Nature or Attributes of God

Question 1

eternal timeless

Answer 1

God is eternal since he is outside of space and time. God has always existed and always will since time separates him
(Boethius, Aquinas)

Question 2

eternal everlasting

Answer 2

god is eternal but also in time but at all points in time (Swinburne)

Question 3

Who is lady philosophy

Answer 3

Boethius’ mouthpiece for his own ideas - a personification of wisdom while he is in prison and sentenced to death

Question 4

What 4 negatives does Boethius point out about the incompatibility of foreknowledge and free will

when talking to lady philosophy

Answer 4

1. if no human acts are free then rewards and punishments are useless and lose their basis
2. ideas of virtue and vice called into question if praise nor blame deserved
3. God must be the author of all the evil we do if the order of our events depends on him
4. if there is a fixed future then there is no use of hope and prayer (undermines key uniting bond between god and man)

Question 5

How does Lady philosophy respond to Boethius’ criticisms

Answer 5

• God is timeless so it is not his future - sees it all at once
• God is other to humans - cant contain him within human logic
• solves issue of free will because he doesn’t predict the future since for him there is no future it is all the ‘eternal present’

Question 6

Issues with an eternal timeless god (4)

Answer 6

• contradicts scripture which presents god as personal and involved - would have to be in time to perform miracles
• Swinburne: doesn’t make sense for all events to be simultaneously presented to God
• can a timeless god be loving?
• prayer is pointless

Question 7

3 positives about an eternal timeless god

Answer 7

time would limit a god so has to be outside of it
emphasises how ‘other’ god is to humans
good way to explain why incarnation had to happen

Question 8

Wolterstorff on a timeless god

Answer 8

what makes a god worthy of worship is that he is personal - people can experience him through miracles and prayer.

Question 9

Swinburnes issue with a timeless God

Answer 9

not logical for a god to experience all events at the same time
- if god knows specifically about 1995, then he must have existed in 1995 to have concept of time

Question 10

How does Swinburnes everlasting God solve issue of free will

Answer 10

gods omniscience doesn’t include events in the future because they don’t exist yet
increases as time goes on but can make predictions because he has perfect knowledge of everyone

Question 11

Kenny and Nero fiddling

Answer 11

If god is a timeless God then he would see everything at the same time so would see Kenny writing at the same time as Nero fiddling and Rome burning

Question 12

John Locke on freedom and how it links to Gods foreknowledge

Answer 12

even if we have choices, if God can see the future and has predetermined it, we have no free will since we cannot change the future

Question 13

Schleiermacher on free will and evaluation

Answer 13

doesn’t know the future but sees us as a close friend

eval: not a fair comparison because god has perfect knowledge so will perfectly predict the future - therefore future is still fixed

Question 14

Criticisms of everlasting god

Answer 14

• limited by time
• if he does not know the future he is not omniscient and not limited

Question 15

Who might say God could make 3 X 3 = 11?

Answer 15

Logically impossible. Descartes.

Question 16

an example of a paradox of an omnipotent god

Answer 16

can god sin
can god make a rock so heavy he cant lift
a square triangle

Question 17

the example of a squared circle

Answer 17

Descartes - god created laws of mathematics so can make on and change the laws

Question 18

all perfections

Answer 18

Descartes describes god as being of all perfections so cannot be limited by laws of logic

Question 19

limited human conception

Answer 19

descartes - humans fault that our knowledge is limited

Question 20

mackie - ‘a mere form of words’

Answer 20

criticises Descartes saying god can defy all logic is just refusing to argue
avoiding the problem

Question 21

Descartes on omnipotence

Answer 21

omnipotence concerns gods ability to do anything, including the logically impossible
- truly omnipotent god could change laws of nature to make it possible
- answer to paradoxes will always be yes

Question 22

Swinburne’s solution to omnipotence

Answer 22

omnipotence concerns gods ability to do what is logically possible for a perfect god to do
ie. cannot sin

not if the predicate is altogether incompatible with the subject - sentence doesnt make sense

Question 23

logically possible vs practically possible

Answer 23

logically - something we can think of (climbing mount everest)
practical - something we can do (could not acc climb it)

God can do both

Question 24

Vardy on omnipotence

Answer 24

god purposely limited power when creating universe to allow for perfect rational human beings
- only thing to limit his power is himself
- had to do this for universe to work

Question 25

Macquarrie on omnipotence

Answer 25

out of love for humanity he limited himself
jesus - self emptying himself of divine attributes

Question 26

kenosis

Answer 26

jesus self emptying himself of divine attributes

Question 27

is descartes understanding of god acc able to break laws of nature

Answer 27

descartes actually describes god changing not breaking laws
- cannot break laws of logic because he is creating new laws to follow so can only follow ones he’s made - not break them

so can god break laws of logic ? would have to say no

Question 28

problems of Aquinas’ timeless god gaining knowledge

Answer 28

1) god is out of time and space altogether nut humans gain knowledge from space and time
2) if god is simple how can god go through change and acquire knowledge

Question 29

Aquinas addressing problems of his timeless God with knowledge

Answer 29

knowledge is not physical so even if we gain it from the physical world (3 has always been square root of nine etc)

‘self-knowledge’ - what god knows
God is creator so what he knows about himself is self knowledge. a creator knows about their own creation so god has perfect knowledge of himself and his creation.

Question 30

Peter Geach and his analogy for free will and john lockes opinion

Answer 30

analogy of chess grandmaster kasparov - free to make any move but will always end in him winning

locke: if god knows the future we are free to make choices but do not have proper freedom because they aren’t proper choices

Question 31

if boethius and aquinas believe god has knowledge of all in a single glance, why is this problematic

Answer 31

they would see the future so still an issue of free will

Question 32

What are the two sides of the Euthyphro dilemma?

Answer 32

Ancient philosophical conundrum
Either God defines goodness, and so it becomes ARBITRARY . Random.
Or God is subject to an independent standard of goodness -so isn’t the highest being. IMPOTENT
Either way NOT WORTHY OF WORSHIP.

Question 33

what are the two key words that are the two sides of the euthyphro dilemma

Answer 33

Impotence and arbitrary

Question 34

How does Aquinas respond to the euthyphro dilemma that suggests god is not worthy of worship?

Answer 34

God can only command out of his goodness, he is able to do all logically possible but will only behave perfectly, so will not sin, so therefore not random, but perfect.

Question 35

Humes 3 criticisms of an omnibenevolent God and eternal afterlife

Answer 35

1) eternal punishment doesnt seem to have a purpose - normally punishment is to protect society or to reform. suggests it is pure retribution which is incompatible with loving god

2) on what basis does god determine the extent of our merit - would give god human qualities and passions

3) doctrine of eternal damnation involves excessive punishment and most dont fit heaven or hell
‘greatest part of mankind floats between vice and virtue’
finite crime- infinite punishment

Question 36

problem of evil and an omnibeneveloent god

Answer 36

mackies inonsistent triad (logical problem)

Mill’s evidential problem of evil - suffering suggests that it is unlikely a god exists

Dostoyevesky’s existential problem - even if god exists he is unworthy of worship (return the ticket)

Question 37

Swinburnes response to the euthyphro dilemma

Answer 37

• no problem with morality being above god because other things are such as laws of logic
• doesnt limit omnipotence because isn’t in nature for a loving god to kill innocents (but actually- floods, plagues)

Question 38

Vardy responding to the euthyphro dilemma

Answer 38

self-limited god does not need to be completely supreme

Question 39

Swinburne/vardys response to humes ‘unfair god’

Answer 39

• would not disagree with a god who has human traits because it fits with their view of a non omni max god

Question 40

a criticism on humes 2/3 argument being useless

Answer 40

• focuses on judgement not nature - a lot of christians believe in universal salvation
• goal of eternal punishment could be to inspire humanity beforehand

Question 41

evaluation for prob of evil

Answer 41

• iraneous
• hick
• aquinas
• augustine