nature and attributes of God

Question 1

Descartes

Answer 1

God can do absolutely anything because his existence is prior to the laws of logic.

Question 2

Augustine

Answer 2

Omnipotence doesn’t mean that God can do everything, but that he can do anything that he wants to.

Question 3

William Lane Craig on omnipotence

Answer 3

God can do anything that is logically possible. He is only limited by logic.

Question 4

William Lowe

Answer 4

The reason God can’t change isn’t because he lacks power but because this would be against logic.

Question 5

Swinburne

Answer 5

God can’t do logical contradictions because logical contradictions aren’t things.

Question 6

Vardy

Answer 6

God created a universe in a way this his ability to act is necessarily limited. In order for us to have free will, God limited his omnipotence severely.

Question 7

John Macquarie

Answer 7

God limits his powers out of love for humanity.

Question 8

Hartshorne

Answer 8

God isn’t omnipotent but unsurpassably great. It would unimpressive to come first in a race when you’re the only one racing.

Question 9

Michael Dumbest

Answer 9

God’s knowledge is vastly different from ours. He has no particular point of view nor location in the world. He knows by comprehension of all truths.

Question 10

Swinburne free will

Answer 10

We can’t have a loving relationship with God is he knows our future because the relationship becomes meaningless.

Question 11

Luis de Molina

Answer 11

Omniscience can be understood as compromising middle knowledge, ie knowledge of what would happen if certain choices were made.

Question 12

Anselm

Answer 12

Although God knows the future as unchanged, it is changeable by our choices.

Question 13

Schleiermacher

Answer 13

Similarly to how a close friend could know what you would do in a certain situation, but you would still have free will, God can be omniscient whilst still allowing people to act freely.

Question 14

Kant

Answer 14

Free will is essential for making moral decisions.

Question 15

D.Z. Phillips

Answer 15

Argues that eternity isn’t related to the notion of time, but instead is expressive of a qualitative nature. We cannot understand this.

Question 16

Bible and time

Answer 16

Refers to God doing thing in time for example, he created the world in six days in Genesis.

Question 17

Augustine

Answer 17

Time only exists within the created universe. Because God created the universe, he is outside of time. He is eternal.

Question 18

Nicholas Wolterstoff

Answer 18

Argues that human sins arise within the context of time. For God to be free of this burden, which he is, he must be eternal.

Question 19

Peter Geach

Answer 19

God is everlasting as he interacts with the universe, he is the creator and sustainer. He compares it to the analogy of the grand chess master.

Question 20

Hartshorne

Answer 20

God doesn’t force people to fit in with real plans. Instead, he is within time (everlasting), acting, responding, loving, rejecting and suffering, in the same way we are.

Question 21

William Lane Craig on eternity

Answer 21

God is within time.

Question 22

Swinburne on time

Answer 22

In the Old Testament there is examples of God acting within time.

Question 23

Kotarbinski

Answer 23

To talk of a timeless God is incoherent. To exist there has to be a sense of duration into it.

Question 24

Swinburne on eternity

Answer 24

God existing within time is much more coherent as he must do so that we can have a relationship with him.