The nature of god

Question 1

Biblical view of omnipotence

Answer 1

God is portrayed as having power over all the creation. Miracles of God.

Question 2

Philosophical Problems: paradoxes:

Answer 2

• Can God create a stone too heavy for him to lift?
• Can God sin?
• Can God run, jump or do other things that people with bodies can do?
• If God can do everything, could he do the logically impossible such as create a five-sided triangle?
• Can God change the past?

Question 3

Solutions: different definitions of omnipotence:

Answer 3

Descartes (1596-1650) – God can do anything, including the logically impossible. However, Aquinas argued that logically impossible actions, such as a square circle, are not actions at all. They are not ‘proper things’ that one can or cannot do. C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) agreed observing that:”…meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire a meaning because we prefix to them two other words: ‘God can’” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain). Many argue that it is incorrect to suggest that God can sin, lie or engage in immoral behaviour. Hebrews 6:18 states that it is impossible for God to lie.

2. God can do all things that are logically possible. This is the view of Aquinas. God cannot do anything that is logically impossible. Mavrodes’ solution is if God, by definition, is a being of unlimited power, this would make the idea of a stone he cannot lift a logically impossible task. Similarly, a square circle is logically impossible and thus not subject to God’s omnipotence.
3. Anthony Kenny (1931–) - God can do all things that it is logically possible for a being such as God to do. Although this may solve the paradoxes, a weakness of this view might be the feeling that it doesn’t really say anything. We are effectively saying that God can do all things that God can do!
4. Alvin Plantinga (1932–) also argued God may choose to limit his powers in certain circumstances in order to preserve human free will.
5. Peter Geach (1916–) notes that the word omnipotence comes from the Latin ‘Omnipotens’ However, the New Testament was written in Greek and the word ‘Pantokrator’, which translates as ‘Almighty’, was used to describe God. Geach argues that “Almighty” is best understood as a capacity for power, power over everything rather than a power to do everything.

Question 4

Divine Eternity – God as Eternal

Answer 4

Different understandings of this are:
• God is timeless (Atemporal): the belief that God stands outside of time and that all time is equally present to him; past, present and future are all alike to him
• God is everlasting (Sempiternal): within time – moves along the same timeline as us but does not begin or end

Question 5

Eternal as ‘timeless’:

Answer 5

• For Boethius (and Aquinas) God is outside of time and sees all events in an eternal present.
• ‘Eternity is the simultaneous possession of boundless life which is made clearer by comparison with temporal things.’ For Boethius, an eternal God is timeless, outside of time and surveys the whole of time in an eternal present (as seeing a whole film at once rather than frame by frame). All of what we call time is ‘now’ to God. He cannot be subject to time; to be in the eternal is to be outside of past, present and future.
• Aquinas (using Boethius) says, ‘He who goes along the road does not see those who come after him;

Question 6

• Anselm

Answer 6

rejects Boethius’ ideas of an eternal, simultaneous present in favour of four-Dimensionalism. God is neither spatial nor temporal. God is eternity and so encompasses all of time. Descriptions of time (past, present, future) depend on your perspective (much like ‘over here’ or ‘over there’ are dependent on your perspective, God’s view of time is different to ours). Every moment is equally real and equally present to God, it has a unique simultaneity in God.