(1) The nature or attributes of God Flashcards
(KT) Omnipotent
All powerful
(KT) Omniscient
All knowing
(KT) Omnibenevolent
All loving and all good
(KT) Eternal
Timeless, a temporal, being outside constraints of time
(KT) Everlasting
Sempiternal, lasting forever on the same timeline as humanity
(KT) Free Will
The ability to make independent choices between real options
(KT) Existentialism
A way of thinking that emphasises personal freedom of choice
(KT) Immutable
Incapable of changing or being affected
Bible Quote for God’s intervention in the world
- Genesis 6:13
- “God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people’
Plato influence on belief of God
- Eternal realm
- Pleasure not purpose of existence
Aristotle influence on belief of God
- Telos of the universe
- God is caused
Key difference between Ancient Greek and Judeo-Christian
- Greek is philosophically proved, J-C is belief and trust
Jewish Influence on God
- Old T is anthropomorphised (made to seem like a human being)
2 key scholars who agree God is omnipotent
- Anselm, God is omnipotent as TTWNGCBC
- Descartes, Claimed God has ‘all perfections’ + perfect power
J.L Mackie’s view of God’s Omnipotence
- incoherent
- God can not do anything possible, omnipotence not attribute
Descartes view of God’s Omnipotence
- God can do anything, he is source of logic not subject to logic
- We are limited
1 problem + one scholar against Descartes view of omnipotence
- problem of Free Will
- C.S Lewis says statements still are illogical even if u add ‘God can’
Aquinas view on God defying what is logically possible
- Misuse of language
- can do things which do not contradict reason
Peter Vardy’s view of God’s power
- purposely created epistemic distance + limit power (eg. Jesus)
Brian Davies- Problem of Free Will
- If God is omniscient, he sees every event, can’t be wrong and that event is necessary
John Calvin predestination impact on God’s omniscience
- God has a plan for everyone
- Plan for going Heaven and He’ll
- No free will
Schleiermacher’s answer to problem of free will + problem
- God knows path, but doesn’t determine
- God would have to know first action to guess next
Boethius view of God’s eternity
- If God created in time, creation would be in God’s memory
- Not compatible with God because a perfect memory of event is not as perfect as a present reality
Boethius’ solution
- God is eternal, we are finite
- God views all time simultaneously
- ‘lofty peak’
How Boethius solves free will problems
- ‘Future’ does not exist for God
- Providential Knowledge, preserves creation
- free will independent from God’s knowledge
2 strengths of Boethius’ solution
- Conserves omniscience, whilst having free will
- Consistent with omnipotent, timeless God would be perfect and unlimited
2 weaknesses of Boethius’ view
- God could not enter time
- God limited as he can’t see time through how we see it
Anselm’s four dimensionalism
- Time is 4th dimension of space which limits humans
- we live in ‘presentist way’
- God is opposite, transcendent
2 types of knowledge (Anselm)
1) Preceding necessity - physical laws
2) Following necessity- Following free will
Anselm’s view of God’s immanence
- God not separate from humans
- Self imposed limitation on omniscience and omnipotence
2 Successes of Anselm’s argument
- Human free will
- God more immanent than Boethius but with transcendence
Failure of Anselm’s argument
- No significant moment for God (eg. Jesus)
Swinburne’s criticism of Plato
- scholars too influenced by idea of goodness and unchanging
Swinburne’s everlasting argument (2 points)
1) God not immutable, to have relationships and to love
2) Simultaneous knowledge, Reduction ad absurdum
- everlasting, in time
Swinburne’s view on omniscience and free will
- God can now present/ past and what is logically possible
2 Weaknessss of Swinburne’s argument
- Human could achieve God’s knowledge (logically possible)
- God had plan for Jesus + prophecies, Swinburne suggests not so
Examples of God not being Omnibenevolent
- Logical and evidential problem of evil: Mill
- God Old T
- Send people to hell
Bible quote for God’s love and goodness
- Genesis 1:31
- “God saw everything that he had made and it was very good”
Richard Dawkins view of God of love
- Not presented as example of moral goodness
- Abraham and Isaac story = God’s curiosity whilst others suffer
Defence of God- reaction to Abraham/ Isaac
- Foreshadowing Jesus’ own sacrifice in same mountain
- Jesus us true better Isaac
Amalekite Genocide (1 Samuel 15)
- God commands kill all
- God punishes Paul sparing some animals
- God does not forgive him
Aquinas’ view on God’s love
- We talk about limited love, tiny proportion
- People = good resisting temptation, God can not be tempted
Moltmann view of love
- can’t fully understand God
- Jesus suffered, and God did
2 Problems with divine self
- Calvinist prefer sacrifice free will
- Dawkins says we should stop claiming God exists
William of Ockham’s view of God’s freedom
Had freedom before creation but limited it to allow free will
