Metaphysics of God

Question 1

Definition of aseity?

Answer 1

Self existence, God is without cause and dependent on nothing

Question 2

Definition of temporal

Answer 2

In time

Question 3

Definition of atemporal

Answer 3

Outside of time

Question 4

Definition of eternal

Answer 4

Lasting forever outside of time with no ending or beginning

Question 5

Definition of everlasting

Answer 5

Lasting forever inside time

Question 6

Definition of sempiternal

Answer 6

A being existing throughout time but without beginning and without end

Question 7

Definition of timeless

Answer 7

Existing outside of time

Question 8

Definition of transcendent

Answer 8

Existing outside of space

Question 9

Definition of immutable

Answer 9

Existing without changing

Question 10

Definition of simultaneous

Answer 10

Existing or occurring at the same time

Question 11

Definition of ex nihilo

Answer 11

Created from nothing

Question 12

Definition of deism

Answer 12

The belief that God exists but he does not intervene in the world

Question 13

Definition of theism

Answer 13

The belief that God exists and does intervene in the world

Question 14

Definition of compossible

Answer 14

Existing together without contradiction

Question 15

Definition of in intellectu

Answer 15

In the mind

Question 16

Definition of in re

Answer 16

In reality

Question 17

Definition of necessary existence

Answer 17

This refers to something which cannot be thought not to exist and was not brought into being by anything else

Question 18

Definition of contingent existence

Answer 18

This refers to something which depends on something else for it’s existence and can be considered not to exist.

Question 19

What is Descartes definition of Omnipotence?

Answer 19

He argued that omnipotence means that God can do anything, including the logically impossible

Question 20

What is Aquinas’s definition of Omnipotence?

Answer 20

He argued that omnipotence does not include the ability to do logically imposible tasks only logically possible tasks

Question 21

What is ability knowledge?

Answer 21

The kind of knowledge involved in skills and abilities. It is the knowledge of how to do things e.g I know how to breathe, ride a bike

Question 22

What is aquaintance knowledge?

Answer 22

This is best understood as knowledge about some part of reality, which I may or may not have experienced myself. A proposition is a declarative statement- something is declared about reality e.g all fish have scales. Because these statements are about reality, they can be true or false

Question 23

What is propositional knowledge?

Answer 23

This is best understood as knowledge about some part of reality, which I may or may not have experienced myself. A proposition is a declarative statement- something is declared about reality e.g all fish have scales. Because these statements are about reality, they can be true or false

Question 24

What is Kretzmann’s argument for the incoherence of Omniscience?

Answer 24

1. God isn’t subject to change (He is immutable).
2. God knows everything. (He is omniscient)
3. A being that knows everything, also knows everything in time (ie in our changing world).
4. A being that knows things in time is subject to change. (his knowledge will change)
5. Therefore God is subject to change

Question 25

what is reductio ad absurdum

Answer 25

A way of disproving an argument by showing that it’s logical consequences are absurd or contradictory

Question 26

What is the paradox of the stone?

Answer 26

The paradox questions God’s omnipotence and asks if God can create a stone that is too heavy to lift. If yes then God is not omnipotent because he cannot lift the stone in question. If no then God is not omnipotent because he cannot create a stone heavy enough that he cannot lift it.

Question 27

What is Mavrodes’ solution to the paradox?

Answer 27

Mavrodes does not believe that this paradox undermines God’s omnipotence as the task is self-contradictory: it is not a ‘true’ task.

1. Assume God is not omnipotent - then the dilemma only tells us something a non-omnipotent being cannot do. However, this is rather trivial/tautologic as all non-omnipotent beings can’t do certain things.
2. Assume God is omnipotent - then the question becomes ‘can a being whose power is sufficient to lift anything create a stone which cannot be lifted by him?’. To Mavrodes, this is clearly contradictory as an omnipotent being cannot be limited.

Question 28

What is Savage’s criticism of the paradox?

Answer 28

Savage did not agree with Mavrodes - he believed he was approaching the paradox wrongly. By trying to show that God’s omnipotence is not limited, he misses the point of the paradox. Instead, that the concept of omnipotence is incoherent and therefore the existence of an omnipotent being is logically impossible.

Question 29

What is Savage’s solution to the paradox?

Answer 29

Savage imagines two beings, one who makes stones and another who lifts them. He suggests that the lifter is omnipotent and so the maker cannot make a stone heavy enough that the lifter cannot lift it. However, this does not limit the maker’s power; and so the same rule would apply were they actually the same person (ie God). God is both the lifter and the maker and each of these are both omnipotent without limiting the other ones.
Therefore, the concept of omnipotence is not incoherent.

Question 30

What is Swinburne’s solution to the paradox?

Answer 30

Swinburne argues that God does possess the power to make a stone he could not lift, but chooses not to. His own actions may constrain him at a later date, but only if omnipotence is understood in a temporal context

Question 31

What is divine command theory?

Answer 31

The idea that morality comes from God - what is good is what that is commanded by God and what is evil is that which God forbids.

Question 32

What is the Euthyphro dilemma?

Answer 32

A dilemma posed by Plato to question Gods Omnibenevolence and whether morality truly comes from God. There are two horns of this dilemma:

Horn 1: is that which is morally good, good, because God commands it

If you agree with horn one then if God commands you to kill innocent people then you must agree that it is morally good because God has commanded you do it however we know that murder is wrong. Morality becomes fluid and arbitrary as morality is subject to God’s whims

Horn 2: does God command it because it is morally good

If you agree with horn two then this implies that morality was not created by God and God is bound by the laws morality. He recommends it but he did not create it and has no power over what is good and evil - something greater than God??