Nature Of God

Question 1

Omnipotence meanings

Answer 1

• God can do all things
• God can do anything that is logically possible
• God can do anything that is logically possible for a being such as God to do
• God has power over everything

Question 2

God can do all things - Descartes

Answer 2

• he can do the logically impossible, he can do anything and statements that are true and untrue at the same time
• solves, God can do contradictory things

Question 3

God can do all things - problems

Answer 3

• invalidates all knowledge of God
• removes logical rigidity
• left with problem of evil
• makes God unpredictable
• conflicts bible of God

Question 4

God can do anything that is logically possible

Answer 4

• he can only do what is logically possible, nothing self contradictory
• Aquinas, it is logically impossible for God to sin or lie as this would contradict his nature
• solves, Descartes problems, there are some things that God can’t do
• problems, if he is all powerful then he could change the rules and do the self cotradictory

Question 5

God can do anything that is logically possible for a being such as God to do

Answer 5

• Kenny, ‘a narrower omnipotence, consisting in the possession of all logically possible powers which it is logically possible for a being with the attributes of God to have’
• problems, very circular it isn’t saying anything

Question 6

God has power over everything

Answer 6

• Peter Geach, it is best understood as a capacity for power, power over everything rather then a power to do everything
• solves the problems that God can do

Question 7

Self limitation

Answer 7

• Platinga, an omnipotent being may not have omnipotence as a necessary quality
• God may choose to limit his powers in certain circumstances in order to preserve free will

Question 8

McQuarroe

Answer 8

• God may be subject to self-imposed limitations
• chose to create a limited universe that functions within natural laws and so limits himself
• God could upset the balance of the world

Question 9

God as timless

Answer 9

Boethius

• Birds eye view (aquinas)
• God views eternity all in one glance rather than in a succession of events
• immutable, he cannot change as he doesn’t have time to change
• omnipotent, he has power to see everything but cannot do anything
• no is outside of time so can’t interact

Question 10

God as everlasting

Answer 10

• God goes through time as we do
• closer to God of the bible
• God can interact because he is inside our timeline, he can effect what is happening in the present
• he is immutable as he can change overtime, our relationship changes with him as well
• he can do the logically possible, effecting thee future not the past

Question 11

Omniscience - Swinburne

Answer 11

• God can only know what is logically possible, he can only know the past and the present
• he can’t know the future, helping the problem of evil
• is free will
• Problems, why doe he not interact with problems going on now if he can, limited his omniscience by not knowing the future

Question 12

Schleiermacher

Answer 12

• God has knowledge like you would have knowledge of a best friend
• he knows you so well that he could predict what you would do
• there is still a chance that you wouldn’t do it
• have free will
• problems, it is vague, limited sense of knowledge, if we are so predictable do we have free will, want God to be infallible

Question 13

Middle knowledge

Answer 13

• there are many different possibilities of what could happen for every action, for each person, ever
• God may never know for sure what you will chose, it removes some of his omsincience
• problems, adds to what we know of God’s omniscience but doesn’t give a solution, can God do anything or is he limited to give us free will

Question 14

Aquinas - knowledge and the sense

Answer 14

• God has complete knowledge of everything that God could know
• there are some things that he can’t know
• his knowledge allows free will

Question 15

Calvinism/ predestination

Answer 15

• each person is predestined by God to either be damned or saved
• God’s knowledge is rigid we are not making free will
• problem, you don’t have free will, not point in being moral, not responsible for actions, not fair and unjust

Question 16

Boethius - time and eternity

Answer 16

• God is outside of time and sees everything simultaneously

Question 17

Boethius problems

Answer 17

• free will, he can see what we are going to do then we don’t have free will
• if he knows what we are going to do then why do we not hold him responsible
• if God knows what we will choose then free will is compromised
• why pray

Question 18

Boethius conclusion

Answer 18

• if God sees us from above and knows all things in his eternal present then he rightly judges our future, free actions, and justly distributes rewards and punishments
• God can judge us because it is our choice and its what we decide to do

Question 19

Boethius strengths - human freedon

Answer 19

• he is timeless so can’t intervene
• there is no foreknowledge, he can;t know the future
• he has knowledge of the unchanging present
• explains why problem of evil can’t be solved

Question 20

Boethius Weaknesses - human freedom

Answer 20

• does not join to God of the bible
• he can’t answer prayers with no foreknowledge
• Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the plans I have for you’
• how can Jesus have entered time and be incarnate
• Kenny, ‘As i type these words, Nero fiddles heartlessly on’, it is incoherent that its all at one point

Question 21

Nelson Pike

Answer 21

• a timeless being cannot be affected by anyone else yet the relationship between the believer and God should have some response

Question 22

Eternity - Anselm quote

Answer 22

‘God is not in place of time, but all places and times are in him… everything is in you. Nothing contains you, but you contain everything’

Question 23

Kathryn Rogers

Answer 23

• Anselm describes eternity as a sort of fifth dimension, encompassing the fourth dimension of time, which itself contains the three spatial dimensions

Question 24

God’s foreknowledge

Answer 24

• following necessity
• preceding necessity
• every time is equally real to God

Question 25

Anselm - time

Answer 25

• every moment is equally real and equally present to God, all time and places are in God equal

Question 26

Boethius - view

Answer 26

• God is IN eternity
• past and future do not exist
• eternity is an aspect of time
• God knows all time and places as though they were present to him
• he sees events as a result of choices (simple, conditional)
• God is transcendent

Question 27

Anselm - view

Answer 27

• God IS eternity
• eternity acts separate that contains all present equally, it is a non-temporal concept
• God knows because all times and places are IN hime
• he is alongside us when we make decisions
• he is immanent

Question 28

Strengths - Anselm

Answer 28

• description of time depends on perspective (i am here, you are there)
• protects free will, knows are choices as a following necessity
• his knowledge follows the moment of choice, God is omniscient so there is nothing he doesn’t know

Question 29

Weaknesses Anselm

Answer 29

• time, hard to imagine God’s perspective so we can’t access this idea
• there cannot be a more significant moment for God as all moments are equally present
• Free will, he has already seen the choices that have been made
• not gone further than Boethius
• our perspective God knows what is coming next, eternally present
• immanent so can’t change anything

Question 30

Swinburne response to Anselm

Answer 30

• God is inside of time
• God can’t know the future so solving the problem of free will as you can’t know the future
• incarnation, interaction, immanence are no longer a problem

Question 31

Aquinas solution to omnibenevolence

Answer 31

• God’s nature is goodness
• God can only command out of his nature
• God will only command what is good
• God and morally good are different concepts but they contain the same meaing

Question 32

Euthyphro Dilemma

Answer 32

An action is good because

• God commands it
• Does God comma it because it is good

Question 33

God’s goodness

Answer 33

• Love
• Justice
• sheep and the goats
• covenant
• rewarding
• creator and sustainer

Question 34

Problems with benevolence and evil and suffering and scholars

Answer 34

• logical problem of evil
• evidential problem of evil
• empiricism
• redefining
• human free will
• Hick, soul making
• Augustine, seminally presnt
• Boethius
• Anselm

Question 35

Maurice Wiles

Answer 35

• to retain a belief that God is omnibenevolent and worth of worship then there is only one single act of God , creation
• God has chosen to limit his omnipotence to preserve freedom, prevents arbitrary, preserves omnibenevolence

Question 36

Weaknesses of Wiles

Answer 36

• God has limited himself but if he was omnibenevolent and knows about predestination then he would want to not limit himself so that he doesn’t see people suffer
• left with the same problems

Question 37

Problems with omnibenevolence - justice

Answer 37

• Boethius, God is outside of time so is in fair position to judge
• God can’t intervene so you have free will BUT not biblical
• why would God punish for what he can’t control
• not judged for actions in an unjust world

Question 38

Problems with concept of hell - Hick

Answer 38

• Wiles, God made the creation but implies that God created the world and hell
• creating hell means that he must have know that moral evil exists and that there is punishment (pre destination)
• Hick, you are cleaned in hell so you can get to heaven, soul making doesn’t work

Question 39

Problems with concept of heaven - Hick

Answer 39

• universal salvation, no free will as no choice on where you will end up
• who is worthy of heaven
• if we are all sinful then we are not worth
• Dostoevsky, return ticket

Question 40

God can justly judge human actions

Answer 40

• Boethius, God is outside of time and sees our choices, free will is preserved, actions are chosen freely
• Anselm, God knows as a following necessity so it is free decisions so is a just judge
• Swinburne, God does not know our choices before they are made

Question 41

God can’t justly judge human actions

Answer 41

• if God knows the future then actions are predetermined
• Euthyphro dilemma, God is not good or in charge of goodness so is not bale to judge
• God seems to be unjust as he does not stop the suffering

Question 42

God is not limited by anything

Answer 42

• the bible is clear that God knows the future ‘all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to me’, he knows what our future holds
• Boethius, if God is timeless he mist know everything that is happening and will happen, simultaneously present
• God has no limits - he can do everything including the logically impossible and has foreknowledge

Question 43

God is subject to limitations

Answer 43

• God created the world and chose to limit his power to allow free will
• divine self limitation was necessary in order to have free will
• Swinburne, the future cannot be knows because it has not happened yet. God is within time and he can only know the logically possible therefore can’t know the future (limited by time)
• God has power over all things rather than the power to do anything, God is subject to limits to avoid paradoxes, omnipotence problems and free will

Question 44

God can do all things critisisms

Answer 44

• criticised as it is conflicting
• Aquinas, logically impossible actions are not actions/ ‘proper things’, misuse of language
• C.S.Lewis, adding the words ‘God can’ does not change the meaning, ‘a meaningless combination of words’