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OCR Philosophy of Religion A2 unit - Nature of God
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nature of god
attributes of god
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2676786
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2018-02-03T08:37:23Z
Aquinas: God is not a type of
thing
God's nature and existence are the same thing -
he can't be broken down or explained in terms of
parts
God is
good
Change implies moving from one
thing to another but God is perfect,
lacks nothing and therefore isn't
capable of change
God is
unchanging
God is God, no
characteristics
God doesn't have a
body
Aquinas: simple =
God signifies
'being/existing'
God is unchangable and
therefore can't gain or
lose any characteristics
(Augustine)
Simple = the traditional way
in which God was thought as
not being changeable and
not having parts or
characteristics
God's simplicity
Plato: The forms are eternal
and unchanging. Time was
the moving image of eternity.
Whatever is perfect cannot
exist within time and space
Obvious link with the Greek.
Ideas such as change and
motion are part of the world of
appearances
Boethius, Anselm and Aquinas all
argued that this world is constantly
changing and God is unchanging and
outside of time. God is therefore not
limited or bound by the constraints of
time
Augustine: "thy years
neither come nor go;
whereas ours both come
and go"
Biblical support: Psalm 139 and Numbers
23:19
God can still bring
about change in time
and cause change in
people without being
changed himself
Change means that God
would either require
improvement or decay but
the fact that he is perfect
means he must be
immutable
Time is something that is bound up in
creation and created things but
doesn't effect God
God is outside of
time and sees all
events in an
eternal present
Evidence: Bible says God
has always existed; God
isn't physical, must be out
of time and space; God's
creator of the universe,
suggests being out of time;
God is the cause of why
everything exists; God's
existence is necessary
(cannot not exist)
Timeless
Biblical support: Jeremiah 18:7-10 and Isaiah
38:1-5
Oscar Cullen: Bible text analysis - eternal =
everlasting not timeless because God is in an
'endless duration'
Love cannot be compatible
with immutability, in a
relationship, both parties are
mutually affected by
experiences - these changes
happen within time and as a
process and sequence of
events - if there is a living
God who has relationships
with people as individuals,
then God cannot also be
timeless
Swinburne: "The Good of
the OT...is a God in
continual interaction with
men, moved by men as
they speak to him, his
action being more often
in no way decided in
advance. We should
note, further, that if God
did not change at all he
would not think now of
this, now of that. His
thoughts would be one
thought which lasted for
ever" (The Coherence of
Theism, 1977)
God moves through time
with us, He has always
existed and always will
Everlasting
Accepts that God moves
through time with his creation -
that eternal means everlasting
not timeless
D.Z. Phillips suggests a different
concept of eternity: For Phillips, the idea
of eternity isn't related to the notion of
time but expresses something of a
qualitative nature, God doesn't exist as
just another object amongst objects
even if he is the greatest being. He is
completely different being that cannot
be comprehended; the notion of God as
eternal attempts to convey this idea.
Whitehead and Hartshorne argue that God
is affected by this interaction - God is in
the process of becoming and changes
with us, so God is involved in creation.
Although he is powerful, he is in no sense
omnipotent
Process
Theology
Creel: God doesn't have to wait until we act to feel or
respond, he knows what all the possibilities of our
choices are and he can know in advance what his is
in response to each of these possibilities without
his will changing
Can we have a loving relationship with a
timeless God? Aquinas: There's a difference
between God's nature & will and his activity.
The farmer is immutable - his nature is
always perfect, good etc. The latter is
possible because he is God. He is different
from us.
Timeless: free will & impossible
to have a loving relationship
Eternal: Limited
omnipotence & is
he omniscient or
not?
Philosophical
problems
raised
by
God
as
eternal
God as eternal
1. Ability to do anything,
including the logically
impossible 2. Ability to do what's
logically possible for a perfect
God 3. omnipotence is just a
statement of the power of God
Sin is a bad thing so if
he can sin he wouldn't
be perfect but if he
can't sin then is he
really omnipotent
because he can't do all
things
George Mavrodes: Being omnipotent doesn't
mean that God can logically impossible tasks
or perform tasks which are self-contradictory
to his nature. Hebrews 6:18 - it's impossible
for God to lie
Augustine: Evil is not
a real, positive
quality - so not made
by God. If he cannot
create evil, then he
cannot sin
Nelson Pike: God's OP would allow him
to sin, but he is morally good, he
would never do it, otherwise he
wouldn't be free and his goodness
wouldn't be worthy of praise
Aquinas also pointed out that
Aristotle says "God can
deliberately do what is evil...he
may be understood to mean that
God can do some things which
now seem to be evil: which,
however, if He did them, would
then be good" This plays on the
Euthyphro Dilemma, if actions
are good because God
commands them then whatever
he does is always good.
Aquinas: "To sin is to fall
short of a perfect action;
hence to be able to sin is to
be able to fall short in
action, which is repugnant
to omnipotence. Therefore,
it is that God cannot sin,
because of his
omnipotence"
Anthony Kenny: God's OP consists of being able to
do anything logically possible that a perfect being
can do. Additionally, do anything possible that a
being which possess the attributes of God has (e.g.
no body)
Can God
sin?
A triangle is a descriptive word, a 5-sided
triangle would be a pentagon.
Harry Frankfurt: If God
is able to do one
impossible thing, he
can do another
impossible thing by
lifting that stone. So
OP in not incoherent -
in fact it shows how
OP he is!
Aquinas: Logically
impossible actions are
not actions at all. They are
not 'proper' things that one
can or cannot do so
meaningless to even
discuss them
Swinburne: "It is no objection
to A's omnipotence that he
cannot make a square
circle...omnipotence
denotes an ability to bring
about any logically possible
state of affairs
If God can do
everything, could he
create a five-sided
triangle or make
2+2=5?
William of Ockham: Two types of omnipotence - one
which is unlimited "absolute power of God". This is
the power God had at the beginning of time. Second
is "ordained power of God". This refers to what God
can do given the current options available to him
e.g. world is created so he cannot un-create the
world, but he does have complete power over it.
Michael Dummett: If you hear on the news that the ship
your loved one was on sank two hours ago with few
survivors, does it make sense to pray in that
situation? Could God change what happened or is
your loved one already safe because God knew that
you would pray?
Aquinas - can God make the past not to have been? "There dos
not fall under the scope of God's omnipotence anything that
implies a contradiction. Now that the past should not have
been implies a contradiction. For as it implies a contradiction
to say that 'Socrates is sitting' and is not sitting, so does it to
say that he sat, and did not sit. But to say that he did sit is to
say that it happened in the past. To say that he did not sit, is
to say that it did not happen. Whence, that the past should
not have been, does not come under the scope of divine
power."
Irenaeus: Evil
and suffering are
part of the whole
design, part of
God's original
intention
Alvin Plantinga: God may choose to limit his powers
in certain circumstances in order to preserve human
free will
Whitehead: God can only do what is logically possible
and it is not logically possible to force free individuals
to obey moral laws. He is involved in them, but is
unable to choose to step outside them and make them
any different
Can God change the past?
Descartes: God
can do anything.
God could
change the laws
of nature
Luke 1:37 "For
nothing is
impossible with
God"
Peter Geach: The Greek NT used the
word 'pantokrator' which translates
as 'almighty'. This can refer to
God's capacity over everything
rather than a power to do everything
Other Scholars
God's omnipotence
Aquinas: "the perfections of
everything exist in God, he lacks
no excellence of any sort"
Swinburne: Analogy of God's
goodness and a parent rewarding and
punishing
What is
good?
Problem: Is punishing
loving? Reward is
arbitrary? Do we earn
reward? If we don't
have free will, can
God judge us?
Solution: Punishment =
discipline, reward =
grace, God = perfect,
goodness = justice =
free will
Should God reward and punish?
Problem: Goodness = out of
God's control (another
source of goodness) or God
is arbitrary and can decide
whatever he wants is good
Good because
God commands
or God
commands
because they're
good?
Solution: He created
good - that being the
source of good, not just
arbitrarily making it up
Euthyphro Dilemma
Solution: can't do evil -
perfect power, logically
impossible for him to do
evil (See "Can God sin?"
under omnipotence)
Problem: If
God can do evil,
he can't truly
be good but if
he can't then is
he omnipotent?
Can he freely
choose evil?
Can God do evil?
Solution: Universalism (Hick)
Alternatively, attribute
of God = just, therefore
has to punish
Problem: Hell is
incompatible with the
attributes of God
Can an
omni-benevolent God
send people to hell?
God's
omni-benevolence
Option 1: Unlimited - timeless God,
knows everything (past, present and
future), doesn't gain new knowledge
and takes all of history into account
in a single glance. He knows
everything that is true
(propositional)
Option 2: Limited - everlasting God,
limited to know what is logically
possible (or chooses to limit what he
knows to allow human free will), gains
new knowledge as time passes and
history unfolds God also acquires new
knowledge
John Locke: Free will = the
ability to do other in any
situation = incompatible with
Boethius' idea of omniscience
Aquinas: analogy of man
walking on a road and man
watching above - knows end
decision but not exactly how
Kenny: This
can't happen
Boethius: No
foreknowledge, just knows
future in a glance (timeless
God)
Augustine: God knows
all our choices
Luis Molina: God's knowledge
involves all possibilities, still
have free will to choose which
(middle knowledge)
Challenge: Do humans have free will?
Anscombe: No such thing would
happen, God doesn't know what will
happen in someone's life if they
hadn't died as a child
Option 3: Middle Knowledge, knows all infinite possibilities of
what you could do and all infinite outcomes, God knows what
you will choose but knows the infinite possibilities if you don't.
W.L. Craig - God knows the appropriate knowledge (that
Napoleon knows he is Napoleon, not that HE IS Napoleon. He
has all propositional knowledge (facts/information, rather than
feelings/sensations - e.g. what chocolate tastes like)
How much does God know?
He has the divine ability to
know everything that is
knowable - past actualities
as already actualised;
present realities to the
extent that they are
knowable according to the
laws of physics; future
possibilities as probabilities
God is in the
process of changing
with us. He is
affected by his
relationship with
the world and the
decisions we make
Hartshorne
For Aquinas,
God knows
immediately, all
at one, in a
single act - the
past, present
and future.
According to Aquinas, God
knows self-knowledge -
creation is his and he
knows about it. His
knowledge isn't physical,
it's not gained through
senses, it's different
knowledge to that of
humans
God's knowledge is not
"discursive" - he doesn't first
think of one thing then think of
another for "God sees all things
together and not successively"
and God doesn't derive his
knowledge by deducing
conclusions from other things
he knows.
Follows Boethius in
asserting that God
timelessly knows
what we will do
Aquinas
God knows what
we have done and
what we are doing
but is only aware
of the logical
possibilities of our
futures
"I propose to argue that not merely is perfect
goodness compatible with perfect freedom, but
that it is logically necessary that an omniscient
and perfectly free being be perfectly good"
God is eternal and moves
through time with us. God can
only know what is logically
possible to know
Swinburne
God predestines some to be saved and others to
be damned. He is omniscient and this has
priority over our freedom. Free will is an illusion.
Just as an artist has knowledge of his creation
before he creates it, God's knowledge as creator
is the source of everything. As he created
everything, he knows and has caused everything
that will happen to his creation. God determines
everything, including who goes to heaven and
hell.
Calvin
Analogy of close friends, God knows what he thinks we'll do in the
same way a best friend would know what we would do in any
situation. Free will is therefore not endangered
Schleiermacher
Use's Plato's ideas to suggest God is outside
of time in an eternal present. He doesn't
foreknow. He sees all actions as present
Boethius
Scholars
God's omniscience
Nature of God - Entire Unit
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2018-02-03T08:37:23Z
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