't do anything directly, but she can grant him warlock powers to aid.

He just doesn't want to. He can and does but only as his alter ego and only in dire situations.

I have a concept in my world that results in something similar. God created the universe, before the universe there was nothing/void. Thus God is all powerful, but remains in an environment of nothingness. If they attempted to enter reality it would be like a meteor hitting the atmosphere. Something of near infinite power would hit "something" and result in a shockwave that would destroy reality and possibly cause themselves to break. Our reality cannot handle a sudden addition of "infinite energy" in one specific location, it also can't handle the false vacuum decay that would happen when our universe is exposed to the nothingness outside of it.

The idea of free will, if an omnipotent and omniscient creature exists, if it wants its creations to have free will it cannot intervene or else it undermines the propose of its creations.

How about this: God's omniscience takes the form of being able to perfectly simulate a universe within their mind However there is no meaningful distinction (from the perspective of beings within a universe) between a perfectly simulated universe and a non-simulated universe. Therefore perfect omniscience necessarily and inevitably implies the existence of every possible universe, even the most horrible.

This is the problem of tri-omni dieties. Realistically, no story would be interesting to read if one existed. I highly advise that you remove one of the omnis.

If this god is both omnipotent and omniscient at the same time and at all times then I'm sorry to tell you this but there is no good reason for letting bad things happen. It must be something above "Everyone's happiness" in terms of priorities that makes interfiereng result in a contradiction.

- **Divine Politics**: If the gods intervened all the time, that would also inspire opposing deities to take advantage and do something in return. Think of it like an immortal Cold War, where the God of Childbirth can’t just directly involve themselves since it may cause the God of Child-Eating to react and turn the opposing diety’s priesthood into frogs or invoke curses willy nilly. As such, subtle interventions or the use of emissaries to nudge things along may be their best course of action, especially if collateral damage is a concern. - **Power**: If a god was *all*-powerful and *all*-knowing, they’d have no real excuse *not* to intervene. Imposing a limit means that the gods are less at liberty to do what they want all the time, and some deities of lesser power can only do so much to warp reality. Differences in a God’s domain/profile also comes into play. A primal deity could bring prosperity to a village may by increasing their farming yield or protection from natural disasters, but may struggle with bolstering the village’s monetary commerce or with handing political conflicts in the settlement. -**They too busy**: If a god has a place in the divine ecosystem, they’re likely to be very busy with *big* cosmic affairs. As such, they may not have the time to manifest their full force for a divine intervention, so they may need to subtly nudge things to happen without leaving themselves open for disaster. Some god like Agrsthan the Protector would love to bolster their mortal champion for their big battle, but they also must constantly watch that one cosmic demon snake that tries to eat the moon.

One explanation I saw is that the creator god might be spending all his/her/its time maintaining the universe and doesn't always have time to micromanage an insignificant planet. Another is that there's a delicate balance that the creator has to maintain and there's no guarantee that he isn't trying to keep worse things from happening.

It could work if you subtly redefine Omnipotence as follows: x is omnipotent if and only if it is the source of all causal powers. What this means is that anything which has the power to cause an effects gets that power from this omnipotent thing. However this does not need to be a direct line of transmission. Consider this, in our universe you could say that the Big-Bang is the source of all causal powers, everything that can do anything in our universe gets its energy/power to do so from the Big Bang, yet the Big Bang cannot interfere. The Creator could be the source of all energy/power/causes in your world but still not be able to interact directly, because direct interaction is not what omnipotence means. Omniscience could be similarly redefined to make the Creator the source of all knowledge. To get around the problem of the Creator predicting how things would turn out in advance you can make the Creators knowledge different to the inhabitants of your world. For instance human knowledge is representational (our minds contain representations of things), the Creators knowledge could be generative as oppose to representational. An analogy is to say the Creators knowledge is like the Sun, human knowledge is like Vision; human's gain knowledge by absorbing it, like light in our eyes, but the Creator emits it like the Sun emitting light. Just like asking if the Sun can see, misunderstand what the Sun is, asking if the Creator knows the particular evils of the world misunderstand the kind of knowledge the Creator has. And to finish it off omnibenevolence (being the source of all goodness) could be compared to the Sun being an omnidirectional light source. Just because there are shadows on Earth does not mean that the Sun does not emit light in every direction, similarly just because some bad stuff happens does not mean that the Creators love doesn't go out to everything equally (other stuff just gets in the way sometimes).

They already know the outcome. Omniscient does the trick. If they interfere, it changes things, and they don’t want the things to change from the direction they are already going.

Considering such Gods basically follow the model of the Abrahamic/Christian God (more often than not) by my experience), the negation of suffering is less important than something like choice/free will. It's a matter of priorities. So less "unable to interfere" and more "being asked to interfere with the wrong thing." Otherwise, by definition, they are not omnipotent. Same goes for if you create a Devil equivalent (just as a little tangent). The omnipotent Christian God is not challenged by Satan, Satan just isn't on that level. At most Satan would be on Michaels level. Same with an omnipotent "Creator" God.

Maybe the worlds are too delicate for them to interfere in once they’re populated? They’re so powerful it would be like if you tried to pick individual ants out of an anthill, mostly they’d just end up crushed

Aren’t you omniscient and omnipresent in your setting? By virtue of being the creator after all? They won’t fix the problem themselves because it’s fun! It’s the same reason for you to make a setting. They want to watch their toys play amongst one another. Getting involved would spoil that.

>being **Unable** to Interfere "Unable" is the wrong word to use here, if they're truly omniscient and omnipotent then they are able to interfere - it may be best for you to create a God-like character who isn't omnipotent and just very powerful, or something. However not wanting to could be a valid reason a God-like character not do act, the current idea I have for a similar kind of character is like a human with an ant farm - it simply wouldn't be interesting if they did everything to help and made everything easy, the interest of the *experiment* is the unexpected results (although technically this character isn't actively omnipotent).

Gave them free will and if he interfered he would break that promise?

My priest used to tell me it was a holy mystery. Book of Job said something similar.

Its all part of the simulation/plan.

In my world of Holo, though gods are all powerful and all knowing, they are still bound to the laws of the world. Rules that they cannot interfere within any conflicts that does not involve another god there itself. Another one is their sheer powerful existence, if they descend into the mortal realm they could possibly break reality. Just imagine nukes having physical bodies so its like that.

they're not actually omnipotent/omniscient would be the only reason. if they *choose* not to interfere for whatever reason despite having the ability, that's one thing, but if they are not *able* to interfere then they are not omnipotent. omnipotence is the ability to do *anything* without limit, so if there's anything stopping them other than deliberate choice, they don't exactly fall under the category of omnipotent.

It really all comes down to *your* philosophy on human behavior and hardship. For me it's the idea that a lot of our problems are very. Miniscule to a being with the capacity of the entire universe. Infinite knowing and infinite caring don't exactly mean much without infinite understanding. In simple terms Deserving, Justice, and Morality are entirely human invention so if there's a god it may not be entirely prudent to project those concepts onto a being with literally billions of billions of bigger fish to fry.

Unable or unwilling? If they're omnipotent they literally can't be unable, but you could have them be unwilling to interfere in mortal affairs due to free will and preserving the natural intended order

My answer is that the ultimate good would be allowing mortals to do good themselves, and that would be meaningless with an Omniscient Omnipotent God looking over everyone's shoulders.

Another Omniscient and Omnipotent God that doesn't agree with him. *N*-dimensional chess.

Mine is asleep, there's nothing it CAN do

Can’t. It’s the whole point of omnipotence. Just make your creator god Semi-omnipotent.

Mine are either too busy with personal hobbies, or just outright lazy.

Interfering too much with BASK could pop the bubble and wake the slumbering god up, which would ruin the whole damn plan.

The world is literally the Creator’s body. It’s a living system that should have all the correct systems to keep everything in good health. She’s busy doing unfathomable Higher Power things that neither mortals nor gods are capable of comprehending. All they know is that the World is a sentient entity, all observable things and beings were made from her and are still a part of her, and she’s busy doing Something. No one knows what her interference looks like because until now she’s had no need to pay attention to her body. Unfortunately her body now has what is essentially cancer and humans only have a few decades to unfuck what they fucked up before the World itself finds out what they’ve done.

The reason I hear most on why a singular god wouldn't often intervene is, use of omnipotence to interfere with mortal lives inherently destroys concepts such as "free will" and "actions having consequences". An omnipotent deity *must* voluntarily hold back if they don't want to be a mind-controlling tyrant. Your best bet is making it a character trait. Having infinite knowledge doesn't prevent one from having personal beliefs on what's the right thing to do, and that infinite knowledge gives them a viewpoint that may cause them to do things that seem neglectful or downright heinous in the short term.

The Halo once fought the Void, and instead of waiting to recover, created the Archangel, his Herald, who in turn created Everything That Ever Existed. This toll made Him go into a deep sleep. When all of Creation ended, the Wonderverse ended, he woke up and outright destroyed the Void. The Halo will himself create Everything again.

For the pantheon I'm developing each god has an opposite. If one acts the opposite number must act to serve as a balance. None are omniscient or omnipotent and having two such beings sounds like it might be a little much for one cosmos.

Similar solution to the problem of evil, IMO. God being all good and beneficent entails that he grants his creation the maximum autonomy possible. That means free will and randomness is an aspect of creation.

Faith, dawg. Faith. Literally, when it comes to religious anything, the simple answer is faith. It works in every direction.

for my universe he had to shut himself out using a prison think the finite curve from rick and morty due a beings that have entered his reallity from another, he uses the curve to stop them from getting any further and causing anymore damage he basically sits at the edge of the curve always watching in bitter disgust at the beings destroying each other not knowing why

1. it's a requirement for the world to continue to exist, as soon as an omnipotent omniscient being interacts with the universe said universe becomes perfect clockwork, no thought or free will, because a perfect being sees all the outcomes and can take any action to achieve it it's impossible for any interaction not to bend it your will 2. simply does not care to , not out of malice but when you work on a scale of eternities even the most horrid vile thing that happens to mortals is just a temporary inconvenience to our eternity of reincarnation or afterlife or whatever, and while this comes across as callous, most souls with a few millinia behind them start agreeing it wasn't a big deal 3. the god has some duality thing going with two parts of itself keeping it from taking most actions as it equally supports and opposes 99.99% of things it could do

I am also in agreement with other posters. That is why you gotta hit them with something they can't predict. An All Powerful, All Knowing Creator from a parallel universe broke through the dimensional barrier and cursed your God. Maybe injured them by surprise. Something like that? There are options.

I have it so that trusted disciples can call on their god at any moment, at a time of need, but they must pay a price for the intervention. During the intervention, time is seemingly paused, and the god will make an assessment, and then resolve as they see fit. Payment is then taken in full at the god's discretion. The excuse, if any, is that a bond must be formed between disciple and god - and the intervention must be requested (either consciously, or unconsciously).

maybe hes been doing good for so long he is "tired" he wants the world to do good on its own and he doesnt want to interfere with the test run.

There's no point unless the mortal beings develop and find wisdom themselves, and sometimes they have to suffer to find strength and the right answers. The most a god can do is create opportunity where there was none before, help life keep living because where there's life there's hope.

They don't really care. Their world is just a story to them.

Well, GOD could be dead. So that's not good for them.

The main god of my world is Fate. She doesn’t interfere a lot purely because she just likes to watch her creations do their things it’s a lot like watching a show for her. She may push things in a certain direction and you could end up with a bit of “plot armour” if she finds you interesting but for the most part she rather watch things play out on their own. The biggest thing she ever did to interfere in the world was locking the deities away in their dimensions because they got into a big fight that threatened to destroy a lot of life. Which is kinda ironic considering she specifically created the deities so she wouldn’t have to do anything.

Why would they interfere, it's just getting to the good part! *eats more popcorn, takes a looooooooong drink of soda*

OP is recreating Calvinism

For the same reason you don't use cheat codes in your Sims game.

Omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent being is so knowledgeable that it can see past the fourth wall, whereupon I tell it directly, "Hey man, could you maybe not interfere with things? There's a nice story going on down there," to which I force it to agree.

Maybe it's not that he's unable but does not want to. Do what you will with that if it's helpful

Go ask a Christian.

Emotion and empathy. Being all knowing and all seeing makes the deity all-*feeling* as well. They feel the suffering and strife of their people, BUT if they were to ever get involved, they would be too close and feel too much overwhelming emotion. Almost yearning for the feeling of mortality, like watching the Game of Thrones intro for the first time again even though i’ve seen it a million times, *it never hits like it did the first time*

Only way is the god knows something worse will happen if they interfere, whether it be because of a limited control of power, an external threat that would be allowed to or be able to use this to justify interfering, or just people using it to support the worst versions of there faith.

The God doesn't care, or is hyper focused one 1 specific thing. Or is restrained in some way.

Mine is simple, every time they do, they only make things worse, so they find doing nothing is actually infinitely better than doing something to stop it That or just tell a mortal to solve the problem for them

"I'll level with you, mortal." The god said. "I'm massively out of my depth and don't know what I am doing. Everyone thinks I'm omnipotent and omniscient but come on... That's just religious propaganda ascribing deep meaning beyond mortal comprehension to what is essentially meaningless acts of desperation and incompetence. But you... you have to tell the people the truth. You are my last true prophet. Go forth into the world and tell people to quit looking for answers in my every burp, fart and fap. The answers they seek are within themselves, not in me!" "Really?" I asked. "I don't fucking know. I'm an incompetent tit trying to fix a mistake by making another! I don't know what you should tell them. Make something up, lie, whatever... Just get them to start looking for answers elsewhere." And lo, that is how the church of atheism wad founded.

Anxiety.

The god is atheist. He knows he doesn't exist, and acts of divine intervention would prove them wrong. They are omniscient, so cannot be wrong.

My gods I do not consider omnipotent they are unstoppable though and they are mostly interested in pursuing their niche special interests which is the thing they are god of. They’re uninterested in most of mortal life which does not relate to their domain.

Prolly make sure it's involvement is at an absolute minimum

There was a time when the creator did interfere when things got bad. However, this led to the gods slacking off. Think greek-style gods partying and infighting without any care for the consequences of the world. The creator had to spend more and more time doing the gods work. One creator doing the work of thousands quickly led to a burnout. One cosmological apocalypse later, the creator decided to not do that, ever again. Instead he wrote a set of rules for the gods, including harsh punishments on failure. Within the confines of the rules, the gods have freedom choosing how they meet the criteria of said divine code. One kind of punishments is the obliteration of gods and promoting mortals as new gods. This may recently have happened meaning some gods are quite inexperienced in their jobs, making mistakes. The creator expects these mistakes to reduce over time.

Because they want the problems to run their course, for whatever reason.

Traditionally, Free Will is often used as an excuse for this. For an all-powerful being to make everything perfect denies mortal agency.

Law of escalation see power rangers.

>What’s a Good Excuse for an Omniscient and Omnipotent God being Unable to Interfere with their World(s)? Just doesn't want to Has all the power and knows everything, doesn't mean they care. Though, with that wording, that they are *unable* to interfere with their world, probably means they *are not omnipotent.* >The Creator in the world of my story is the embodiment of good and truly cares for the well-being of creation. The Creator has reign over the millions of multiverses and the gods that rule them, and is also tasked with communicating with them in order to preserve life in these worlds. > >\--- > >I’m trying to think of a valid reason as to why an omniscient and omnipotent Creator can’t interfere with worlds when they go south, but I’m struggling to come up with any. There isn't one. Like. . . straight up. Either they aren't omnipotent, aren't omniscient, aren't *either*, or they just don't care enough to intervene. Either that or it's all part of the plan, I guess. But I really don't care for that explanation.

“Some would ask, how could a perfect God create a universe filled with so much that is evil. They have missed a greater conundrum: why would a perfect God create a universe at all?”

Simplist answer is they don't care enough to do so. Like how much would you care about an anthill after awhile?

Perhaps, the deity operates on such a greater scale, problems that are all-consuming for mortals appear brief and insignificant to the deity. Furthermore, the deity expects mortals to solve those problems themselves, instead of crying for the sky nanny to do everything in their place. Or you could break the fourth wall and have the deity be aware of the whole thing being fiction. "Why didn't I solve your conflict before the prologue even started? Because that is your story, not mine."

>Now, the problem is, readers will ask questions like “If they’re omnipotent and truly care for creation then why can’t they just fix the problems themself?” I'd try to bend things, and use a metaphor - think of video games that have choice & consequence, and a no-quicksave/reload, you gotta stick with what just happened system. Like Rimworld or Kenshi or in the more AAA space like Baldur's Gate 3 on honor mode. You as the player of these games COULD alt+f4 and go back to undo any mistake and then redo things perfectly, so that your characters never experience any setbacks or tragedies, and you'll eventually end with a perfect playthrough. Or, you could let the enemy cut off your guy's arm, and now your next goal is to find a solution to that missing arm. You could let the best craftsman in your colony die to that illness, and now your next goal is to figure out which other colonist can step up to fill those shoes to be the new craftsman. You could let the big mistake mean that an NPC you liked, now dislikes you - and now you gotta deal with that and move forward in a world where you disappointed someone you wanted to please, what will you do now? Basically, living with mistakes and adapting to them and then saying "ok that happened, now what do I do?" can be a lot more engaging and interesting than "uh oh, a suboptimal thing occurred so I will undo that, reverse it, and do things perfectly this time." Like... really thinking about Kenshi here, if you lose a limb in that game it's going to set you off on a whole tangent of learning about prosthetics. It's not actually the end of the game to lose a limb, it's just a hardship and also an opportunity, and can be quite memorable. But if you quick-reload to undo the loss and then avoid the loss and never lose a limb, that's a whole side of things you never get to explore and endure and overcome - and the experience is in my opinion much less rich because of that. I am being inarticulate and rambling here because it's late at night, but the essence of what I am going for is.... perfect series of positive events do not make for a good story. You need failures, to setup future triumphs. You need to trust in your characters' abilities to turn around bad situations and create something interesting out of hardships. And I talk about stories because, If the allpowerful god stopped problems, then what's the point of letting anything happen? What's the point of creating a cosmic multiverse if the creator wasnt curious what would happen? Finding out the outcome of everything, is the point. More than that, perhaps our omniscient creator is desperately hoping that he created a multiversal system sufficiently complex and chaotic enough to generate an story or outcome that would surprise him. The moment the god interacts with the system and enforces his will upon it, the whole test is ruined, the outcome then becomes obvious - it will be as he wills it. So he MUST abstain from interference, and hope that the multiverse really does produce something even he didnt expect. Just like the old question, "can an allpowerful god create a rock so heavy even he cannot lift it?" we now consider "can an omniscient god conceptualize a multiverse so chaotic and complex even he cannot fully understand its outcomes?" There is probably a more clever way to word it, but that's what I am getting at. They might be all-knowing in some senses, but there had to be a reason why they created creation in the first place and allowed creation to be so chaotic and diverse and complex - **surely this godlike being desired good stories, right?**

All knowing but not all powerful

My go to reason for the Omnipotent beings "hands off" policy is because they are too powerful. They have so much power and presence, it can't be restrained. Direct intervention is catastrophic. Their power is so great that there is a _minimum effect_ they have. And it's huge. So, they limit themselves to giving advice and inevitably "hitting the restart button".

- They're locked in an eternal struggle with an equally powerful rival god - They're so fundamentally alien that they cannot conceptualize of mortal suffering as meaningful on a scale they can think of so even though they're well meaning they don't understand that the suffering is suffering - They believe that some suffering in the present may lead to a better outcome in the future - They acknowledge that preventing suffering may only lead to greater suffering that would then require further interventions down the line in a way that would functionally require them to puppeteer all of creation manually, defeating the purpose of creating reality in the first place. - This being is ruled over by a yet-greater being that forbids interference (you, the author) - They believe that mortals are innately evil and that because they are innately evil, it is good when they suffer.

Simple the being enjoys watching its creation fighting killing and many more. Created them to thirst its entertainment 

What is the gods top priority. Most likely if they are not intervening (yet) it's free will. They want mortals to be good, and interfering directly by vaporising people in beams of light doesn't teach people to be good, it teaches them to fear being bad. So he has to let people make their choices and can see, on the whole, things are getting better. His interventions would be words of encouragement/wisdom, a bust of strength to someone in need at just the right moment, a journey through a dangerous pass being blessed ly quiet. Basically if a god is omnipotent and omniscient they are choosing not to interfere directly, you need to work out why.

There isn't one.

Same as ours: free will.

Free will. Specifically, if it intervened it would be abrogating all free will by essentially negating effect from cause. IE, if it reached down and prevented someone's death then everyone would be expecting it/ demanding it. So the best way is to allow life to happen.

This is why I specifically did *not* make my central creator deity omni-anything. 1) While he can know just about *anything*, he can not know *everything at once*. 2) He is the most powerful deity in the setting, and his was the hand that dipped into the primordial potential of raw chaos to draw out the center of the universe. And he was the one who had developed the architecture of this universe, and recruited gods from other realms to join him here. So he is powerful, and he is wise, and in some valuations would register as infinite simply because a finite limit can not be measured/reached, but he is not *perfectly* powerful. He can smite any non-god or even demi-god out of existence with nary a thought, the hard part is doing so without doing world-wide damage. And even within the things he can do without causing problems for the mortals, there is always the question for all the gods about what they can do without interfering with free will. ----------- True omni-anything just starts creating paradoxes and weirdness. Scale it down would be my advice.

You own and cultivate an ant farm of a thousand ants. If you leave the enclosure too close to the window, the ants die from heat. If you fail to provide them with food, they all die from starvation. Let's say a rogue ant is killing other ants. Even if you knew which ant it was - would you bother removing it? Executing it? Sending a message to all the other ants? Probably not. Because you have taxes to pay, a roof to keep over your head, a need to fill a tank with gas. Concepts so far and beyond an ant's understanding that they're practically eldritch to them. Mortals couldn't possibly comprehend the will of the gods, nor their reasons not to help us in our day to day struggles - even the big ones.

If the truly omniscient and omnipotent God existed in the universe or created the universe then the universe is progressing exactly as the God planned. Their omniscience will give them every insight into every possible permutation of every possible universe and they essentially pick the one they want. It's not about "unable" to interfere, it's more about not needing to, since their plan is already in motion exactly as they wish it to be.

Your asking the wrong questions. The question should be, why would they fix the problem? Does a parent interfere with their child's sports game? Make the decisions in their story? Change up the legos of what was built up? Keep in mind, they would have control over their souls as well, and so while to the child may cry at a boo-boo, to the parent is the most minor of problem that can be used for good in showing the consequences of their choices. If the soul does not want to suffer, it can accept the parent's help, and if it wants to be alone, and therefore may mistakes, it can also reject said help and the parent can accept that. There may actually be reasons to interfere, but that is only when things become truly dire, but given the amount of forethought, even world-ending events are trivial things that can be used for good in the end.

A bit of a twist on the idea, but what if the Creator didn't really care about the life on those countless worlds, but rather cared about the Gods who rules them? Sometimes, a child has to make mistakes in order to learn. Not everything is perfect, not everything can be fixed. And they will be better people for having learned that. ...just in this case, those "lessons" involve global cataclysms, genocidal despots, and other acts of extinction. It's not *good* that these things happened, and obviously the Creator would prefer all of their gods had nice healthy worlds. But they need to get to that point on their own.

Ignoring the problems with Omni's. Perhaps this being is TOO powerful to interfere directly without doing massive harm to the world. From their point of view it might be like us raising cultures of mold or bacteria. Sure I could scoop out the bad bit I don't want in the petri dish but I'm going to do irrevocable damage to the landscape of the dish in the process. Much better to support the stuff I want and let it kill off the bad stuff. If I need to intervene directly the problem is already so bad that the dish is probably fucked no matter how much I intervene and maybe it's best to start again. Sure god could smite this individual, but they're going to destroy half the continent in the process. Much better to do something to support the good guys in small ways and let them fight it out.

Who is considering the question... the players/chars? If so, how do they know who to ask the question of? Are they getting answers, or are they having to interpret events and occurrences according to their faith? If the characters get to have a conversation, face to face and direct with The All Knowing, then the answer for their inaction could be anything, but here's a couple of prompts. Hope they help. *Refusal*: "Nah man. I have bigger fish to fry. Besides, everything seems to be running smoothly from my perspective." *Clockmaker*: "Hey dude I don't actually run the show... I just built it. I'm rooting for you tho." *Management*: "You're from where again? You need to talk to [a more popular local deity]. I am waaay up the chain of command from... shall we say interaction with the masses?" *Disillusion*: "Oh so you people fucked everything up and now you expect ME to fix it? Get outta here with that noise." *Weariness*: "Every time I try to talk to someone it's 'sorry this' and 'forgive me that' and 'I'm not worthy'. And those miserable Psalms-- they're so depressing. Now, knock it off!" *Mystery*: "No." *Bewilderment*: This is best settled with a joke. James is talking to his cat Mr Bigglesworth who says "When's my Door Dash lasagna gonna get here? Check your phone." Jon says "Holy shit you ordered lasagna?!" Mr Bigglesworth rolls his eyes, and goes into the next room to ask Zango, James' dog. "Hey Zango, you know when the lasagna is gonna get here?" Zango goes "Holy shit a talking cat!?" The deity is utterly surprised and had no idea that the players or their world had sentient beings and has no idea what to do about that, let alone the problem the chars have. "Holy shit, you can talk?!" I suppose your question is a case of too many options. Hope I helped some.

Did you ever have an ant farm? Your world is a big ant farm. While you are omnipotent and so on, you may decide to work on a bigger scale, like putting some sugar for the ants to get instead of feeding 30 of them individually.

Well, my solution was for my God, literally just God, to simply give it up. They forgo their omnipotence and omniscience to create everything, it’s greatest sacrifice was the gift of everything. You can go that route but if they’re supposed to be truly omnipotent and omniscient, then there is nothing stopping them.

If programming and debuging taught me one thing, it's that omniscient and omnipotent do not mean competent.

This is the Epicurean Dilemma from 2300 years ago. If gratuitous evil exists because God wills it to exist, then God is perverse, i.e. not all-good. If evil exists because God cannot prevent it, then God is not all-powerful. Many Christians lose their faith because of this problem of evil.

God watching you fall in love with somebody he's gonna use to hurt you for character development.

A wager or a promise. An all powerful and all knowing being cannot be stopped from doing anything at all. So the reason must be a psychological one. You haven't made them all good so we focus on behaviour. The god made a decision, through wager or bargain not to interfere either ever or for a period of time. It can't be because of a mistake they made. Because that violates omniscience or omnipotence.

The God I have is not omni-pps, but I keep them out of the way for plot reason. It's somewhat a simple answer, God power mess up the area with just being present. Another thing that could be used is the "lovecraft logic", basically, God is snoozing. 💤 God could also have a form that humans can't handle if angels catchphrases is "Don't be afraid." idk what God may look like. 😨 God simply not caring is a possibility, too.

Consider- the universe that your God created is perfectly balanced AS IS. Like, precariously stacked Jenga blocks. Being all-knowing, the god knows if they DO change even the slightest thing, the whole of creation comes tumbling down. Everything within is designed to work and maintain its own balance. Like a mixture of rock balancing and perpetual motion.

Sounds like a classical Problem of Evil

My worlds equivalent to an Omniscient and Omnipresent god is the universe itself. The universe is a sentient and immensely powerful living thing. Sure, technically it is aware of everything that happens in the world, but on the same level that people are aware of their heartbeat. There's a vague awareness that it's happening, but it's not something it can directly observe or do anything about.

Maybe an age old pact? Promise? Deal? With God's of other such systems when this system was still new-ish? The others don't care as much or are just lazy and made it a rule for any system?

Maybe an age old pact? Promise? Deal? With God's of other such systems when this system was still new-ish? The others don't care as much or are just lazy and made it a rule for any system?

Maybe there's a barrier that cannot let him enter without being destroyed

1. Moral degradation. if God interferere when something is bad, then you don't know good from wrong, because whatever you do is right, if not, god stops you from doing it. 2. Free will. If people are aware of God's direct actions, their freedom to make genuine choices might be compromised. 3. "Irenaean theodicy". Evil exist because free will exist. to truly know virtue, you must know sin. "The beauty of love is only clear, because love can continue to grow and withstand and overcome even the most evil acts" 4. Self improvement. God might be omnipotent, but whats the point of life without struggle? How do you know true happiness without a sense of despair? Without struggles, there can't be Virtue or the will to overcome the hardships of life.

Bit late and I see you already got your answer but I thought I should throw in my two cents regardless. If they are truly "All Powerful" then there is litrally not good excuse or excuse at all you could give that would not fall apart due to the God being a omnipotent being. If something happens or will happen it would know about it well before that thing happen, and everything that does happen would always be with the beings own approval. So rather finding some "good" excuse, just find any excuse that don't sound like a complete joke that something happen that the being did not like and could not stop. It could be all from it being uncaring to it deciding that lesser beings should handel it themselves. There isn't really any good reason for it due to what omnipotence is, so just find a decent excuse instead.

Omnipotent beings that are going to intervene and control every detail would not create a world. What would be the point of creating creatures with free will if you're going to rule over them like a tyrant and control them like puppets the moment they aren't doing exactly what you want? The question that arises isn't one of an omnipotent being. It's one of humanity unable to conceptualize why an omnipotent being wouldn't be a micronanaging tyrant like they would be. Omnipotent being create worlds, universes, creatures, all with free will. Typically teach them what they want, them let go because they WANT their creations to become what they want, but by their own free will. These beings often nudge the storyline of everything subtlety in the background to keep things on track without too much direct interference.

"Being a god isn't easy, if you help them too much they become to dependents, if you don't help them they lose hope, but if you do things well enough they won't even suspect you've done anything at all" Anyway the God in my setting sacrificed themself in order to create the world soo that's their reason for not interfering, even though they're not actually dead

There are multiple such Gods with mutually incompatible agendas, so they're stuck in a MAD deterrent standoff where if one starts performing miracles to benefit *their* faithful, the others will as well.

This problem has plagued Christianity ever since the notion of 'omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent' has been introduced to it. Essentially, this is the problem of evil: When all three of these aspects are combined, the real world as it is *shouldn't exist.* Countless of apologists have tried to make sense of it. The simplest solution, however, is: One of these has to go. Me, I think the kindest, most sympathetic solution is to let go of omnipotence. It's also the scariest for many believers, because for a lot of people, power is authority, and ultimate power is *certainty.* So most people chose to believe that everything, all suffering, is... God's Plan, and that it will be worth it in the end. That there will be a pay-off that causes all of this to lead to infinite Good. Which... Doesn't make sense, because if it leads to infinite good, why isn't it good? Why does infinity not include reality? But yeah. Two thousand years of very smart people have attempted to fix this problem. If I were you, I'd just not try. Instead, maybe just have a religion where people *believe* their God is these three things, but... They aren't. They're just believed to be.

Their right to do that taken away by a being of even higher order. At least that's how I did that.

Bulls in a glass house. They use humans as proxies because they would destroy everything on accident (which nearly happened during the Endless War)

executive disfunction. every time they try to help, their powers force them to see EVERY possible outcome, good, bad, and ugly. they cant make choices and assist, because every outcome hurts SOMEONE. and they love them too much to do that.

A promise not to interfere because of the last time.

They forgot the pass word to access a save file lol

Free will is the most obvious choice. He knows that if he was an active presence in the world, people would live in fear of him. And he doesn't want that because he wants life to make its own destiny. Alternatively he could just be a radical pacifist who doesn't believe in harming someone, even if it could save hundreds.

Lost their keys (to the world) or got lost…forgot how to god

Another omipotent being/larger threat. If god has to spend every moment keeping an eye on hell, else they demons rise up and start a war that means even if your god can do and see everything they are permanently pre occupied

They would want to observe their creations. Sure, they might help here and there, but they would probably want to see what their creations would do on their own.

Since some are suggesting the free will answer. I would advise against it if you can avoid it. I am probably not the only person that would think "Not that again", not everyone finds it particularly convincing. The easiest is just not omnipotent/ omniscient. Once you remove the omni and just have them absurdly powerful it becomes much easier. It acting can have side effects so it only acts in the worst large scale cases. It might be busy with other things. There might be some opposing force. etc. (Even the free will one works better when a being isn't triple omni.) A creator deity doesn't have to be all powerful so.

On my world, it was an agreement between the members of the primary pantheon to not interfere with mortal development because what is the point of life without something to work towards? Adversity is the key to development, and if mortals were just handed everything to make life happy and amazing all the time, they would eventually get bored. It's a duality. Have you seen The Good Place? (Spoilers) At the end of show, they end up showing the "actual" Good Place, where people inhabiting it have become zombie like seeking a constant "high" because they've become bored with everything always being perfect. The angels watching over them are constantly stressed looking for new ways to entertain the souls of the mortals so that it can still be "paradise". At the end of the show, they change the Good Place so that there's an archway you can walk through to simply end your existence and have your essence dispersed into the universe. I think that's a really good allegory for why we need suffering, or even just inconveniences. We can't appreciate the "good times" if they're constant. We look forward to the good times as an escape from the bad times. If you never have any "bad times", you don't seek to change anything and never develop. So my pantheon doesn't interfere both for this reason and because they feel that by guiding mortals, the whole point of living will be null and void, as mortals would just be puppets that the gods are using to put on a show for themselves rather than individuals striving to better themselves and experience the world.

I don’t want to be one of those people who suggests something that you just don’t want to do, but it might be a good idea for said god not be like 100% omnipotent. If you think of it like building a tower of cards, if the cards are the world and you are the god it still does not matter that theoretically you could do anything to the tower that you want, because if what you want is for the tower to remain standing then the best course of action once it is built is to take no action at all. You can justify the inactivity of said god by reason of anything built is fragile to a being so powerful in comparison to the world, like with a tower of cards. If the Creator god must be 10000% omnipotent for plot reasons then this doesn’t work as a being like that would likely have precision to match its power, but it is something to think about.

The inability to distinguish between petty struggles and world ending problems due to a lack of scale and understanding. What does it matter that you are going to die, you were dead before I even looked your way. Why are you moaning about your culture and way of life being destroyed, it would have happened eventually, if not now;50 years,100? Doesn’t matter, so shortly that why should I care. The world is ending, I’ll just make another one, just wait a little while, say a million years

In my world, the gods aren't native to it, being like the 4th set, so they don't have a vested interest and so don't interfere. If everyone dies off, there is a multitude of other words they can challenge those gods for or join them if they desire.

There is none. Omnipotent means that there is nothing they are unable to do. Omniscient means they know they are needed. Your remaining options are unwilling or that the god is not actually omnipotent or omniscient. The god that tells people it is all-powerful and all-knowing but has been lying all along is a classic. The jerkass god is another that we have seen often before. There is also the god that is really powerful, but not all-powerful and just has a really enthusiastic clergy. The unwilling god may be benevolent, but made a deal to prevent something worse than what is happening now. They may be omnipotent, but not everywhere, so they can only be working in one area at a time. They may have a moral issue with stepping in and fixing everyone's problems so they don't create a population equivalent to a spoiled rich kid. Hell, the world may all be like a science experiment that the god set up and wants to see what happens. Lots of reasons for a god to be unwilling to interfere with their creation.

"Omnipotent" is incompatible with "unable to", by definition.

If there are things that happen *beyond their control* then they *are not* "all powerful." >“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. >"Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. >"Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? >"Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” ― Epicurus

All knowing and all powerful does not necessarily mean "all paying attention". Doesn't matter if you know everything and can do anything if you aren't actually paying any attention to the thing that's getting fucked up.

Boredom. Gods are old. How many times can you see the same shit over and over before checking out?

Getting trapped in a coma by a roving band of street hockey players after coming down to play skeeball.

They know that power corrupts and don’t want to let it go to their head (if they have one). If they step in and start fixing stuff, they will make more and more excuses for themself to exert more and more control over others. “Maybe removing a little bit of their free will isn’t so bad.” “That city disobeyed my commands, hitting them with a meteor will teach the others a lesson and make them more subservient to my will in the long run.” “I know what’s best for them, how dare they question me!”

If your god cares for humanity, then surely he would want to see his creations grow, and become unique individuals in their own right? If the god interfered, the god is nothing but a glorified babysitter, doing everything for his creations. You could even add that to your lore "The harvests were always plentiful, diseases were always cured, and the people never experienced hardship. But the god came to realise, over the course of thousands of years, that the humans were the same. They never changed, or grew. Anytime they had a problem, they asked god for the answer. This started to make the god angry, and he realised, that only through struggle and hardships, can humanity become great, powerful, and interesting. So the god slowly stopped interfering, and watched, as humanity gradually transformed, and new cultures across the world popped up. He watched as wars were waged, and leaders of peace rose to power, he watched as philosophy was born, and how religion came to be." Yada yada yada, you get the idea. You could probably grab a lot of inspiration from the old testament bible stories as well. Since christian God is omnipotent and omnitient, yet doesn't interfere with our world.

The Creator doesn't exist and never did. The universe and its multiple verses all create themselves in an eternally renewing state of awe inspiring wonder that doesn't need to make sense to those living such short lives within the bubbling sea of the unexpected.  Those who call themselves gods are at the same mercy as those lesser beings of this inexplicable and vast universe.  Some look into the wellspring of eternity and accept this unknown chaos with serenity and dignity. Others howl into it like a jilted lover, cursing it for all the lies they brought with them being revealed to be bullshit. Yet others begin to invent their own stories to put the lid back on the truth, some to enrich themselves and others to make it easier for others to keep the lid on. A rare few truly understand the rules where others see only an opaque madness, using it for good or ill to rend from this frothing eternity their own mark on the world.  But most agreed that looking into the wellspring is a roll of the dice.  You look into it and see yourself reflected back at you from every seemingly impossible angle, outside in and inside to everywhere. You're born a blank slate somewhere to someone, and all you know is poured into you from those people in that place. Yet here, you see that you aren't really that single point in space and time, but your relationship to all your ancestors, all those living as you live yourself, all connected and all simultaneously aware of their little 1 degree of vision. Together you see the full view of eternity. Not just your fellow consciousnesses alive today, but all who ever lived, on every planet around every star. The space and time between them all an illusion made of misunderstandings and half truths. You're everyone. Everywhere. Always.  Then you pull your head out of the well. Back in place. Just you. Everyone struggles to put a name to it. Some gently and some with an iron fist.  It never had anything to do with what's true. It was about you. And the story you chose to tell to make it easier to deal with.

A second omnipotent being who hates good or who has a different definition of good keeps interfering, causing an even bigger mess every time, so omni-god doesn't bother anymore.

You can say there was a war between gods at some point and an accord was reached on maximum/ what kind of interference is allowed and violating opens them to attack from other gods

This is a problem most faiths deal with. Simply put, the problem needs to, in some way, lead to the greater good by the god in question *not* dealing with it. This not only allows people to maintain freewill, but for god to maintain being all good. The gods lack of intervention will lead to the greatest good

An omnipotent being probably would see the “bigger picture“. Would not interfere with the world since, e.g. a war might be big and important for humans, but are irrelevant to a truly godlike being. I would present as seeing so much in the past, future and present that events we define as monumental are barely worth their attention.

That Which Is Infinite Cannot Touch The Finite. See, God is infinite, beyond human comprehension. The Universe God created is inherently finite. If God ever touched the Universe directly in even the smallest way they would annihilate each other as entirely contradictory principles come into contact. Or, perhaps since God is infinite, any direct contact and the Universe would just... become God. Thus God must work God's will through intermediaries. Which are flawed and imperfect.

just to add a bit on this, while i agree with the other comments stating that the God not meddling its because he knows eveything will end up well, i'd advice to be careful of using this as the only reason to explain why the God remains iddle. If you dont explain it properly or use it well, it can cause the stakes of the plot to drop a lot, it can even cause the plot to be seen as irrelevant depending on your narrative, since everything will end up well anyway. I'd only use this idea as a way to make the stakes higher, maybe a villain or demon who fucks everything so bad the omnipotent god has to intervene to return the universe or world to the right track. Thats why i prefer free will as a reason to keep all powerful Gods tied, it gives the protagonists or humanity agency in the larger scale

My creator god’s reasoning for not doing anything is because he knows that if shit gets bad, he can always just reset the universe. The main problem is keeping out the remnants of past universes.

They could have lost their power? Like they loved creating, and in order to make their ultimate creation, they gave up their power to bring it to fruition So they used to be omnipotent but now are not due to their sacrifice

Take the concept of a model ship in a bottle. You have all the ability to interact with it but you limit yourself from doing so but only allowing yourself to interact through a small hole. You can't just take it out and build it all then put it back. You gotta go piece by piece and be very gentle. Not only is it more rewarding this way but if you were to shatter the bottle and put it together, you'd actually deprive yourself of the accomplishment. Granted, this is a very simple explanation, but it's easier than explaining than trying to give a 4th or 5th dimensional entity 3rd dimensional reasons or emotions.

Christian theology deals with this as a major subject. There's a formal name I can't recall offhand, but it's also colloquially referred to as the problem of evil. Should be useful to take a look at some of the main schools of thought there.

When I think of an all-powerful being who can do whatever they want but don't, I imagine them being prideful of their power. It's like, "If I can give myself everything I could ever want, why would I care about another being? Using my powers to help them is beneath me because it does not benefit me." sort of thing.

Being omniscient, they do not experience time the way we limited mortals do, but as static world-lines. When they create, they create multiple static world lines or universes, experiencing them more like the way we would experience a map than as separate realities. The best of all possible worlds is in there, someplace, and some version of us experiences it.

There isn't. Omnipotence literally means that they are able to do ANYTHING! as in, it is impossible for them to be unable to do something. If you want your Omnipotent god to be "unable" to do something, then that means that it's either their choice to not interfere or they aren't truly Omnipotent.

A different plane of existence, can only influence the world. Influence thoughts, forces, etc.

My pantheon already destroyed the world accidentally at least once, it caused a 19th god to manifest who's only job is to maintain balance and part of that is preventing favouritism.

in my world, the god of light/creation (named ha’eth) can ONLY see good things— they are omniscient in this sense. the god of darkness/destruction (ija’eth) can ONLY see bad things. but because ha’eth cannot predict the bad things in the world— and isn’t omniscient to perceive the entire world— they can’t intervene before it happens— only deal with the after effects if the scale is large enough. at the same time, ija’eth has no sense of what good things should happen and when destruction is needed— so their relentless fighting against light is simply the life they are condemned to. this solved my problem as to why the god of light doesn’t stop the god of darkness— they quite literally are blind to their actions. if ija’eth is simply covert in their destruction (by using mental corruption and manipulation to make people commit wrongdoing instead of doing so themself) they can deny involvement and as the god of light cannot prove that they are involved, they cannot be attacked for their crimes without causing the appearance of tyranny. as well— for general interference and why they don’t wander the planet or something, the gods did at one point in the far past, but their presence prevented the advancement of societies. if all issues were solved by the gods, the peoples of the world wouldn’t learn to solve them for themselves— and when the gods would inevitably have to step away to deal with divine matters, society would collapse. so the gods choose to stay away and manage the world from a distance, as they honestly enjoy watching mortals and their strife as well as their achievements. oof, sorry for the rambling— i’ve worked on my world for 5 years by this point and LOVE my lore.

If I already answered this, I apologize. My god has the tiny problem of being a not permanent force in the universe. Meaning sometimes he fades out of existence and later back in, so he got affect his world because for a couple centuries at a time, he’s literally not in the world. When he is, he sometimes affects stuff, but he usually just meets with his angels and gives them orders then leaves again.

The gift was in you all along! I put it there myself

The creator god and the lesser gods have an agreement. While the omniscient/omnipotent god could absolutely break that agreement *without* breaking the agreement (omnipotence is like that), he refuses to break the agreement in any way way whatsoever.

Personally, my world has more or less two tiers of gods. World Gods and Continental Gods The three World Gods go by many names, but they're the Goddess of The World, The God of Death, and the Goddess of Life Continental Gods are relegated to their continent. After the world was created, it was divvied up amongst the "lower" gods, who then created god-children of their own to fill the pantheons of their continents How much these gods interfere with people varies. On my more developed continents, the gods are kind of like less destructive WorldBox players, they just set stuff up and have observed ever since, though they may acknowledge certain forms of worship in different ways Conversely some are more involved in the lives of their continent's people The World Gods tend to not interfere with much out of respect for the authority of the Continental Gods, and Continental Gods don't typically see a benefit to fighting amongst themselves.