the concept and nature of 'God'

Question 1

what does it mean to say god is omniscient

Answer 1

• God is all-knowing
• God knows everything that is possible to know

Question 2

what does it mean to say that god is omnipotent

Answer 2

• God is all powerful
• newer definitions say that god can do anything that is logically possible eg. he can’t make a triangle have four sides because it is logically contradictory
• he can do anything that is logically possible and does not undermine God’s power

Question 3

what does it mean to say that god is omnibenevolent

Answer 3

• god is supremely good
• all-loving
• god always does what’s morally good

Question 4

what is the view of god being timeless (eternal)

Answer 4

• god exists outside of time
• everything in time changes, god does not change, so therefore god cannot be in time and must exist outside of time
  -eg. a man on a road can only see what is immediately around him, but someone on a hill can see everything travelling along that road
  so god who is above time can see things simultaneously across time
• god has no beginning or end as these concepts only make sense within time
• an eternal being experiences all moments simultaneously, whilst humans experience time in succession
• modern view distinguishes two types of simultaneity:
  1) t-simultaneity- this applies to temporal beings, like humans. Humans can perceive two things happening simultaneously in the present moment only
  2) e-simultaneity - this applies to atemporal beings (outside of time). god can perceive multiple things happening simultaneously at all times (past, present, future) from the perspective of an eternal present.

Question 5

what is the view of god being within time (everlasting)

Answer 5

• god was there at the beginning of time and will continue to exist forever
• god is without a beginning or an end, existing as an everlasting being
• an everlasting god is a personal god, who can love and interact with the world
• the world is temporal
• any being that interacts/has a personal relationship with the temporal world is itself temporal
• god is an everlasting being existing within time (temporal)

Question 6

what is the paradox of the stone as a problem for omnipotence/the coherence of god

Answer 6

• if god is omnipotent, can god create a stone so heavy he cannot he lift?
• this is a paradox because either answer, yes/no, contradicts god’s omnipotence
• if he can’t, then he’s not powerful enough to create the stone
• if he can, then he’s not powerful enough to lift the stone
• in either scenario god is not omnipotent because there is something he cannot do
• its an example of the broader question/dilemma of wether an omnipotent being can use its powers to do something that will limit its own power

Question 7

what is the euthyphro dilemma, a problem for gods omnibenevolence

Answer 7

• the dilemma was raised in plato dialogue, euthyphro
• the discussion looks at wether morality was created by, or independent, of god
• theists say that whatever god commands is morally good, but this creates a dilemma with two horns
• ‘everything god commands us to do is morally good…. but why?’
  1) gods commands are good simply because they come from god- god is the standard of moral goodness. god created morality. why does god say some things are good and some things are bad? there is no reason, so surely good and bad are aribitary. but if goodness is based on random choice, then surely there is no meaning in the words ‘god is good’. as well as this, in the bible god commands people to do horrific things, but these horrific things must be good because they are commanded by god?
  we cannot make sense of saying god is omnibenevolent

2) gods commands are good because they conform to an external moral source- morality is independent of god, whatever god commands is good because it conforms to the external moral code/source. but this means god’s omnibenevolence is dependent on something external. so it is the external moral standards that are supremely good, not god.

Question 8

what is the problem of compatibility of god and free human beings - a problem for omniscience

Answer 8

• god is all-knowing
• humans are said to have free will, but if god is all-knowing, then surely he knows beforehand everything that will happen, so he knows what all humans will do in every situation. but if god knows what we will do, then our actions are not free.
• if god knows what I am going to do before I do it, then I don’t have a choice and I don’t have free will
• either,
  –> god is omniscient but we don’t have free will
  –> or we have free will but god is not omniscient
• they are incompatible concepts
• as humans we are responsible for our actions, so if god created a world where he always knew what we were going to do, on what grounds are we judged/held responsible? how can I be praised or punished for actions that are inevitable?

Question 9

what is a response to the paradox of the stone

Answer 9

• the stone is self-contradictory
• stone creates a logical impossibility, it is a contradiction
• e.g. making a triangle have three sides
• its not a possible thing
• this is not a limitation on gods power, as god cannot do what is not logically possible

Question 10

what is a response to the euthyphro dilemma

Answer 10

• god chooses the rules of morality based on his other attributes, such as love
• god could have chosen to make ‘torturing babies is good’ true, but god loves humanity and does not want to see us suffer so he chose to make it bad
• good and bad are not arbitrary whims, they are grounded in justification (gods love)

Question 11

what is a response to the free will/omniscience dilemma

Answer 11

• god knows everything that is possible to know
• free will makes it impossible to know the future, so god is still omniscient in the sense that he knows everything that is possible to know
• alternatively, we can argue that as an eternal being god exists outside of time, and so is observing our freely chosen actions of the future. time is not the same for god as it is for us, he views it from a position of eternity.