The Concept of God Flashcards

1
Q

define omniscience

A

God is all knowing

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2
Q

define omnipotence

A

God is all powerful

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3
Q

define eternal

A

lasting forever, God has no end or beginning

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4
Q

define everlasting

A

God lasts forever within time, there is not a time where he is not present

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5
Q

what is the issue in claiming that God is omniscient?

A

we have no free will (he knows your future, so you don’t have free will because your actions are necessary )

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6
Q

what is the issue in claiming that God is omnipotent?

A

evil exists and the paradox of the stone

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7
Q

what is the issue in claiming that God is eternal and everlasting?

A

impossible to be both as they contradict each other

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8
Q

what is the issue in claiming that God is omnibenevolent?

A

Euthyphro dilemma and evil exists

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9
Q

outline Anselm’s ontological argument

A

in the form of a prayer in the proslogian. you prove God exists from the definition of God. “God is greater than which no greater can be conceived”. because god is the greatest conceivable being he must exist in reality. Anselm’s discussion of the fool; when you think of God you are really saying God exists.

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10
Q

what issues does Gaunilo raise about Anselm’s ontological argument?

A

he said just because you can conceive the greatest conceivable thought it doesn’t mean this thing now exists. e.g. the perfect island

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11
Q

what is Anselm’s response to Gaunilo?

A

God is not comparable to an island as an island requires things to exist (contingent) and God doesn’t rely on anything (necessary)

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12
Q

what is Descartes ontological argument?

A

subject and predicate. existence is a predicate of God (subject). God is a supremely perfect being. existence belongs to a supremely perfect being, so God exists.

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13
Q

what issues does Kant raise about Descartes ontological argument?

A

existence isn’t a predicate as a predicate gives you more information about something e.g. the 100 thalers (gold, rusty coin)

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14
Q

what is Leibniz’s ontological argument?

A

all of Gods perfections fit together like a diamond. when you add a characteristic nothing is taken away from the other characteristic

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15
Q

what is Malcom’s ontological argument?

A

God is a limitless being with necessary existence. so Go is worthy of worshipping, if God wasn’t limitless he wouldn’t be worth worshipping but people do worship God so God must be limitless.

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16
Q

what is Plantinga’s ontological argument?

A

if a maximally great being exists it has to exist in all possible worlds. the attributes of a maximally great being only belongs to God so God must exist.

17
Q

what is Hume’s fork?

A

a priori (analytical approach) and a posteriori (synthetic approach). things may be analytically true but it doesn’t mean they exist. synthetic truths do relate to the world and existence as we can test them.

18
Q

what is a synthetic truth?

A

we know something is true through our senses e.g. Katie is wearing a black top

19
Q

what is analytical truth?

A

looking at a relation between ideas e.g. all girls like pink, Katie is a girl, Katie likes pink

20
Q

how does Hume criticise the ontological arguments?

A

he states that they fail because they use an analytical approach to prove something synthetic.

21
Q

what is Paley’s design argument?

A

watchmaker; analogy of complex design. a watch has a complex design so must have a designer. the universe has a complex design so also must have a designer. the only being capable to design something like the universe is God.

22
Q

what is Aquinas’ design argument?

A

archer and the arrow. everything has a purpose and can only achieve their purpose by being directed by their purpose. the only being intelligent enough to direct is God.

23
Q

what is Swinburne’s deign argument?

A

from something small you can create greatness e.g. the world only have a small amount of elements that have created the universe. used Occam’s razor- the argument of design is more simply explained by God.

24
Q

how does Hume challenge the design argument?

A
  1. epicurean hypothesis=if you have a finite amount of resources and an infinite amount of time, order will eventually result and there is no need for a designer.
  2. you cannot assume a cause from an effect-can’t assume the designer of the world is God
  3. Paley is wrong to compare a watch to the world as they are completely different
25
Q

how does Kant challenge the design argument?

A

he said it was flawed because it can’t tell us what or who the designer is.

26
Q

what is Aquinas’ cosmological argument? (three ways)

A

from the summa theologica. he believed there had to be a first cause. way 1. motion= (chain of movement)movement is caused by something. there must be a first mover which is God as God is the only one capable of not requiring movement to change. way 2.cause=something cannot cause itself. cannot be an infinite regress chain. God can be the only uncaused cause. way 3. contingency=our world is full of things that exist so something must of caused this that is out of time and not contingent/necessary. God.

27
Q

what is the Kalam cosmological argument?

A

the idea that everything has a beginning and because everything has a beginning it must have a cause. the universe is in time (we know this because its getting older) so it cant be infinite. because its not infinite it must have a starting point which would be God.

28
Q

how does Russell criticise Aquinas’ cosmological argument?

A

he argued we should just accept that the world exists and doesn’t have to have a cause

29
Q

how does Hume criticise Aquinas’ cosmological argument?

A
  1. how do we know for sure that we operate around a chain of causation?
  2. we were not there when God created the world so how do we know he created it?
  3. the fallacy of composition-you cant jump from parts to an overall statement. Aquinas recognises cause in the universe but argues there is an overall cause which is a leap of logic.
30
Q

outline the logical problem of evil

A

God is omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient but yet evil exists. all the statements together aren’t coherent. any 3 can be true but on has to be false to make sense

31
Q

outline the evidential problem of evil

A

there is so much evil and suffering in the world that it does not indicate the existence of God e.g. the parasitic wasp

32
Q

what is Plantinga’s response to the problem of evil?

A

the free will defence. natural evil is caused by our free will and moral evil. he states that free will is being able to refrain from morally significant actions. he assumes a world with free creatures is better than no free creatures and if free creatures were caused to only do right then they wouldn’t be free. God can only get rid of moral evil from free creatures by eliminating the greater good of free creatures.

33
Q

what problems arise in Plantinga’s response to the problem of evil?

A

assumes a world with free will is better than a world without. the value of free will depends on what you do with it. free will allows us moral responsibility.

34
Q

what is Hick’s response to the problem of evil?

A

He stated God had created us but not fully finished his work. God could of made us fully good with virtues already in our nature but they wouldn’t of been as rich if we didn’t develop them through evil and suffering. you cant properly develop forgiveness if nobody ever wrongs you.

35
Q

what are some issues with Hicks response to the problem of evil?

A
  1. if humans souls need developing why do animals suffer e.g. the parasitic wasp
  2. is so much evil necessary?
  3. how do bad people become good if they have caused the bad? no punishment-not just
  4. babies who have died before the chance to develop virtues?
  5. why do good people suffer?