Nature of God - AO2

Question 1

Can God have a relationship with the physical world? - Yes

Answer 1

God as immanent

• Exists within the universe
• Very active in human affairs as shown in old testament
• We can come to know God through his actions within the universe

Revealed theology
- Directly reveals himself to people
- Comes in the form of holy books or religious experience
- Bible contained revealed theology e.g Moses and the burning bush (old testament) or Jesus (New)
Links to God being immanent and eternal everlasting (Swinburne and Wolterstoff)

Question 2

Can God have a relationship with the physical world? - No

Answer 2

God as transcendent

• Exist above and beyond the universe
• God is the unknown and the unknowable
• God is perfect beyond all experience and understanding
• If God is timeless and immaterial then God cannot be within time

Natural Theology

• Study of God based on nature
• William Paley looked at birds wing and human eye and concluded only God could’ve designed such a complex thing
• Religious book such as the bible is a witness to and record of how the revelation of God has been understood in history
• Links to God being transcendent and timeless (Boethius and Aquinas)

Question 3

Criticisms of God as Eternal

Answer 3

• God knowing all time simultaneously is incoherent
• Analogy of God viewing entire creation at once much like viewing an entire film at once is inconsistent with humans understanding of time
• Richard Swinburne thought he could not ‘make much sense’ of a timeless God
• Bible implies God is personal and acts in creation therefore cannot be timeless
• If God is eternal how can God love his people and respond to them

Question 4

Criticisms of Gods Omni-Characteristics

Answer 4

• The problem of evil and suffering
• If omnipotent, he could stop evil and suffering
• If omniscient, he should’ve known evil and suffering would occur in his creation
• If omnibenelovent, he should want to remove evil
• Therefore God is either not omnipotent, not omniscient and not benevolent or as David Hume would suggest, God does not exist

Question 5

Criticisms of God as creator

Answer 5

• If God created everything then God created evil
• If God did create the world then he didn’t do a very good job
• If God did create the universe then what created God
• It is incoherent to think something was created from nothing

Question 6

Criticisms of Immanence

Answer 6

• Nearly impossible to verify Gods existence within the world - Religious experiences and miracles lack proof
• Concept of the trinity is too difficult to understand
• Not possible for three oranges to be one orange
• Not possible for a father to be a son; it contradicts the definitions of father and son, a son is the offspring of the father

Question 7

Criticisms of Gods transcendence

Answer 7

• The Bible shows that God interacts with the world
• If God is transcendent the it means he is above our understanding and we cant have a relationship with him
• God could be both transcendent and immanent