does god have free moral agency? is it necessary that god is self aware? i understand that this is simply chasing rabbits, but I thought the questions were fun.
If you think God doesn't exist, then those questions are moot.
I think historical evidence has shown that those who wield great power is not usually, in fact rarely, accompanied with a sense of morality. At least a morality directly and perpetually in our benefit.
There are many things that are not self aware that you can label "god"...but why would you? The lack of awareness implies an idiot god who lucked its way into creating a universe...it's an interesting concept but nothing in nature screams "dumb luck". the standard model in physics had long required extreme unreasonably extreme, mathematical forced, precision for things to work out as they are. I'd say its either a highly aware god or no god at all. And last I checked math does not require a god to work, so...
In the spirit of diving head-first into a fun rabbit hole, I’ll say I don’t think it’s necessary, but beyond that... at the (hypothetical) level of god-thought, I’d guess the concept of moral agency loses its relevancy. At that level, in other words, all that exists is “isness.”
I would think for a being to be considered to be what we call a "god" it would have to be self aware. A force (energy) responsible for the "creation" of the universe, however, requires no such awareness.
Morality is a human construct and it varies over time and among cultures. There is nothing that makes me think that there is any type of universal morality.
The God of the Bible has no morality--whatever it does is never questioned and it is not bound by the moral codes it supposedly placed on its creation. It can commit acts of genocide and mass murder. It can order the deaths of people for breaking its ridiculous, arbitrary, laws; and it can even create a place of eternal torment and punishment and still be considered to be an "all good" god.
If there were a god, any god, it would not be bound by any human codes of morality; and it would not have human wants, desires etc. Also, if it were a perfect being, as it is portrayed to be, it would be self-fulfilled and would never feel the "need" to create anything. And, if it did "decide" to create something--anything it created could be nothing less than perfect. How could something perfect create something imperfect even if it "wanted" to?
But, perhaps, creation just emanates from it--it is a natural consequence of its being. If this is the case, then it has no control over what is created and we are back to self-awareness not being necessary and it having no free will, or volition. So, why call it a god?
Shorthand?
@hankster : Well, yes, given that gods are human creations, they can be anything humans imagine them to be; and given that we are imperfect so will be our gods. And, also, given that humans create them, they will have human attributes. Even if seen as a force of nature human attributes are assigned--such as anger and pleasure: the gods are angry so we have an earthquake, they are pleased so we have an abundant harvest etc.