Nature Of God Flashcards
What is omnipotence?
Omnipotence is ‘the quality of having unlimited power’. It is regarded as one of the most crucially important aspects of faith - it makes God worldly of worship because it leads people to have faith that God has the power to bring about his will, intervene in the world, answer prayer etc.
What is the support for God’s logic defying power?
Creation Ex nihlo:
It is through God’s power that the universe came into being ‘from nothing’. If God is the exception to logic and can create something from nothing then it is possible that God has the power to defy reason and do the logically impossible. ‘For God all things are possible’ - Matthew 19;23
The Incarnation:
The Virgin birth….. Jesus is ‘wholly human’ and ‘wholly God’. (Logic dictates that one single being cannot be in two contradictory states at once).
Human salvation:
Unless God has omnipotence he would not be able to do all the things necessary for human salvation. Anselm claimed that God is TTWNGCBC. If God were less than omnipotent we would be able to conceive of a greater, more perfect being. Descartes claimed that God has ‘all the perfections’, including perfect power.
What are the problems with God’s omnipotence?
- Does God’s omnipotence mean that God has the power to do literally anything?
- Is God’s power limited in some way? If so, it is limited by logic? Or by God’s nature?
- Is omnipotence even a coherent concept?
What is the paradox of the stone?
J.L.Mackie (and others) argue that if we examine the idea of God being literally powerful, we quickly find that it is incoherent. If God cannot do all of these things then God is not literally all powerful - there are limits on God’s power to perform certain tasks. Therefore, omnipotence is not an attribute of God. Can God create a stone so heavy he can’t lift it?
Is God’s omnipotence limited by logic?
Descartes argues that God can do anything, including the logically impossible - as God is not limited by anything, even logic. God created the universe so God is the source of logic - therefore not subject to logic. God has the power to suspend logic, or even replace it if he chooses to. If God wills if, God can make 2 + 2 = 5!
God can create a stone too heavy for himself to lift. God is not limited by our understanding of what is logically possible. However, this leads to more bizarre questions, such as could God arrange it so that he both exists and does not exist at the same time?
Could God create a married bachelor?
What is the problem of free will?
Soul making theodicies suggest that God acts in the way he does so that we can make free choices. But if God has the power to suspend the laws of logic, God could enable humans to have free will but without the resulting evil. It means that God chooses to inflict evil and suffering on us - making it difficult to reconcile with the idea of God being loving.
What did Aquinas say about the misuse of language?
Aquinas believes that logically impossible things are a misuse of language. Square circles, and stones too heavy for God to lift, are nonsense statements - logically impossible - therefore not subject to God’s omnipotence.
God can do all things that are logically possible. Within these limits, God’s power is boundless:
- God can do everything within his nature which does not contradict reason.
- God cannot sin because God has certain qualities that cannot be contradicted. By definition, God cannot be cruel, unwise, change history etc.
But if this is true, why does God not put a stop to all the evil and suffering in this world?
Support for Aquinas
- John McQuarrie says that we need to remember that when we are speaking of God’s power, we only know ‘power’ from our limited human world, in which power is fallible, and our imaginations are limited. God is infinitely greater than we are so we cannot apply the term literally to God - we can only try to imagine what power might be like on an infinite, divine scale. Like Aquinas, McQuarrie argues that there will always be aspects of God’s nature that remain unknowable to us. Even if we can understand and express them partially, we will always have difficulty comprehending it, given our small human minds.
- Richard Swinburne agrees that God can do only what is logically possible, not the logical impossible or incoherent. There is a misunderstanding of omnipotence. People assume that an omnipotent God can do absolutely anything - but God can do anything that is logically possible. God cannot remove evil and allow freedom of choice, simultaneously. That would be impossible - a logical contradiction.
- God can make the universe exist and the universe not exist - but not at the same time. God cannot make a shape that is square and round at the same time because this is self-contradictory - the definition of being round precludes the idea of being a square.
God limits his power for our benefits
Peter Vardy argues that God deliberately limits his own power. He created the universe with an ‘epistemic distance’ which enables humans to accept or reject him. But we can still call God omnipotent - because nothing limits God’s power except when he chooses.
An example of God limiting himself is the belief that when God came to the world as Jesus Christ he deliberately limited his own power in order to be accessible to humanity.
Should we change the definition of omnipotent?
We shouldn’t change the definition of ‘omnipotent’ to ‘Having power over all things’ because firstly it would not change its definition and secondly we can’t just change the definition of a word because it doesn’t match up with our understanding of God. If he had power over all things surely he could change them because he has power over everything? It’s the same.
Why is it not better to think of God as ‘unsurpassably great’?
It is not better to think of God as ‘unsurpassably great’ because great is on a register of adjectives most of which are better than ‘great’ and it makes it sound like God is not worthy of worship; it sounds like he’s no different than Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, MLK Junior, etc.
Can God be omniscient?
Can God have practical knowledge gained through the senses? Could God learn to ride a scooter? The shoelaces? (These questions link to the debate on omnipotence).
Biblical evidence of omniscience
‘Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord’
What does God’s omniscience mean?
- God knows everything. There is nothing he cannot know.
- God has complete wisdom (knows the right thing to do, I.e. when to intervene in the world)
- God has a plan for our lives.
- God cannot be mistaken. If God knows something, then that thing is true.
God knows things unavailable to the human mind (life on other planets).
The problem of free will
There is a problem when God’s omniscience is combined with the claim that humans have free will. Brian Davies puts it like this:
- If God is omniscient then God knows everything - including what will happen in the future.
- If God knows that a future event is going to happen, then that event has to happen (otherwise God would be wrong - a contradiction because an omniscient God cannot be wrong).
- The event cannot not happen - the event is necessary.
- For human action to be truly free it cannot be necessary.
- Therefore, if God is truly omniscient, no human actions are free
- Divine foreknowledge = God’s prior knowledge of what will happen in the future.
