Nature and attributes of God Flashcards
What was Descartes view of Gods omnipotence?
God can do the logically impossible because he is the most powerful being. He can make 2+2=5. He is able to allow evil and omnibenevolence to coexist, but humans are incapable of understanding this.
What are the strengths of Descartes’s view?
This view is consistent with Biblical depictions of God being omnibenevolent. It emphasises the importance of God being the most authoritative being in the universe.
What are the weaknesses of Descartes’s view?
If God can do the logically impossible, then that means it is possible. This is an illogical argument.
This means God is unpredictable and unreliable. He is so powerful that we will never be able to understand anything he does. This can justify all of God’s actions, even cruel ones.
What was Aquinas’ view on God’s omnipotence?
Aquinas argued that God cannot actually do the logically impossible. When we say he is the most powerful being, we mean that he is in charge of the whole world. He is not above all logic because this would cause contradictions. Miracles in the Bible are metaphors for his goodness and agape. He is the summum bonum.
What is a strength of Aquinas’ view?
This argument is consistent with the idea that God exists within space and time, so he is immanent and can interact with us.
What is a weakness of Aquinas’ view?
This is not consistent with traditional depictions of God. Suggesting that he is not capable of doing anything may be problematic for a Christian. This changes the meaning of omnipotence.
What was Swinburne’s view on God’s omnipotence?
God can do anything except contradictions. He cannot create ‘square circles’ because they are not things. He can only create the logically possible.
What was Peter Vardy’s view on God’s omnipotence?
Peter Vardy provided an alternative viewpoint, suggesting that God limits his power in order to give us more freedom. This was developed into the doctrine of kenosis. God removed part of his divine power when he came to earth in the form of Jesus so that he could relate to humans.
What are the strengths of Peter Vardy’s view?
This view allows omnipotence and omnibenevolence to exist, addressing the problem of evil. This suggests that God limits his power in order to give us free will so we can make our own choices, and create good through our own means. We can make the choice to follow God, rather than being controlled by our predetermined fate.
What are the weaknesses of Peter Vardy’s view?
This view could challenge God’s omniscience. It suggests God is not all knowing because we have too much free will.
This view also rejects traditional interpretations of the Bible.
What was A.N Whitehead’s view of God’s omnipotence?
God is omnipotent in the sense that there is no being with more power than him. When we speak of God being all powerful we use metaphors and analogy to show that he is infinitely greater than us.
What is a strength of A.N Whiteheads view?
Reinforces the idea that humans are very different from God. He is perfect and the summum bonum.
What is a weakness of A.N Whiteheads view?
If God was truly the most powerful being in the universe, then he would be able to stop the work of demons who cause natural evil.
What was William Lane Craig’s view on God’s omniscience?
Omniscience and modal logic. God knows everything we are going to do. Even if we change our decisions he knows this.
What is a strength of William Lane Craig’s view?
This view is consistent with free will. It allows us to be free to make our own choices.
Consistent with Biblical depictions of God being all seeing. There is nothing that God doesn’t know.
