RS (Goodness of God)

Question 1

Attributes fo God

Answer 1

omnipotent/omnibeneolvent/transcnedant/immutble/external/perfect

Question 2

God chooses what to reveal to humanity as good- we should not..?

Answer 2

question these truths but have faith

even when they are things we don#t understand the correct response is always faith

Question 3

Job 1:21 faith?

Answer 3

God: ‘Take it all away from him. See what happens’
job: The Lord has givena dnt eh Lod has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.’

Question 4

Clasical theistic greek view of God is..?

Answer 4

Aristotle’s Prime Mover- principle/force
transcendant/immutable so incapable of having an interest or a personal realtionship with humans and unmoved by events on earth
Plato- timeless forms- God was transcendant- highest Form oF good that is the source of morality and exists in the world of Forms’ true world’ as oppsoed tot he epirical one

Question 5

View of God as shown in the Bible is..?

Answer 5

seen walking in garden of Eden with Adam and Eve -gets annoyed at their betrayal
angey at injustice- sends prophets to intervene e.g prophet Amor in traders exploiting the poor
‘God is a rightoeosu judge’ Psalm 7:11- God’s rgitheousness ‘rolling’ over like a river
God’s mind si changed by intercessory prayer- moved by the plight of the poor/oppressed e.g child to Hannah and Sarah
Hannah name her son Samuel saying “Because I asked the Lord for him”

Question 6

The biblical God is the complete reverese to the..?

Answer 6

Greek God

Question 7

The image of a caring God is exopressed most fully with.?

Answer 7

The incarnation of Christ
John 1:14 ‘ and the word was made flesh and lived among us’
Christiand belive that Jesus was God’s son born to a human mother throught eh immacualte conceptin (born without sin)
he’s the msot completer reveklation of God
Shows throgh this teachings/parabes e.g the Good Samirtian
Actions: healing people, treating them as equals, crucifixtion

Question 8

What does a God that is involved in the world conflict with|?

Answer 8

Perfect attributes of God
If God si transcendant- how can he affecte dby time and space- why would he care about the natural world as opposed ot the “true” world of forms
IF he’s eternal- how can he be intimitely involved with human affairs
If he is immutbale- hwo can his mind be changed by prayer
It is logically impossible for a God who is immutable and transendant to be involoeved in a temproary world subject to change
Becuase God is without limit he can’t eb compared to humans so can the word ‘good’ be used

Question 9

For most chrisitans the answer is?

Answer 9

Incarnation of Christ- who acts as the interfernce betwena eprfect God and an impeerfect world

Question 10

Howver,this still reamaisn paradox as?

Answer 10

most philophers find ti hard to reconciel the eprosn of christ with a perfect God

Question 11

God intereferes int he world through the ?

Answer 11

agency of the Hoy Spirit

Question 12

God handed Moses the/

Answer 12

Ten Commandments (Exodus 20)
handed to Moses- religious and social duties
expanded in the rest of the Torah

Question 13

What do some people think the imposition of rules does?

Answer 13

Takes awy poepl freewill which goes agaisnt God’s attributes especially with his punishment of thoseb who diobey them

Question 14

God shows his anger at injusitce int he Old Testament with the destruciton of>

Answer 14

the cities Sodom and Gomorahh (Genenis 18)

Question 15

How does abraham show total obidence to God in the Bible?

Answer 15

He is prepared to sacrifice his only son for him just becuase he asked
‘I will bless your desendants and make them as numerous as the stars int he sky’Gensis 22
Abraham subsituted the lamb fr his son just as Jesus subsituted himself for our sins

Question 16

Jesus showed with his crufixation that he?

Answer 16

was prepared to sacrifice himself for everyone to ahve eternal life with God
blood sacrifice= Jesus atoned for our sins with his blood sacrifice
‘My God, my God why ahve you forsaken me’-mark 15

Question 17

How were both Abrham and Jesus rewarded?

Answer 17

Jesus with eternal life in heaven and Abrham with his descnedants

Question 18

What is the problem with God giving Isarela to the Jews and them now having it back?

Answer 18

A nation of people areput under control of another

Question 19

God didn’t harm abraham but he did harm../

Answer 19

Job

Question 20

God showed how he loved evryon equally with the Good Shepher becuase?

Answer 20

[Fake preacers] ‘He runs away and leaves the sheep’. I am a good shepherd who lays down his ;ife for the sheep.
‘I have sheep that are ot of this pen. I mus being the also’ - Jesus knows every individua- omniscient

Question 21

In one of Plato’s dialogues Socrates and ..?

Answer 21

Euthphro are having a duscussion. Socrates asks [Euthyphro Dilemma] ‘Do the gods command somehting becuase it is good or is somehting good becuase the gods command it’

Question 22

What is the issue the Euthryphro dilemma shows as to why God cannot be the source of morality?

Answer 22

If God commands something becuase it is good them there is a higher and independant stnadard of goodness that God answers to which isn’t possible as God is the highest Being
If somehting si good becuase God commands ti then why showuld we agree with GOd’s judgemetn- what about the vioent actions (‘Gio forht and kill the entire Amalekite nation- women children (Samuel 15:3)- what if he says stealing is good rot he actions people do in the name of God
problem of random (arbituary ) / evil acts

Question 23

What is an aswer to the problem of evil?

Answer 23

process theodicy- God is not omnipotent so he didn’t create the universe ‘univerese is an uncreated prices.
God is therefore part of the wrold and bound by natural laws
God just started off the evoltuonary process>men evolved to ahve freewill> ‘God cannot completely control the creatures’
he didn’t fashion them of his likeness so humans ahve a limited knowkedge of God
God suffers when we do- GOd is the ‘fellow sufferer who understands’
Although God is not powerful enough to stop the evil but he must bear some responbility becuase he started iff the process knowing what could happen
Justifies God’s work becuase what we have gained fromt he word outweighs the evil- better an imperfect world than none at all

Question 24

Strenths of the therodciy?

Answer 24

remove the rpiblem of an all-loving , al-powerful God not stopping evil
Encourage people becuase God suffers too

Question 25

Weaknesses of the theodciy?

Answer 25

1) Doesn;t justify him at all- Rmeoving his omnipotence removes one of God’s key attributes so goes agains the view of God’s clasical theism
2) Good outweighing the evil- doesn’t guarantee a reward in heaven and those who suffer it doesn’t help
e. g. the disoveries of art hardly make up for those that died in the Lisbn earthquake

Question 26

Hebrew Bible ‘and god saw that it..?

Answer 26

was good

Question 27

What was william Lain Craig’s respone to the Euthypro’s Dilema?

Answer 27

God’s character is jsut, fair , compassionate
Exodus 34 [ Moses]- ‘I am the Lord, aboundign in sacrifice, love and forgiveness
We should evualte every commandment from God against his charcetr of being just, loving ect and work out whether its right
moral code still comes from God (follwing his example] but it doesn’t exist outsode of God because it comes form within hsi charcter/his essence
So God can only command good

Question 28

What is the Divine Command Theory?

Answer 28

Somehting is good simply because God commands it
Aquinas, recentnyl William Temple argued that some things are jsut inherently good or bad
‘In nature, moral judgement, is wholly independant of religion
Strenths: fits in with a clasicla thestic God) perfect) universal so no room for human prefernece
Euthyphyro Dielma casues a prblem- not for multiple gods but for a monotheitic perfect God it doesn’t fit in with arbituary and evil acts.

Question 29

Where are examples of these random/evil acts that Divin COmmand theory can’t justify?

Answer 29

Emohsisied in the Bible with God’s unjust acts
‘Take iot all away fom him’ [Job loses his children, pocessions- depsite his faith its stil hard to jsutify a loving God would subject such cruelty to a blameless man’

Question 30

The problem with saying does God command soemthing becuas eit is good instead is…?

Answer 30

It suggests the cocnept of morality exists outside God which limits his omnipotence
Chrisitans belive we have an innate sense of right and worng ‘ to do good and avoid evil’-[syndersis] but this coems form God (Aquinas Natural Law)
Freud- belive its society or sociolgical/psychological differences within people

Question 31

A solution to saying things are good ebcuase God commands them and good still exisitng within God?

Answer 31

William LAin Craig- answers hoe goodness exist within God- we have to evaluate commands
God has commanded evil but things are good becuase ghod commanded them [examples if Jesus in the Bible] but that evl he’s committed is beuase of ireanous or Augustine’s theodciy
- predicable environment- challenged and grow/devlop so that our sould may become noble
-higher purpsoe we don’ understand yet