Nature/ Attributes of God

Question 1

omnipotence

Descartes voluntarism

Answer 1

God can do anything because he is all-powerful
God is an entirely independant being that is not subject to rules like logic as god created logic
god can do logically impossible things like make a square circle because he not bound to rules such as logic as he makes logic

Question 2

Omnipotence

Aquinas

Answer 2

God can can do anything that does not conflict with his perfect nature
God cannot lie or do evil not because he lacks power but becuase they do not allign with his perfect nature

Question 3

Omnicience

Boethius

Answer 3

God exists seperately from time and sees all events past, present and future in one moment
he knows the result of our free will he does not control it
god doesn’t cause our actions he just knows them

Question 4

omniscience

Anselm’s 4 dimensionalism

Answer 4

an unlimited being like god does not exist in a limited thing such as time
all of time is within Gods divine eternity
4 dimensional world where past,present and future all occur at the same time
God knows our actions because he exists with them all simultaneously in eternity but this does not exist in temporal time yet as that is based of free will

Question 5

Swinburne

Answer 5

God is everlasting not eternal
he exists within time
God knows everything that can be known when theres free will - like the choices that can be made not the ones that actually are made
the future actionas of genuinely free creatures cannot be known

Question 6

critic

Anthony Kelly

Answer 6

if God is viewing all moments of time in one moment simultaneously then he must not know the chronological order in which these occured so he can’t be omniscient

Question 7

critic

The logical problem of evil

Answer 7

Epicurus’ inconsistant triad and J.L Mackie’s deductive argument that the existence of evil solely disproves the classical portrayal of God
analogy of stone so heavy god can’t lift it