Attributes of God Flashcards
Boethius’ view on time/omniscience/free will
God is not within our timeline meaning he is certain of our future.
He is simultaneously present so can look at our past, present and future at one time.
God is able to watch us as if he is on a ‘loft peak’ above us.
Anselm’s view on time/omniscience/ free will
God is not inside time as this would restrict him therefore time is within God.
Time is a fourth dimension as it is relative to us - God can be there in the past, present and future.
Swinburne’s view on omnipotence
God’s omnipotence means he can do everything but ‘everything’ does not refer to self-contradictory things.
Swinburne’s view on omnibenevolence
Argued that a timeless God would not be loving as he will be immutable.
What does Swinburne call God if he has ‘fixed intentions’?
‘a very lifeless thing’
Aquinas’ support of Boethius
He used the analogy that God is on top of a tall building watching everyone make free choices.
eg. a man may be walking towards a pot hole round the corner - God knows what this free choice will lead to.
Schleiermacher’s view on omniscience/ free will
God foresees what is going to happen without endangering our freedom.
‘Even the divine foreknowledge cannot endanger freedom’
He compares this knowledge to knowing the action of a friend.
Descartes’ view on omnipotence
God can do absolutely everything, even what is logically impossible.
God is able to contradict knowledge.
We should not assume that our imagination reaches as far as God’s power.
Weaknesses of Descartes
It makes no sense to say that God ‘could do’ the logically impossible – that statement is self-defeating. The statement undermines the concept it is making a claim about.
Peter Vardy’s view on omnipotence
God created the universe in a way where his ability to act is necessarily limited - nothing limits his power except when chosen.
God limits his ability to do the logically impossible, to preserve the logical order of our universe.
Quote on Peter Vardy and omnipotence
‘God is limited by the universe he has chosen to create … his limitation does not, however, limit God’
Strengths of Descartes
Descartes’ view of omnipotence seems to strengthen Mackie’s logical problem of evil, which aims to show that an omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient God is logically incompatible with evil.
Weaknesses of Peter Vardy
An unlimited being cannot limit itself, since then it would be limited, yet an unlimited being cannot cease being unlimited.
Aquinas’ view on God’s omnipotence
God can do anything logically possible but if it logically impossible, then it cannot be done as it goes against God’s consistent nature.
How does the ‘omnipotence paradox’ question Aquinas?
Can God create a stone too heavy for even himself to lift?
A heavy stone is not something logically impossible, so it is possible for this to be true - Aquinas’ definition of omnipotence could be false.
