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Philosophy (3) > Nature or attributes of God > Flashcards

Nature or attributes of God Flashcards

1
Q

Define ‘existentialism’

A

A way of thinking that emphasises personal freedom of choice

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2
Q

Define ‘immutable’

A

Incapable of changing or being affected

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3
Q

Why is the concept of omnipotence controversial?

A
  • Can God create a stone to heavy for him to lift?
  • Does it necessarily involve logical contradictions?
  • Is it being able to do absolutely anything that can be thought of?
  • On the other hand some tasks are impossible as an omnipotent being e.g. fail at a task
  • Controversies called the ‘omnipotence paradox’ where notion of total power is self-contradictory
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4
Q

Why do some believe omnipotence is incompatible with a traditional Christian God?

A
  • Incompatible with omnibenevolence e.g. illogical for God to be capable of evil but also unable to do evil
  • Incompatible with omniscience as if God is omnipotence then he would not be able to add to his knowledge because he is able to do everything but also because he already knows everything
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5
Q

Quote Genesis 1:3

A

“And God said ‘Let there be light’ and there was light”

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6
Q

Give an example in the book of Genesis where something would not have been possible without God’s help

A

Abraham and his wife Sarah gave water and food to three strangers, as a reward, God told them that they would have a son even though Sarah was geriatric, Sarah laughed at God but the story emphasises she should not have thought anything was too hard for God (Genesis 18:10-15)

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7
Q

How is God’s omnipotence shown in the New Testament to be miraculous?

A

Jesus could walk on water, turn water into wine and calm storms through command

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8
Q

Give a quote from Anselm defining God (ontological argument)

A

“That than which nothing greater can be conceived”

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9
Q

Name the five key different understandings of omnipotence

A
  • God can do anything including the impossible and self-contradictory
  • God can do everything possible within his own nature and logically possible
  • God limits his power for our benefit
  • Problems raised by omnipotence are an issue of religious language
  • God should be understood as ‘unsurpassably great’ rather than totally powerful
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10
Q

Which scholar supports that God can do anything, even the impossible and self-contradictory?

A

Descartes

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11
Q

Describe Descartes’ beliefs

A
  • God can do even the impossible e.g. make a square circle because he is supreme perfection without limit
  • God is the source of logic and so can suspend or replace logic as he chooses e.g. laws of maths only exist because God made them that way
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12
Q

Why did Descartes’ reject any other understanding of omnipotence?

A

They limit the greatness of God and cause dishonour, if God has to conform to the laws of logic then he is no better than Zeus who was at the mercy of fate

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13
Q

What connection did Descartes’ make between God’s omnipotence and evil?

A

God is capable of evil but incapable because of his omnibenevolence and even though this causes contradiction, we only fail to understand this because we are limited by logic

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14
Q

Why do some scholars oppose Descartes?

A
  • He portrays God as unpredictable
  • God must be capable of evil if he is without limitation
  • He makes God unreliable and suggests God can change his moral compass and so hindering relationships and salvation
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15
Q

Why does Descartes’ view cause problems in theodicy?

A
  • God cannot act in any other way than he does with depriving us of free will
  • We must suffer to exercise free choice
  • If Descartes is correct then God has the ability to take away evil without limiting our free will and so he chooses to inflict evil unnecessarily
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16
Q

How is Descartes proven wrong in the Bible?

A

Hebrews 6:18

“It is impossible for God to lie”

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17
Q

What scholar supports that God can do everything that is logically possible and within his own nature?

A

Thomas Aquinas

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18
Q

Describe Aquinas’ beliefs

A
  • God is completely omnipotent where this means in charge of the whole world
  • Something which causes logical contradiction is not a thing that can be made at all even by God
  • God is incorporeal and so cannot swim, he is perfectly good and so cannot deceive any form of evil
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19
Q

Give a quote from Aquinas in Summa Theologica

A

“He can do everything that is absolutely possible”

“Everything that does not imply a contradiction is among those possibilities in respect of which God is called omnipotent”

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20
Q

How does Richard Swinburne support Aquinas in his book ‘The Coherence of Theism” 1977

A
  • God’s omnipotence means he can do everything insofar as everything is understood properly
  • God can make or do all things but those which cause a contradiction is not a ‘thing’
  • This does not challenge or limit his omnipotence because he is still capable of all things logically possible
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21
Q

Which scholars supports that God deliberately limits his own power for our benefit?

A

Peter Vardy

John Macquarrie

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22
Q

Describe the beliefs of Peter Vardy (The Puzzle of Evil 1992)

A
  • God’s omnipotence does not mean he is in complete control like he can move things around like a chessboard
  • It is wrong to suggest everything happens because of the will of God
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23
Q

Why does Vardy believe God’s power is limited?

A
  • God created the universe with necessary limitation of his power
  • God created the universe to suit free acting humans
  • God’s limitation is self-imposed but he is omnipotent because nothing but him can limit his power
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24
Q

Describe the beliefs of John Macquarrie

A
  • Theologians developed the term ‘kenosis’ meaning ‘self-emptying’
  • God deliberately emptied himself of some attributes so Jesus could encounter humanity
    “he (Jesus) made himself nothing… in human likeness…obedient to death” Philippians 2:5-8
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25
Q

Why do some believe that God’s omnipotence is an issue of religious language?

A
  • Macquarrie and Aquinas
  • God’s power is spoken in terms of analogy
  • God is infinitely greater than us and so some aspect will remain unknowable
26
Q

Which scholar support that God should be understood as unsurpassably great rather than totally powerful?

A

Charles Hartshorne

27
Q

Describe the beliefs of Charles Hartshorne

A
  • God’s power cannot be exceeded by any other but total power is not actually very impressive
  • Total power means that nothing else is able to resist that power, omnipotence means having total influence and effect so nothing would have free will
  • If there was no resistance then then there would be nothing reputable or impressive about conquering everything
28
Q

What example doe Hartshorne use to illustrate his idea of omnipotence?

A

If I were to cut a rose bush, the branch would offer some resistance and I would have to apply more effort to the clippers to cut through the branch but if the being was God then he would have no effort in cutting through a rose bush so there would be less pride in achievements

29
Q

Why does Hartshorne believe that God’s power is not total?

A

People can put up resistance to God so even though his power is greater, it is not total and so omnipotence means that God can overcome all resistance

30
Q

What is the general view of the meaning of omniscience?

A

God knows everything, God cannot know false beliefs nor can he be mistaken, if God knows something then it is true but also wisdom - he always knows the right thing to do

31
Q

Why does the general view of omniscience contradict free will?

A

God knows people’s decisions before they’ve made them and before they’ve chosen what to do so therefore they haven’t chosen themselves and it was somehow pre-planned

32
Q

How are Christian and Islam teachings similar on omniscience?

A
  • God does not compel people to make choices
  • People are responsible for their actions
  • Islam especially: Earth is a testing place and their choices are judged by Allah
33
Q

What does Schleiermacher believe is the solution to controversy over omniscience?

A

Analogy: close friends can make informed guesses about the other’s future behaviour so God can be omniscient alongside allowing free will

34
Q

Why is Shleiermacher’s solution criticised?

A

God’s knwoledge is infallible but friends can only make an informed guess with scope that they may be wrong but God never makes mistakes

35
Q

How can Kant’s views be applied?

A

Kant said without freedom there can be no moral choices, we have to have genuine options available to us not just an illusion of free choice. Therefore if God’s omniscience determines our choices he cannot justifiably reward or punish our actions

36
Q

What problems does controversy over omniscience mean for people’s faith and predestination?

A
  • If God knows beforehand people’s faith and actions then he would know whether we end up in Heaven or Hell
  • If God didn’t know this then it imply a less than all-powerful God as his surprise would show limitations in his capabilities
37
Q

What are the two main Christian views of God being eternal?

A
  • Classical theologians: God is outside of and not bound by time, he is the creator of time and so ‘atemporal’
  • God is everlasting, he moves along the same timeline as us so the future is somewhat unknown to him as he is ‘semitempernal’
38
Q

What scholars believe God is timeless (atemporal)?

A

Augustine, Aquinas, Anselm, Boethius and Schleiermacher

39
Q

What are some strengths of God being atemporal?

A
  • God is not limited
  • Time is introduced by God and not something he is subjected to
  • Does not threaten his omnipotence
  • God is shown as immutable so he can cause change in others without needing to change himself
40
Q

Which scholars supports the view that God is sempiternal?

A

Swinburne

Charles Hartshorne

41
Q

What are some weaknesses of the view that God is sempiternal?

A
  • Limits our free will

- Problem of evil: incompatible with a loving God

42
Q

What did Augustine believe about God’s relationship with time?

A
  • God made the universe at one point in time
  • If God is everlasting then why choose that time and what was he doing beforehand?
  • God is transcendent of notions ‘before’ and ‘after’
  • God is immutable
43
Q

What did Aquinas believe about God’s relationship with time?

A
  • Language of God is analogical not univocal so cannot be applied directly
  • Attributes of God come from taking our language too literally
44
Q

What is the biggest criticism of Aquinas and Augustine’s timeless God argument?

A

An unchanging God is incapable of emotional responses such as love and so he would feel the same way all the time

45
Q

Aquinas could not defend his argument against modern scholars but how did he address timelessness and love?

A
  • God can love and be unchanging because he is God
  • God’s nature and God’s will are distinctive, God’s will is the same because he doesn’t change his mind but this doesn’t prevent him from having loving relationships
46
Q

Describe the beliefs of Richard Creed

A

God can be loving and immutable, he knows his will in all situations and doesn’t have to wait for people to exercise their free will to know how he will respond. People still have free will even if God knows his will in infinite possibilities

47
Q

What was significant about Boethius’ situation when he wrote ‘The Consolation of Philosophy’?

A

He was a prisoner awaiting execution who had before held great positions in power but was sentenced to death and executed in 524AD when accused of treason

48
Q

What was Boethius’ focus and why?

A

God’s omniscience because if God knows the future then he is wrong to punish and reward our actions, Boethius wanted to find a solution as he worried for God’s judgement of him

49
Q

Give a quote from Boethius

A

“The punishment of the wicked and the reward of the good, will be seen to be the most unjust of all for men are driven to good or evil not by their own will but by the fixed necessity of what is to be”

50
Q

What is Boethius’ conclusion?

A

He realised he was mistaken because God sees things differently and so God is knowing but does not have the same restraints as we do, therefore he does not have a past, present or future so his knowledge transcends all and events occur simultaneously

51
Q

Describe Anselm’s four dimensionalist approach

A
  • Development of Boethius
  • Contrasts with presentism where only present moments exist which is how humans live but not God
  • Time is a fourth dimension alongside height, width and depth which all relate to space
  • God is not limited by time or space so he can be wherever in terms of a place of past/future but he controls them
  • We do have free will
52
Q

What does Swinburne believe?

A

A timeless God contradicts the Bible as if God is immutable he cannot respond to people with love

53
Q

What Biblical passage does Swinburne relate to, to show that a timeless God is Biblically inaccurate?

A

Isiah 38:1-5

God adds 15 years to a man who’s been told he’s going to die because his son prayed to the Lord

54
Q

How does the idea of a loving God contradict Plato and Aristotle?

A

Plato’s form of good - unaffected by anything with no feelings or cares but the love of the Biblical God is interactive
Aristotle’s prime mover - cannot be affected or changed and thinks only of its perfect nature

55
Q

Describe God’s love in Hosea 7:13

A

Prophet Hosea lived in 8th century BC and had to marry as a symbol of God’s love for Israel. He was forced to marry an adulterer and she cheated on him just as Israel was unfaithful to God but Hosea took her back just as Israel is tempted away from God to other religions, God is hurt and angry but wants to restore their relationship

56
Q

How is God’s love portrayed in the Old Testament?

A

Love shown to Hebrew people gives great responsibility to be a kingdom of priests and holy nation but God’s omnibenevolence is linked to justice and judgement hence his punishment of sin. In the book of Amos God’s special love for Israel meant they were singled out for punishment Amos 3:2

57
Q

How did some post-Holocaust Jewish scholars try to make sense of God’s love?

A

Jews were singled out for God’s punishment because they are his chosen people but this would imply the Holocaust was God’s doing

58
Q

How is God’s love understood in the New Testament

A

‘Agape’

God is the source of love which requires that people reciprocate and show love for each other as a reflection of God

59
Q

How does J.S.Mill and David Hume contradict God’s unconditional love?

A

Natural disasters, suffering, death and injustice

60
Q

Describe the views of Moltmann

A
  • Christianity shows God does not just sit outside time as a perfect and immutable being
  • Shares the pain of human suffering
  • God is beyond our comprehension
  • Moltmann was influenced by his experience of WW2

Philosophy (3) (9 decks)

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