concept and nature of God 3&5

Omniscience

• all- knowing, knows everything that is possible to know.

• Knowing is direct- via the senses, reasoning or language

Omnipotent

• all-powerful, having the ability to do anything that is possible to do (rather than what is logically impossible)

Supreme goodness

-perfect goodness, ontologically (functionally good, perfect with no failings) and/ or morally perfect (God’s will is of the highest value)

Eternal

God exists outside of time (a temporal)- no beginning or end

Everlasting

Exists throughout all time or within time, without beginning or end (temporal)

Outline the difference between temporal and a temporal

Temporal= exits within the parameters of time

A temporal= exists without relation to time

What is God’s relation to time if he is everlasting

He exists temporally (throughout all time), without beginning or end

Explain two ways of understanding perfect goodness

perfect goodness is understood in two ways :

• goodness as a perfection- saying god is perfect goodness is the same as saying God is perfectly perfect, God is perfect in all ways (does not have any failings) .

• Another ay to understand perfect goodness is in a moral sense- God is perfectly good= God’s will is always in accordance with the highest moral values. Morally speaking God is as good as possible

Explain why God’s existence must have no beginning or end

• if God is perfect then it follows that he is self-sufficient- he is not dependent on anything else in any way at all

• Thus, he does not rely on anything to bring him into existence- God’s existence has no beginning or end, he exists all throughout time

• He exists in temporal time and is a being that is everlasting

• However, if he is existing outside of time he is a temporal- no beginning or end, ideas of beginning and end only make sense in time- something can only start and stop existing in time

• Either way- God has no beginning or end

Explain God’s omniscience

• to know ‘everything’ - knowing everything that is possible to know because Gods is the most perfect possible being (example- he may not know our future as he has granted us free will)

• Concerned with how God knows what God does

• Aquinas- thought God knows everything God does ‘directly’ - means he doesn’t know anything (like sense perception- since he doesn’t have a body) - also doesn’t know concepts or ideas because this would be too general in terms of knowledge . Example- instead of knowing ‘trees’ in general, he would know each tree directly for what it is in itself- after all he is creator of all so knows each thing directly for itself.

Give two reasons why it makes sense to argue that god must be eternal and a temporal

• something is eternal if it exists externally to time with no beginning and no end (a temporal).

• Reasons one- makes sense to argue that God must be eternal because the bible describes God as the creator of the universe, thus he must exist outside/ beyond space and time if he created space and time making him a temporal.

• This makes God transcendent and beyond the range of human experience

• Reason number two- God must also be timeless (atemporal) because God is immutable (doesn’t change). If God is perfect, he cannot change (i.e. he cannot add to his knowledge or change his characteristics, cannot. Improve)

• This is connected as if God existed within time he would gain new knowledge as he moved through time. Meaning that his knowledge could be added, contrasting Jim as perfect and omniscient.

• Thus if he existed externally to time then it would allow him to be all-knowing and all-perfect, both traits God has.

Stone paradox

• God described as a perfect being

• Holds attributes that contribute to perfection- omnipotence

• Omnipotence- god has power to do anything possible and no more- cannot do anything logically impossible (create a square circle) this creates a paradox…

• Can god create a stone so heavy that is unable to lift it

• 1- if he can create it- he can’t lift it= not all powerful (contradiction)

• 2- if he can’t create- he is not all-powerful= means he is still unable to create the stone

• Thus, there is something inevitable that God cannot do, stone paradox undermines God’s omnipotence as it contradicts itself

Two problems arising if God is eternal

• eternal- exists in time with no beginning or end (a temporal)

• Problem one- Bible describes a God who interacts with his creation; however, an eternal god cannot interact with his creation because our world is temporal, to be eternal god would have to exist outside of time. How can something outside of time interact with something within it - LOGICAL CONTRADICTION

• Additional- Bible describes God’s ability to perform miracles (means he could intervene within our world) - thus interact with our time, it seems a contradiction that God could both be eternal and perform miracles - thus implies that God is temporal (within time) rather than atemporal.

• issue two- if God is eternal and cannot interact with creation= he is very impersonal , he cannot suffer alongside his creation and empathise with us like we believe he would being all good. An everlasting god = would be more personally able to respond to his creations and much more attached to it

Euthyphro dilemma

• outlines the mutual incoherence of God being omnipotent and supremely good

• Questions whether morality is god’s will or whether morality is whatever God wills.

• If morality is independent of god’s will- then he restrains goodness; however, no longe omnipotent as he is constrained by the standard of goodness and has limitations

• If mortality is whatever god commands then he retains his omnipotence (not limited) but loses his supreme goodness- morality becomes arbitrary and means nothing is guiding his will (god could command us to kill children)- what’s good today can turn bad tomorrow

• Morality is based on God’s arbitrary declarations would make it meaningless

• Euthypro dilemma shows that either god is not omnipotent or he is not worthy or worship as whatever he says would go without reason

Outline the importance of free will in relation to God

• a good god is one that has no moral failings and is ‘supremely good’

• Free will= ability to choose what we do and how we act as humans- we have the choice to choose what we do and how we cat , suc as according to beliefs/ virtues

• No free= denied vital part of existence - puppets controlled by God, not intuitively ethical,

• No free will= God controls all people and then god is responsible for what we deem as evil behaviours, murder rape

• We must have free will for god to have supreme moral goodness

Explain how God being eternal solves the incoherence between god’s omnipotence and free will

• solution one - what it means to describe God as eternal

• Kretzmann’s undertsnading God as eternal means that very moment in time is ET simultaneous with God , meaning that every moment in time is experienced temporary present to god

• This does not determine our future as pre-exists as god does not know anything now- does not experience past present and future as we do

• His knowledge is in the eternal atemporal now and thus he sees everything in the present, no knowledge of the future like us

• God’s omniscience concerns itself with him knowing what we do but he knows it et simultaneously as we do it

• Thus, we have free will and gos is omniscient