Attributes of God

Question 1

What are the four main attributes that need to be discussed?

Answer 1

God’s omniscience, omnipotence, omnibenevolence and eternity.

Question 2

What are the issues of God as omnipotent?

Answer 2

• Can God sin?
• Can God do the logically impossible? eg) 5 sided triangle
• Can God do things people with bodies can do? eg) swim
• Can God change the past?
• Can God create a stone too heavy for him to lift?

Question 3

What is the biblical view as God as omnipotent?

Answer 3

God has power over all of creation. He can create things out of nothing as seen in Genesis and his power is shown in his miracles eg) raising Lazarus from the dead. Matthew 26:19 says “With God all things are possible”.

Question 4

Which scholars attempt to solve issues with God omnipotence?

Answer 4

• Aquinas
• CS Lewis
• Kenny
• Descartes
• Plantinga
• Peter Geach

Question 5

What did Aquinas say about God as omnipotent?

Answer 5

Argues God can only do the logically possible and that impossible actions are not actions at all.
+ He is supported by Hebrews that says God cannot sin and CS Lewis.
- God can’t do things that are logically possible though eg) swim or run or swim

Question 6

What did Descartes say about God as omnipotent?

Answer 6

Argues God can do all things even the logically impossible Eg) make a square circle.

Question 7

What did CS Lewis say about God as omnipotent?

Answer 7

Argues “meaningless combinations of words don’t suddenly acquire a meaning just because we prefix to them two words: God can.” He supports Aquinas.

Question 8

What did Plantinga say about God as omnipotent?

Answer 8

God limits his power to allow for human free will.

- contradicts scripture

Question 9

What did Peter Geach say about God as omnipotent?

Answer 9

Argues that Omnipotence comes from the Latin Omnipotens but the New Testament was written in greek and the word Pantokrator means almighty which suggest power over.

Question 10

What did Anthony Kenny say about God as omnipotent?

Answer 10

Argues God can do all things that it is logically possible for a being such as God to do.
+ solves the problems of God doing things someone with a body can do
- Doesn’t actually say anything- what is logically possible and God is transcendent so what can he do?!

Question 11

What does Pantokrator mean?

Answer 11

It is the greek for almighty which Peter Geach suggests means God has power over us but not that he can do anything.

Question 12

How can the problems of attributes clashing or issues with attributes be solved?

Answer 12

• Redefine the term
• God limits himself
• God is limited

Question 13

What are the two ways God can be understood as Eternal?

Answer 13

1) Timeless - outside time and all time is is present to him

2) Everlasting - God is within time and moves along the same time line but with no beginning or end

Question 14

What does Boethius say about God as eternal?

Answer 14

God is TIMELESS
God is outside of time and sees all events in an eternal present- all time is now to God. “Eternity is the simultaneous possessions of boundless life which is made clearer by comparison with temporal things.”

Question 15

What does Anselm say about God as eternal?

Answer 15

God is TIMELESS
But he rejects Boethius version of timeless instead thought of God as four dimensional as God is neither spacial or temporal. God encompasses all time and every moment is equally present and real in God.

Question 16

What does Aquinas say about God as eternal?

Answer 16

God is TIMELESS
Supports Boethius - says “He who goes along the road does not see those who come after him; whereas he who sees the whole road from a height sees at once all those travelling on it.”

Question 17

What does Swinburne say about God as eternal?

Answer 17

God is EVERLASTING
Argues God is within time - “There is no time he did not exist… he is backwardly eternal… he will go on existing forever.”

Question 18

What does Process Theology say about God as eternal?

Answer 18

God is EVERLASTING

Accepts God changes along with his creation as he moves through time

Question 19

What does DZ Phillips say about God as eternal?

Answer 19

Argues eternity does not refer to time but expresses a qualitative nature. God is completely different and can’t be comprehended.

Question 20

What are the strengths/weaknesses of God as timeless?

Answer 20

• Antony Kenny says all time being present to God is incoherent (“while I type Nero fiddles heartlessly on”)
  + Although humans might not be able to comprehend God’s timelessness doesn’t mean it’s not true
• Contradicts with God in scriptures who promises and remembers
• How does God know us?
  + Anselm solves this as time is inside God
• Boethius is accused of describing a God of the philosophers rather an imminent and active God
• How does a God outside of time respond to prayer or incarnate in Jesus?
• Anselm - How can God know what’s now?

Question 21

What are the strengths/weaknesses of God as everlasting?

Answer 21

+ Allows a personal relationship with God and respond to prayer
- This would mean God would be subject to change as his knowledge would change.

Question 22

What are the main issues with God’s omniscience?

Answer 22

• If God’s omniscient do we still have free will?

- If our actions are predetermined by God is he just in punishing us?

Question 23

Which scholars address God’s omniscience?

Answer 23

• Aquinas
• Boethius
• Anselm
• Swinburne
• Peter Geach
• Schleiermacher
• Calvin
• Middle Knowledge argument

Question 24

What is the biblical view of omniscience?

Answer 24

The Bible suggests God has knowledge of the future, for example, Psalms 139:6 “your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before they came to be.”

Question 25

What does Aquinas say about God as omniscient?

Answer 25

For Aquinas God is timeless and so his knowledge is completely different and not based on physical senses. His knowledge is immaterial and he has complete self-knowledge of creation. - Surely sensory knowledge is better than knowing about something? eg) trying chocolate is better than knowing about it

Question 26

What does Boethius say about God as omniscient?

Answer 26

He says God's knowledge is completely different from human knowledge and that we cannot understand God's knowledge of the simultaneous present. He recognises there is a "Hopeless conflict between divine foreknowledge of all things and the freedom of human will". He says what an omniscient God sees in the future must happen and while God doesn't directly cause our actions in seeing them they become necessary and we can't do otherwise. He solves the issue using simple and conditional necessity and gives the example of a man walking on a sunny day. The sun is shining because this is a natural law (simple necessity) but the man walking is also a necessity otherwise you wouldn't see him walk but he has to choose to walk (conditional necessity). God sees things because they are the result of free will and therefore freewill remains separate from God's foreknowledge. -Simply an observer, not an immanent God

Question 27

What is a simple and conditional necessity?

Answer 27

Boethius used these to solve the problem of free will and God's omniscience. He says what an omniscient God sees in the future must happen and while God doesn't directly cause our actions in seeing them they become necessary and we can't do otherwise. He solves the issue using simple and conditional necessity and gives the example of a man walking on a sunny day. The sun is shining because this is a natural law (simple necessity) but the man walking is also a necessity otherwise you wouldn't see him walk but he has to choose to walk (conditional necessity). God sees things because they are the result of free will and therefore freewill remains separate from God's foreknowledge.

Question 28

What does Anselm say about God as omniscient?

Answer 28

Argues each moment is equally present in God. He questions "does God know whether I am going to sin or not?" Answers this with preceding and following necessity. God knows the sun will shine tomorrow because it is a preceding necessity and dependent on natural law. God also knows human choice because he is alongside us when each individual makes a choice- this is a following necessity as God's knowledge follows the fact of the event. + a more immanent God - Does he say anything different to Boethius?

Question 29

What is a preceding and following necessity?

Answer 29

Anselm used these to solve the problem of free will and God's omniscience. God knows the sun will shine tomorrow because it is a preceding necessity and dependent on natural law. God also knows human choice because he is alongside us when each individual makes a choice- this is a following necessity as God's knowledge follows the fact of the event.

Question 30

What does Swinburne say about God as omniscient?

Answer 30

Defines omniscience as knowledge of everything that is logically possible to know. As the future hasn't happened yet God doesn't know it because it isn't logically possible to know. His knowledge may include future events that are predictable by physics but leaves aside free will choices and God's own choices eg) response to prayer. + this is an immanent God who feels alongside his creation - weakens God's omniscience - similar to process theology which Christians reject

Question 31

What does Middle Knowledge say about God as omniscient?

Answer 31

Suggests God knows all the possibilities of your free choices but doesn't know which you'll choose.

Question 32

What does Peter Geach say about God as omniscient?

Answer 32

Suggests an everlasting God whose knowledge is like playing against a grandmaster of chess- you are free to move but he will undoubtedly win.

Question 33

What does Calvin say about God as omniscient?

Answer 33

Freewill is only apparent and God has already decided who will be saved (predestination). - Does this make God just in punishing us?

Question 34

What does Schleiermacher say about God as omniscient?

Answer 34

God's knowledge is like that of a friend. God can predict our future choices but we retain our free will. - If God's knowledge is infallible can he guess wrong?

Question 35

What is the biblical view of God as omnibenevolent?

Answer 35

God can be seen to good through: - creation - commandments - miracles - Jesus - answering prayers "He is good; his love endures forever" 2 Chronicles 7:3

Question 36

What are some of the issues with God as omnibenevolent?

Answer 36

- Can God sin? If not this limits his omnipotence - Euthyphro dilemma - The logical problem of Evil - Why would an omnibenevolent God create hell? - Is God just is punishing humans? - Can God be omnibenevolent if he is timeless? - If actions are foreseen but not stopped does this make God responsible?

Question 37

How do scholars respond to the question 'Can God do evil?'

Answer 37

- Dawkins criticises the God of the Old Testament calling him a "vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser" - McGrath used the Hermeneutic of Suspicion to argue this idea of God must be taken as a metaphor - Aquinas stated, "the perfections of everything exist in God, he lacks no excellence of any sort." therefore it is logically impossible for God to do evil

Question 38

What is the Euthyphro Dilemma?

Answer 38

Does God command what is good or is an action good because God commands it? - God's goodness is less if he has to always do good - God's omnipotence is less if there is an independent standard of goodness God must meet - Does this mean God could command rape is good?

Question 39

What does Aquinas argue about God in the face of the Euthyphro Dilemma?

Answer 39

He argues God cannot command anything different to his perfect nature as he is the perfect standard of goodness and only commands out of his nature which is goodness itself.

Question 40

What does Maurice Wills argue about God in the face of the problem of evil?

Answer 40

He suggests God limits himself and cannot intervene in the world to allow free will as if he did he would be partisan and arbitrary as well as making the laws of nature unpredictable. He argues the only intervention was the creation and the sustaining of it. - What about the incarnation of Jesus?

Question 41

What do scholars argue about God omnibenevolence for a timeless God?

Answer 41

- Nelson Pike criticised Boethius' timeless God as "a timeless being could not be affected by another" which limits his omnibenevolence - Swinburne and Process Theology, therefore, argue God has to be everlasting to be omnibenevolent

Question 42

What do scholars argue about God's omnibenevolence and justice?

Answer 42

- In Christianity God punishes/rewards but people may be good just so they can go to heaven. If God is omniscient he can see past these motives but does that mean we are predestined? - Boethius suggests as God sees all our actions in his simultaneous present then he is just when judging. - Anselm concluded we are responsible for our own actions and as God is with us in the moment of choice he is just. - Swinburne says God is like a parent who must reward and punish to teach.

Question 43

What do scholars say about God's omnibenevolence in the face of hell?

Answer 43

- Hick argues all humans must be saved as hell is "infinite suffering for finite sin" - Swinburne, however, rejects this saying human free will must allow for the freedom to damn ourselves - Hell can also be interpreted as a symbol of life on earth which solves issues of God allowing his creation to suffer