Nature of God (attributes of omnipotence)

Omnipotence (Descartes)

Gods ability to do anything even the logically impossible

What does Descartes believe about Gods omnipotence

God cannot be limited in any way, therefore as God is the source of logic he has the power to suspend logic and replace it with whatever he wants

Does Descartes believe God conforms to laws of nature, logic and physics

No because if God made them he can break them

Does Descartes believe we can understand Gods omnipotence

No because our human logic has a limit so therefore we can never understand Gods omnipotence

J.L Mackies evaluation of Descartes (criticism)

Jackie argued: idea of logically impossible actions were 'only a form of words which fails to describe any state of affairs' = there is nothing which is 'logically impossible' logical impossibilities do not exist

Evaluation against humans lacking knowledge

Not a lack of power or a lack of our knowledge= making a circle into a square is just nonsense (Descartes believes God can turn a circle into a square)

Problem with God being able to do anything

Turns God into an arbitrary and unpredictable God who can do anything. Makes it very difficult to understand God and thus have a relationship with him

Inconsistent triad argument

If God can do absolutely anything such as prevent evil and allow us to have free will at the same time why doesnt he. If he was all powerful and all loving he would be able to do this

Omnipotence (Aquinas)

Gods ability to do what is logically possible for a perfect God to do

Aquinas quote about omnipotence

'Whatever involves a contradiction is not held by omnipotence, for it just cannot possible make sense of being possible'

What does Aquinas quote mean

God cannot sin as this contradicts Gods all good nature. God cannot climb a tree as this contradicts God being incorporeal (having no body)

Who does Swinburne support

Aquinas

What does Swinburne say about Gods omnipotence

He says Gods omnipotence means God can do everything but we must first understand what 'everything' includes

What does Swinburne say about Descartes argument about God being able to turn a square into a circle

Turning a square into a circle is not a 'thing' therefore God does not have to be able to do it because that thing doesn't exist

What does peter vardy believe Gods omnipotence is

Limited

Why does peter vardy beleive Gods omnipotence is limited

Because he believes God created the universe in such a way that his ability to act is limited as he wanted the universe to be free so God limited his power over it.=self imposed limitation

How much control does God have over the universe according to peter vardy

Little control as he is not in control of things like history or able to move pieces like on a chess board

Why did God limit himself

So we are able to have free will

Does God being limited make him any less powerful according to peter vardy

No because only God can limit his own power

What does john Macquarie argue about Gods omnipotence

He argues that God is not constrained by logic, laws of nature and physics, nor acts of free acting humans and only chose to limit his power out of love for humanity

Does john Macquarie believe we understand Gods power

No because when we speak of Gods power we speak of it as an analogy. Gods power is different from out own so we have nothing to compare it to so when its compared to our own that's incorrect.

What does john Macquarie believe about Gods power

It's infinitely better than our power or any power we could imagine