Formal arguments

Question 1

What was Aquinas’ argument for God being eternal?

Answer 1

P1: Everything in time changes
P2: God does not change
P3: Therefore, God cannot be in time
C: Therefore, God is atemporal and eternal.

Question 2

What is Nicholas Wolterstorff’s formal argument for God being temporal and everlasting?

Answer 2

P1: God is without beginning and end.
P2: God interacts with, and has a personal relationship with the world.
P3: The world is temporal.
P4: Any being which interacts with the temporal world, is in fact, temporal itself.
C: Therefore, God is an everlasting being, within time itself.

Question 3

What is the formal issue of free will and an omnipotent God?

Answer 3

P1: Humans have free will and some of their actions are genuinely free.
P2: God is omniscient, and therefore knows beforehand everything that will happen.
P3: Therefore, God knows beforehand everything that humans will do.
P4: If God knows what they are going to do, then their actions are not free.
C: Therefore, human free will and God’s omniscience are incompatible.

Question 4

What is Stump and Kretzmann’s formal argument against the problem of free will?

Answer 4

P1: Humans have free will, and we haven’t yet chosen what we will do in the future.
P2: God knows and sees everything from outside of time.
P3: Therefore, God can see all our actions from past, present, and future, all throughout eternity.
P4: Even though God can see everything we have done and will do, we sill freely choose our actions.
C: Therefore, Gods omniscience and human free will are compatible.