Nature Of Attributes Of God

Question 1

Rene Descartes : Omnipotence

Answer 1

1596-1650 / mathematician and philosopher / follows the belief that omnipotence mean that God can do ANYTHING

• maintains that God can do all things beyond the laws of logic (the logically impossible)
• according to Descartes God can make 4+4=8, false because he can change logical truths
• his argument has no issue with the paradox of the stone, as God surpasses logic, he created it

Question 2

QUOTE : Numbers 23:19 / support Descartes

Answer 2

“ God is not human, that he should lie [..] that he should change his mind”

Question 3

QUOTE : Hebrew 6:18 / support Descartes

Answer 3

“ it is impossible for God to lie”

Question 4

Evaluation : Descartes

Answer 4

Strengths

Weaknesses

• incoherent as if God can destroy logical necessity, that makes what was impossible, now impossible
• Makes no sense to say God ‘could do’ as that undermines God / Descartes theory undermines defence of God against the problem of evil
• if god could do the impossible, he would remove evil without removing greater goods ( seems to strengthen Mackies logical problem)

Question 5

Thomas Aquinas : Omnipotence

Answer 5

1225-1275 Christian philosopher / follows the belief that perhaps omnipotence means that God can do everything that is within his own nature (the logically possible)

• argument based on Gid being the perfect being
• he claims that illogical things are imperfect and because God cannot create imperfections, that must mean he can only do the logically possible
• to conclude, God cannot do anything that is inconsistent with his nature as that would imply contradiction

Question 6

QUOTE : summa theologica / supports Aquinas

Answer 6

“He can do everything that is absolutely possible … everything that does not imply a contradiction”

Question 7

Evaluation - counter of Aquinas

Answer 7

• paradox of the stone (Mackie’s omnipotence paradox)
• can God creates a stone so heavy that God cannot lift ? / if he can create the stone then he cannot lift it - if he can’t create it - he can’t create it
• a really heavy stone does not appear as a logically impossible thing, so there IS one logically possible thing God cannot do then ??

Question 8

Evaluation : Aquinas

Answer 8

Strengths

• MAVRODES defends AQUINAS. Claiming the heavy stone is an impossible objet
• if God couldn’t lift the stone - the there cannot be such thing as this
• Aquinas’ defence is successful because it shows that although the stone is not obviously a four sided triangle, it still is impossible

Question 9

QUOTE : Richard Swinburne / supports Aquinas

Answer 9

‘The Coherence of Theism’ 1977 / supports the idea that God can do the logically possible

• he understood that God’s omnipotence means that God can do ‘everything’ but ‘everything’ needs to be understood properly
• God can do all ‘things’ but contradictory definitions are not ‘things’
• e.g Square circle is not a thing, so God cannot do it

Question 10

Peter Vardy : Self-imposed limitation

Answer 10

1945-

‘The Puzzle of Evil’ 1992 / perhaps God deliberately limits his own power for our benefit

• claims that God purposely limits himself to ensure humans live in a logically orderly universe and have free will
• limiting his ability to control our actions to ensure our free will
• strengthens DESCARTES arguments as it suggests that God can do the logically impossible but does not want to, instead choosing to bind himself by logic

Question 11

Evaluation : Peter Vardy self imposed limitation

Answer 11

Strengthens

• the idea of self -limitation doesn’t even sound possible, surely if Gods power is unlimited then not even he can limit it
• an unlimited being can limit itself, as the it would become limited d
  Weakens
• the idea of self -limitation doesn’t even sound possible, surely if Gods power is unlimited then not even he can limit it
• an unlimited being can limit itself, as the it would become limited
• regarding the preservation of order and free will, surely it would be better so say God cannot do the impossible, than to say God limited himself

Question 12

What does Peter Vardy conclude ?

Answer 12

The doctrine of kenois

Question 13

QUOTE : Peter Vardy ‘Th puzzle of evil’ 1992

Answer 13

Supporting God self - limiting himself

“ does not mean God has total power to do what he wishes. God is limited by the universe he has chosen to create”

Question 14

Hartshorne : Gardner example / perhaps omnipotence is a bad quality

Answer 14

Idea that if you cut a rose from a branch, the rose will offer up some resistance, therefore the power is total

Hartshorne claims that total power means that nothing can put up resistance to it, God’s power is not total - if something can offer resistance to it

A totally omnipotent God would control everything and allow it

Question 15

Biblical passages that support divine power

Answer 15

Genesis 1:3

‘And God said, ‘let there be light’ and there was …’

Genesis 18:10-15

‘Is there anything too hard for the Lord’

Luke 1:36 - 37

‘For no word from God will ever fail’

Question 16

Macquarie : perhaps God omnipotence is a problem for religious language

Answer 16

Macquarrie emphasises the need to speak about ‘the power of God’, through acknowledgement of analogy

• the word ‘power’ is limited in our world, therefore similarly to Aquinas our knowledge is limited
• we can only think of ‘perfected power’

Question 17

Frederich Schleiermacher : Solution to God’s omnipotence restricting freedom

Answer 17

1768 - 1834 // Solution to God’s omnipotence restricting freedom

Schleiermacher drew the analogy of close friends :

• the idea that a close friend knows you, can assume what you would eat - is the same way God knows what you will do but you can still act freely

‘So divine foreknowledge cannot endanger freedom’

Question 18

Evaluation : Schleiermacher solution

Answer 18

Weaknesses

• unlike knowledge of partners, God knowledge is infalliable f