The concept and nature of God

Question 1

Omniscient

Answer 1

“Knowing everything that is possible to know”
One of God’s attributes
All knowing being
-Aquinas= God knows what he knows directly
(God also knows our past present and future)

Question 2

Omnipotent

Answer 2

All powerful/Power to do anything possible/ Perfect power
Aquinas= God can do anything possible/ the logically impossible is a contradiction in terms
the logically impossible isn’t anything at all
The limits of the logically possible aren’t limits on God’s power

Question 3

Omnibenevolent (Supremely good)

Answer 3

3 understandings of omnibenevolence
Metaphysical: God is perfectly good: His goodness is understood as perfection
Moral/Ethical: God’s will is always in accordance with moral values
Personal: God’s goodness being understood in terms of his love and mercy

Question 4

Competing views on God’s relationship with time (Aquinas)

Answer 4

Aquinas- God is eternal and outside of time, based on the claim that he is immutable (unchanging over time)

P1- Everything in time changes
P2- But God is immutable and doesn’t change
P3- Therefore he cannot be in time
C- Therefore God exists outside of time (Atemporal, eternal being)

Question 5

Competing views on God’s relationship with time (Wolterstorff)

Answer 5

Wolterstorff- Focuses argument on Abrahamic God who is everlasting, without beginning or end (temporal being)

P1- God is without beginning or end
P2- God interacts with and has a personal relationship with the world
P3- The world is temporal
P4- Any being that interacts with/ has a personal relationship with the temporal world is temporal
C- Therefore God is an everlasting being without any beginning or end (Temporal)

Question 6

The Euthyphro Dilemma (Problem with omnibenevolence/omnipotence)

Answer 6

Questions the relationship between God and morality, omnipotence and omnibenevolence
1) Is morality Independent of what God wills?
2) Morality is whatever God wills it- Anything we consider to be morally right is right because God says so

If 1 is true: We put a constraint on God ( He wouldn’t be omnipotent as he can’t turn what is wrong into right)
If 2: God can turn wrong into right by an act of will (eg murdering babies is right)

Question 7

The paradox of the stone (Problem with omnipotence)

Answer 7

Can God create a stone that he can’t lift?
If no: He cannot create the stone
If yes: He isn’t omnipotent as there is something that he can’t do

If there is something he cannot do, then therefore God isn’t omnipotent
The concept of omnipotence then becomes incoherent because no being can create/lift the stone

Question 8

The compatibility/ existence of an omniscient God and free human beings
(Problem for omniscience)

Answer 8

Can God know what we do in the future?

If God is atemporal his knowledge of all events is simultaneous, past present, and future are all the same to him

If God knows all of our future actions, are they free?
The argument is claiming that if God knows what we do before we do it, our actions are not free

P1- For me to do an action freely, I must be able to do it or refrain from doing it
P2- If God knows what I’ll do before I do it, then it must be true
C1- It can’t be true that God knows what I do before Ido it and be true that I don’t do the action
P3- If it’s true that I do the action, then nothing can stop the action from happening
C2-If God knows what I’m doing before I do it, I cannot refrain from doing the action
C3- If he knows what I do before I do it, the action is not free (Since its unpreventable)