The concept and nature of 'God' Flashcards
what are gods divine attributes
4
- Omnipotence
- omniscience
- omnibenvolence
- eternal OR everlasting
what is omnipotence
having unlimited power
what are the two definitions of ‘all powerful’
- god can do anything
- god can do anything logically possibly
what is omniscience
all knowing
what is omnibenevolence
all loving
definition of everlasting
god exists within time.
this is to say he was there at the beginning of time and will continue to exist forever
definition of eternal
god exists out of time
* if God exists outside of time, then He has no beginning or end as these concepts only make sense within time
* So, whereas humans experience time in succession, i.e. one moment at a time, an eternal being experiences all moments simultaneously.
what are the THREE probs facing gods attributes
- problem of the stone
- euthypro dilemma
- free will v.s omniscience
what is the problem of the stone challenging
gods omnipotence
what is the problem of the stone
If God is omnipotent (all powerful), can God create a stone so heavy He can’t lift it?
- If He can’t then he’s not powerful enough to create this stone
- But if He can then he’s not powerful enough to lift the stone
- Either way, there is something God cannot do – which means He’s not omnipotent.
response to prob of the stone
- gods ability to make/lift stones has no effect on his omnipotence
- George Mavrodes - argues that ‘a stone an omnipotent being can’t lift’ is not a possible thing – it’s a contradiction. And, as discussed in omnipotence, it’s not necessarily a limitation on God’s power to say He can’t do what’s logically impossible.
what does the euthypro dilemma challenge
omnipotence AND omnibenevolence
euthypro dilemma pt.1
omnipotence
- Is torturing babies wrong because God says it’s wrong?
- Or, does God say ‘don’t torture babies’ because it is wrong?
If the second option is the case – in other words morality is independent of God – then it’s a challenge to God’s omnipotence. The reason for this is that God’s power would be limited by morality. God is not powerful enough to make ‘torturing babies is good’ true, for example.
whether morality is created by, or independent of, God.
euthypro dilemma pt.2
omnibenolence
if option 1(torturing bbaies is wrong because god says its wrong) is true then god can ay ‘torturing babies is good’, or whatever He wanted, and it would be true. What reason is there for choosing the rule ‘torturing babies is wrong’ over the rule ‘torturing babies is good’? The answer, surely, is nothing and so good and bad are arbitrary. But if goodness is arbitrary, it’s hard to make sense of the claim ‘God is good’ or why anyone would praise God for being good. This presents a challenge to God’s omnibenevolence.
how does euthypro dilemma propose a threat to the concpet of god
It seems that whichever option we choose – God creates morality or God follows morality – means rejecting a key concept of God (either omnipotence or omnibenevolence).
poss response to euthypro dilemma
argue that God chooses the rules of morality based on His other attributes, such as love. For example, God could have chosen to make ‘torturing babies is good’ true. However, God loves humanity and doesn’t like to see us suffer and so for this reason God chose to make ‘torturing babies is bad’ true instead. This would mean goodness and badness are not arbitrary whims but are instead grounded in some justification (God’s love).
what is ‘omniscience v.s free will’
- as an omniscient being, God knows everything.
- If God knows everything, then He must know what I’m going to do before I do it
- If God already knows that I’m going to make a choice before I do it, then it must be true that I do
- If it’s true that I make the choice, then it can’t be false that make that choice
- In other words, I don’t have a choice. And if I don’t have a choice to either make or not make that choice, then I don’t have free will.
SO EITHER, -
God is omniscient but we don’t have free will
* We have free will but God is not omniscient
response(s) to ‘omniscience v.s free will’
- God’s omniscience should be understood as the claim that God knows everything it is possible to know. The whole point of free will is that it makes it impossible to know the future (that’s what ‘free will’ means). So, God is is still omniscient in the sense He knows everything that is possible to know.
- Alternatively, we could respond that as an eternal being God exists outside of time and so is observing (and thus knows) our freely chosen actions of the future
