the nature or attributes of God Flashcards
what does the bible say about God’s omnipotence?
1) genesis 1:3 - God said ‘let there be light’ and there was light. - demonstrates God’s power over the universe.
2) Matthew 19;26 - ‘with God all things are possible’ - jesus declares God’s omnipotence
what is Descartes;s view of God’s omnipotence?
He argued that God must be omnipotent and can even do the logically impossible since he is perfect and has no limitations.
why do some people critique the view of God being omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient?
because evil exists and there is too much empirical evidence to deny it.
how does the problem of evil critque descartes view on God’s nature?
the problem of evil states that if God is really all powerful why can’t he stop evil?
what would descartes say in response to the problem of evil critque?
Descartes states that the problem of evil isn’t problem. God can be capable of evil and capable of love at the same time, since he is able to defy the laws of logic.
what do most theodicies argue about why God’s existence is real and why theres evil in the world?
Most theodicies state that moral evil exists because of free will. We have free will in order to freely choose to love God. Without free will, our actions would be robotic and meaningless. Evil and suffering comes from poor choice of decisions.
critique of theodicies arguing that there is evil because of poor use of freewill.
If God is not bound by logic as descartes says then surely it would have been possible for God to create humans with free will, without the consequence of evil. Evil and freewill does exist so why is God choosing not to prevent suffering? This makes it hard to reconcile with the claim of being an omnibenevolent being.
