Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

RE: Philosophy > 7. Nature and attributes of God > Flashcards

7. Nature and attributes of God Flashcards

1
Q

Omnipotence

definition

A

God has unlimited power
“for with God nothing shall be impossible” - Luke 1;37

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Omnipotence

Descartes’ voluntarism

A

= God’s omnipotence involves power to do aything, even logically impossible e.g. make 4+4=7
* “It would be rash to think that our imagination reaches as far as his power”
* “nothing at all can exist which does not depend on Him.”
* concludes logic = human limitation, thus rules of logic are decided by God.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Omnipotence

Voluntarism criticism

A

= incoherant
* By attributing to God the power to do the logically impossible, voluntaristic omnipotence seems to destroy logical necessity.
* if he can do logically impossible it then = possible.
* thus it undermines the concept it is trying to make a claim about ∴ self-defeating.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Omnipotence

Defence from Descartes’ criticism

A
  • arguably it is not the case that God being able to do something logically impossible makes it possible.
  • might seem impossible for God to be able to do something without that making it possible, but surely if God can do the logically impossible then he could make it that his being able to do something does not make it possible?
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Omnipotence

Descartes’ criticism - his theory undermines theodicies

A

why god doesn’t get rid of evil? = not logically possible, however if he can eliminate evil w/out removing free will - why hasn’t he?
undermines defence of God against problem of evil.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Omnipotence

Aquinas’ ‘correct’ definition

A

the ability to do any logically possible thing
* argued gods power is founded on God’s infinite divine nature.
* God’s omnipotence can only bring about things consistent with the perfection of being
* doesn’t include the logically impossible as not consistant with being the perfection his power is founded on.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Omnipotence

Aquinas criticism - The paradox of the stone

A
  • could God create a stone for heavy that he could not lift.
  • problematic, if he can create it he isn’t all powerful as not strong enough.
  • if he can’t create it - he cannot do everything.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Mavrodes defence of Aquinas

A
  • argues the stone itself is logically self-contradictionary.
  • not just a heavy stone but a stone ‘too heavy for an imniponent being to lift’
  • Since by definition an omnipotent being could lift any stone, there is no such thing as a stone too heavy for an omnipotent being to lift, and thus it is in fact a logically impossible thing, just like a four-sided triangle.
  • Paradox awnswer = can’t create stone
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

Omnipotence

self imposed limitation

A
  • suggests only limits to God’s power is what he chooses.
  • od is still technically omnipotent, despite being limited, as it is a self-imposed limitation
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Omnipotence

Reasons why God may self-limit

A
  • when he created the universe - made it logically consistent + orderly, ∴ if did logically impossible = chaos + inhabitable.
  • intention for free will, requires god - no intervention.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

Omnipotence

Criticism of self-limiation

A
  • Doesn’t make logical sense for omnipotent being capable to limiting itself
  • God reducing no. of things he can do - can’t do everything he previously could ∴ not omnipotent.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Omnipotence

Defence of self-limitation from criticism

A
  • if it’s merely that God chooses to limit his power to logical actions when acting, technically isn’t limiting himself,
  • just choosing not to do certain things, which seems perfectly consistent with omnipotence.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Omnipotence

Voluntarist critique of self-imposed limitation

A
  • argues omnipotence involves the power to do the logically impossible.
  • ∴ god can interfere in our free will or logic of universe w/out destroying free will or logical order.
  • no need for him to self-limit = pointless
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Omnipotence

The doctrine of kenosis

A
  • self emptying
  • god deliberatley emptied himself of some of his divine attributes before coming to earth, in order to make jesus counter w/ humanity
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Omnipotence

J.L. Mackie

A
  • god’s omnipotence + perfect goodness are consistent w/ his failing to avail himself of possibility of actualizing a morally perfect world
  • god can actualize a morally perfect world only if god does actualize a morally perfect world
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Omnipotence

J.L. Mackie dates

A

1917-1981

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Omnipotence

Aquinas dates

A

1225-1274

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Omnipotence

Peter Vardy

A
  • its limited
  • god not in control of whole history/able to move piece like chess
  • he created world in such a way that his ability to act is limited
  • world suits free rational creatures- god limits power over this
  • still powerful as only he can limit his power
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

John Macquarrie

A
  • gods not constrained by logic, laws of nature + physics, nor the acts of free acting humans
  • he choose to limit his own power out of love 4 humanity
  • made by christian theologians
  • god became man in jesus + emptied himself of some abilities
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

Omnipotemce - can god change the past

William of Ockham

A

Two types of omnipotence -
* one which is unlimited “absolute power of God”. This is the power God had at the beginning of time.
* Second is “ordained power of God”. This refers to what God can do given the current options available to him
* e.g. world is created so he cannot un-create the world, but he does have complete power over it.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Q

Omnipotence - can God change past?

Michael Dummett

A

If you hear on the news that the ship your loved one was on sank two hours ago with few survivors, does it make sense to pray in that situation? Could God change what happened or is your loved one already safe because God knew that you would pray?

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
22
Q

Omnipotence - can God change past?

Aquinas

A

can God make the past not to have been? “There dos not fall under the scope of God’s omnipotence anything that implies a contradiction. Now that the past should not have been implies a contradiction. For as it implies a contradiction to say that ‘Socrates is sitting’ and is not sitting, so does it to say that he sat, and did not sit. But to say that he did sit is to say that it happened in the past. To say that he did not sit, is to say that it did not happen. Whence, that the past should not have been, does not come under the scope of divine power.”

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
23
Q

Omnipotence - can God change past?

Iranaeus

A

Evil and suffering are part of the whole design, part of God’s original intention

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
24
Q

Omnipotence - can God change past?

Alvin Plantinga

A

God may choose to limit his powers in certain circumstances in order to preserve human free will

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
25
Q

Omnipotence - can God change past?

Whitehead

A

God can only do what is logically possible and it is not logically possible to force free individuals to obey moral laws. He is involved in them, but is unable to choose to step outside them and make them any different

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
26
Q

OmniP - can god sin?

Problem posed

A

Sin is a bad thing so if he can sin he wouldn’t be perfect but if he can’t sin then is he really omnipotent because he can’t do all things

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
27
Q

OmniP - can god sin?

George Mavrodes

A

Being omnipotent doesn’t mean that God can logically impossible tasks or perform tasks which are self-contradictory to his nature. Hebrews 6:18 - it’s impossible for God to lie

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
28
Q

OmniP - can god sin?

Augustine

A

Evil is not a real, positive quality - so not made by God. If he cannot create evil, then he cannot sin

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
29
Q

OmniP - can god sin?

Nelson Pike

A

God’s OP would allow him to sin, but he is morally good, he would never do it, otherwise he wouldn’t be free and his goodness wouldn’t be worthy of praise

30
Q

OmniP - can god sin?

Aquinas

A

“To sin is to fall short of a perfect action; hence to be able to sin is to be able to fall short in action, which is repugnant to omnipotence. Therefore, it is that God cannot sin, because of his omnipotence”
also pointed out that Aristotle says “God can deliberately do what is evil…he may be understood to mean that God can do some things which now seem to be evil: which, however, if He did them, would then be good” This plays on the Euthyphro Dilemma, if actions are good because God commands them then whatever he does is always good.

31
Q

OmniP - can god sin?

Anthony Kenny

A

God’s OP consists of being able to do anything logically possible that a perfect being can do. Additionally, do anything possible that a being which possess the attributes of God has (e.g. no body)

32
Q

Timeless vs Everlasting

Timeless God

A
  • God outside of time and not bound to it
  • He creayed time
  • eternal or atemporal
  • slassical theologicans = Augustine, Boethesus, Anselm, Schleir Macher
33
Q

Timeless vs Everlasting

Everlasting God

A
  • God moves along same timeline as us but never begins/ends
  • past is past, events are fixed + can’t be changed
  • future unknown to us, and to God to an extent as not happened yet
  • Gods = Sempiternal
  • Richard Swinburne
34
Q

Timeless vs Everlasting

Isiah 57

A

“who inhabits eternity; whose name is holy”

35
Q

Omniscient scholars

defintion

A

all-knowing
either:
1. God knows literally everything (including e.g. the future)
2. God knows everything that is possible to know

36
Q

Omniscience scholars

Unlimited omniscience - Timeless God

A
  • knows everything (past, present, future)
  • doesnt gain new knowledge + tkes all histroy into account w/ single glance
  • knows everything thats true (propositional)
37
Q

Omniscience scholars

Limited omniscience - everlasting God

A
  • limited to know whats logically possible (or chooses to limit knowledge to allow free will)
  • gains new knowledge as time passes
38
Q

Omniscience scholars

Middle knowledge

A
  • knows all infinite possibilities of what could be done + outcomes
  • God knows what you will choose but knows infinie possibilities if you don’t
  • W.L. Craig = God knows the appropriate knowledge
39
Q

Omniscience scholars

Boethius dates

A

480-524

40
Q

Omniscience - scholars

Boethius - on foreknowledge

A

ForeK = God knows what we are going to do before we do it.
* if so, how do we have free will?
* solution = suggested God = eternal, outside time, sees all time simultaneously in ‘eternal present’
* omniscience does not interfere with our free will – he simply sees the results of our free choices in our future in his eternal present

41
Q

Omniscience - scholars

Boethius criticism

A
  • if future actions = known, they’re fixed, not chosen.
  • Results of our choices = fixed + inevitable
  • we don’t have ability to do otherwise, so how can there be free will?
42
Q

Omniscience - scholars

Boethius - defence from criticism

A
  • distinguished between simple + conditional necessity.
  • agreed that God knowing our future actions made our actions necessary – but only conditionally necessary
  • e.g. see someone walking, its necessary their walking, however, that necessity is conditional on their having chosen to walk.
  • Everything we have done in our past, are doing in our present, and will do in our future, are all observed in God’s ‘eternal present’.
43
Q

Omniscience - scholars

Swinburne

A
  • God knows what we have done and what we are doing but only aware of logical possibilities of our future.
  • Known as the middle way.
  • God = eternal, moves through time with us
44
Q

Omniscience - scholars

Swinburne quote

A

“I propose to argue that not merely is perfect goodness compatible with perfect freedom, but that it is logically necessary that an omniscient and perfectly free being be perfectly good.”

45
Q

Omniscience - scholars

Schleiermacher

A
  • analogy of close friends = God knows what he thinks we’ll do in same way bestfriends would.
  • Freewill therefore not endangered.
46
Q

Omniscience - scholars

Calvin

A
  • God predestines some to be saved and others to be damned.
  • He’s omniscient, this has priority over our freedom.
  • Free will = illusion. Just as an artist has knowledge of his creation before he creates it, God’s knowledge as creator is the source of everything.
  • As he created everything, he knows and has caused everything that will happen to his creation.
  • God determines everything, including who goes to heaven and hell.
47
Q

Omniscience - scholars

Aquinas

A
  • Follows Boethius = god timelessly knows what we’ll do.
  • God’s knowledge is not “discursive” - doesn’t first think of one thing then think of another for “God sees all things together and not successively” and God doesn’t derive his knowledge by deducing conclusions from other things he knows.
  • God knows immediately, all at one, in a single act - the past, present and future.
  • His knowledge isn’t physical, it’s not gained through senses, it’s different knowledge to that of humans
48
Q

Omniscience - scholars

Hartshorne

A
  • God is in the process of changing with us. He is affected by his relationship with the world and the decisions we make
  • He has the divine ability to know everything that is knowable - past actualities as already actualised; present realities to the extent that they are knowable according to the laws of physics; future possibilities as probabilities
49
Q

Omniscnience

How much does God know - 3 options

A
  1. Unlimited - timeless God, knows everything (past, present and future), doesn’t gain new knowledge and takes all of history into account in a single glance. He knows everything that is true (propositional)
  2. Limited - everlasting God, limited to know what is logically possible (or chooses to limit what he knows to allow human free will), gains new knowledge as time passes and history unfolds God also acquires new knowledge
  3. Middle Knowledge, knows all infinite possibilities of what you could do and all infinite outcomes, God knows what you will choose but knows the infinite possibilities if you don’t.
50
Q

omniscience

W.L Craig on middle knowledge

A

W.L. Craig - God knows the appropriate knowledge (that Napoleon knows he is Napoleon, not that HE IS Napoleon. He has all propositional knowledge (facts/information, rather than feelings/sensations - e.g. what chocolate tastes like)

51
Q

Omniscience

Scholars on free-will problem

A
  • John Locke: Free will = the ability to do other in any situation = incompatible with Boethius’ idea.
  • Aquinas: analogy of man walking on a road and man watching above - knows end decision but not exactly how
  • Boethius: No foreknowledge, just knows future in a glance (timeless God)
  • Augustine: God knows all our choices
  • Luis Molina: God’s knowledge involves all possibilities, still have free will to choose which (middle knowledge)
  • Anscombe: No such thing would happen, God doesn’t know what will happen in someone’s life if they hadn’t died as a child
52
Q

Eternal - timeless

Eternal = timeless

A

God is outside of time and sees all events in an eternal present
Time is something that is bound up in creation and created things but doesn’t effect God

53
Q

Eternal - timeless

scholars

A
  • Augustine: “thy years neither come nor go; whereas ours both come and go”
  • Obvious link with the Greek. Ideas such as change and motion are part of the world of appearances
  • Plato: The forms are eternal and unchanging. Time was the moving image of eternity. Whatever is perfect cannot exist within time and space
  • Boethius, Anselm and Aquinas all argued that this world is constantly changing and God is unchanging and outside of time. God is therefore not limited or bound by the constraints of time
54
Q

Eternal - timeless

Pslam 139 + Numbers 23:19

A

God can still bring about change in time and cause change in people without being changed himself
Change means that God would either require improvement or decay but the fact that he is perfect means he must be immutable

55
Q

Eternal - timeless

Evidence

A

Bible says God has always existed; God isn’t physical, must be out of time and space; God’s creator of the universe, suggests being out of time; God is the cause of why everything exists; God’s existence is necessary (cannot not exist)

56
Q

Eternal - everlasting

Defintion

A
  • God moves through time with us, He has always existed and always will
  • Love cannot be compatible with immutability, in a relationship, both parties are mutually affected by experiences - these changes happen within time and as a process and sequence of events - if there is a living God who has relationships with people as individuals, then God cannot also be timeless
57
Q

Eternal - everlasting

Oscar Cullen

A

Bible text analysis - eternal = everlasting not timeless because God is in an ‘endless duration’
- Biblical support: Jeremiah 18:7-10 and Isaiah 38:1-5

58
Q

Eternal - everlasting

Swinburne - quote + book

A

“The Good of the OT…is a God in continual interaction with men, moved by men as they speak to him, his action being more often in no way decided in advance. We should note, further, that if God did not change at all he would not think now of this, now of that. His thoughts would be one thought which lasted for ever” (The Coherence of Theism, 1977)

59
Q

Process Theology

A

Accepts that God moves through time with his creation - that eternal means everlasting not timeless

60
Q

Whitehead and Hartshorne on process theology

A

argue that God is affected by this interaction - God is in the process of becoming and changes with us, so God is involved in creation. Although he is powerful, he is in no sense omnipotent

61
Q

D.Z. Phillips on process theology

A
  • the idea of eternity isn’t related to the notion of time but expresses something of a qualitative nature, God doesn’t exist as just another object amongst objects even if he is the greatest being.
  • He is completely different being that cannot be comprehended; the notion of God as eternal attempts to convey this idea.
62
Q

Philosophical problems raised by God as eternal

A
  • Timeless: free will & impossible to have a loving relationship
    Can we have a loving relationship with a timeless God?
  • Aquinas: There’s a difference between God’s nature & will and his activity. The farmer is immutable - his nature is always perfect, good etc. The latter is possible because he is God. He is different from us.
  • Creel: God doesn’t have to wait until we act to feel or respond, he knows what all the possibilities of our choices are and he can know in advance what his is in response to each of these possibilities without his will changing
  • Eternal: Limited omnipotence & is he omniscient or not?
63
Q

Omni-benevolent

Def

A

All-loving

64
Q

Omni-B

What is Good?

A

Aquinas: “the perfections of everything exist in God, he lacks no excellence of any sort”
Swinburne: Analogy of God’s goodness and a parent rewarding and punishing

65
Q

Omni-B

Should god reward and punish?

A

Problem: Is punishing loving? Reward is arbitrary? Do we earn reward? If we don’t have free will, can God judge us?
Solution: Punishment = discipline, reward = grace, God = perfect, goodness = justice = free will

66
Q

Omni-B

Euthyphro dilemma

A
  • Good because God commands or God commands because they’re good?
  • Problem: Goodness = out of God’s control (another source of goodness) or God is arbitrary and can decide whatever he wants is good
  • Solution: He created good - that being the source of good, not just arbitrarily making it up
67
Q

Omni-B

Can god do evil?

A

Problem: If God can do evil, he can’t truly be good but if he can’t then is he omnipotent? Can he freely choose evil?
Solution: can’t do evil - perfect power, logically impossible for him to do evil (See “Can God sin?” under omnipotence)

68
Q

Omni-B

Can an omnibenevolent God send people to hell?

A

Problem: Hell is incompatible with the attributes of God
Solution: Universalism (Hick)
Alternatively, attribute of God = just, therefore has to punish

69
Q

Gods simplicity

god = good

A

Aquinas: God is not a type of thing
God’s nature and existence are the same thing - he can’t be broken down or explained in terms of parts

70
Q

God’s simplicity

God = unchanging

A

Change implies moving from one thing to another but God is perfect, lacks nothing and therefore isn’t capable of change
God = God, no characteristics

RE: Philosophy (10 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions