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PRE - Paper 1 - Nature of God > omniscience > Flashcards

omniscience Flashcards

1
Q

main issues of God’s omniscience

A
  • issue of free will and predetermination

- issue of eternal punishment

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2
Q

scholars

A

Friedrich Schleiermacher
Boethius
Anslem
Swinburne

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3
Q

‘if God knows the future then humans have no free will’ why?

A
  • if God knows our choices before we make them, then when it comes to making a decision we aren’t really making one of our own free will
  • predetermining = no free will
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4
Q

‘if God knows the future, then humans cannot be held morally responsible for their action’

A
  • if God knows the future, God would know if we do or don’t achieve salvation before we are born and there is no action we can take to change this outcome
  • any actions we make don’t hold meaning as we don’t have free will
  • making God’s judgement unfair as we shouldn’t be rewarded or punished for meaningless actions
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5
Q

Friedrich Schleiermacher’s solutions to these issues of God being omniscient alongside humans having free will

A
  • God has knowledge of many futures and possible outcomes, therefore our choices are not restricted
  • God’s closeness and omniscience gives God the ability to know our future behaviour by knowing us not the pre-determined future
  • his knowledge therefore doesn’t force/ affect what we do, we are still morally responsible and have free will
  • moral responsibility means God can hold us accountable for evil and goodness portrayed
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6
Q

who emulated Schleiermacher’s solution by classing God’s knowledge as ‘middle knowledge’

A
  • Luis de Molina

- God knows all possibilities but doesn’t know what choice you’ll make for certain

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7
Q

issues with Schleiermachers solutions

A
  • removed God’s infallibility

- turns God’s knowledge into reliable guesswork rather than actual knowledge

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8
Q

how does Schleiermachers solution to the issue of omniscience remove God’s infallibility?

A
  • to be infallible means to be never wrong
  • having many possible futures and no certainty on what choice we will make God cannot be omniscient and could be wrong in what we choose
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9
Q

how does Schleiermachers solution to the issue of omniscience degrades God’s knowledge to reliable guess work ?

A
  • God capabilities are limited and as Luis de Molina stated God would have ‘Middle Knowledge’
  • God’s knowledge and educated prediction in this sense removes his omniscience as God would have knowledge of us not the future
  • this personifies God as the qualities mirror human over divine attributes
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10
Q

what have philosophers realised about understanding God’s omniscience?

A
  • have to first consider God’s relationship with time

- questioning if the concept of future even exists to God

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11
Q

what is a timeless God mean?

A
  • God who is outside time and not bound by time
  • God created time and is beyond it
  • concept doesn’t apply to God but can see the past, present and future with perfect knowledge
  • no limitations to God’s omniscience
  • makes God static and immutable
  • enhances issues of evil, free will and predetermination
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12
Q

who are the scholars who support the view of a timeless God

A

Boethius

Anslem

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13
Q

what is meant by God is everlasting?

A
  • God is within time, moving through time in the way we do = is bound by time
  • everlasting meaning God is immortal
  • limiting and omniscience and omnipotence is reduced
  • removal of the uniqueness of God
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14
Q

who supports the everlasting concept of God?

A

Swinburne

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15
Q

examples of what an everlasting God is capable of

A

miracles
communication
relationship with humans
incarnation of Jesus impossible without an everlasting God

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16
Q

examples of what a Timeless God is able to do

A

creation - universe, laws of physics, people

ex - genesis

17
Q

Boethius’ view on God as timeless

A
  • concept of time has no meaning for God, time was introduced by God not something which God is subject to
  • God remains unlimited, emphasising the uniqueness of God
  • God embraces the whole life as an eternal present’ moment
  • God then can possess knowledge of what we call future but not foresee it as time and ‘future’ doesn’t exist
  • God transcends time
18
Q

what are the problems with the view of a timeless God

A
  • removes the personal connection and ability to communicate with God:
    not supported by the bible
  • a timeless God becomes impossible for us to understand
19
Q

how is a timeless God not supported by the Bible

A
  • bible clearly shows God interacting with people, talking to, making decisions, acting one way and then another - happening in time
    ex - Moses and the burning bush
20
Q

why can we not understand a timeless God?

A
  • we are unable to have a connection or relationship with a timeless God
  • this is not the god of Christianty
21
Q

Anslem’s view on God being timeless

A
  • rejects presentism as limits God too much
  • believed in the ‘4-dimensional view of time’
  • concepts of time and space humans are constrained by but God is not
  • in order for god to intervene in the universe all three must exist for him = God can be outside time and act within it
  • God is not within time, time is within God
  • we choose and God is witness
22
Q

which philosopher explains the 4D view of time through through an analogy

A

Kathrine Rogers

23
Q

what is Kathrine Rogers analogy explaining the 4D view of time

A
  • a circle with fixed points some closer and some further away from each other but their relationship with the centre is the same
  • reflecting our experiences of some experiences being further away or closer
  • God is the point within the circle as for God time doesn’t work like this he sees 1945 and 2300 at the same time
24
Q

how does Anslem think the 4D view of God solves issue of free will

A
  • God knows when my life will end only because he is watching the end of my life and the start at the same time
  • no knowledge before things happen as before doesn’t exist for God
25
Q

Swinburne’s view on God as everlasting

A
  • rejects God as timeless due to problems of it as unbiblical and difficulty to have personal connection
  • rejects Anslem’s 4D approach - makes God and time nonsensical and unbiblical
  • God must move through time with us, experiencing past, present and future
  • God interacts with people and learns as we learn which allows us free will
  • Swinburne recognises this means God is limited by time and accepts it saying ‘small price to pay for free will’
  • only way for God’s interactions with world in Bible to make sense
26
Q

how does Swinburne get over the issue of an omniscience and free will?

A
  • God interacts with people and learns as we learn which allows us free will
  • Swinburne recognises this means God is limited by time and accepts it saying ‘small price to pay for free will’
27
Q

what does Swinburne say about time and omnibenevolence ?

A
  • change and time are interlinked - for change to occur time is needed
  • life has to be changeable in order to have relationships = timeless God cannot be omnibenevolent
  • God has to be within time with us to be able to reposed to us with love
  • God doesn’t have fixed purposes for all eternity - Gods decisions may change due to relationships with individuals
28
Q

problems with Swinburne’s everlasting God view

A
  • God being within time limits his omnipotence
  • God being within time limits his omniscience
  • poses question of what God was doing for eternity before creation = nonsensical God
29
Q

how does an everlasting God limit omnipotence?

A
  • if God is inside time in the way we are there’s automatically things God cannot do therefore cannot be totally omnipotent
    EX - God cannot change the past

CA:

  • if we accept a different view of God’s omnipotence then this criticism can be overcome: Aquinas, Vardy
  • compared to Descartes view = not overcome
30
Q

how does an everlasting God limit God’s omniscience?

A
  • if God experiences time in the way that we do then he cannot know things which have not yet occurred
  • solving free will issue
  • combined with issue of limiting omnipotence = a God less-powerful and less-knowledgeable than the idea of a christian God
  • limiting the attributes but may be only solution to making them coherent
31
Q

how does an everlasting God cause issue of timing of creation?

A
  • Augustine considered and rejected everlasting God because of this issue
  • if God created the world at a particular moment in time, what had God been doing for all eternity before
  • resulting in a nonsensical God

CA
- William Lane Craig: implies time must of had a beginning = God was timeless without creation and after creation became temporal

32
Q

who is the supporting scholar of Swinburne?

A
  • Willian lane Craig
33
Q

William Lane Craig’s view of an everlasting God

A
  • God cannot be inside and outside of time simultaneously
  • inside requires temporal location and outside requires atemporal location
  • God chose to become everlasting and cannot remove himself
34
Q

why does William lane Craig reject a timeless view of God

A
  • If Gods timeless God cannot interact with temporal world
  • creates an issue of Jesus and incarnation
  • timeless God = a stagnant God in a ‘single state of consciousness that never changes’
  • theological and philosophical problems create an implausible God
  • God makes decisions and have ‘actions’ shown through the Bible which require change requiring God to be within time

PRE - Paper 1 - Nature of God (5 decks)

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