Summary ATTRIBUTES OF GOD NOTES AND EXEMPLAR PARAGRAPH STRUCTURES
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Course
Philosophy of Religion
Institution
OCR
In-depth and critical A01 + A02 A* notes and model paragraph structures for the Attributes of God topic, for the Philosophy of Religion unit for OCR Religious Studies.
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
OMNIPOTENCE
Omnipotence Paradox
Can God do something that he cannot fulfill himself? For example, can God
make a knot he cannot detangle?
If he cannot, God fails, and he cannot be all powerful
Different explanations for God’s Omnipotence
1. God limits himself for our benefit
Vardy+ Swinburne: God imposes limits to his power by himself, to
maintain how finely tuned the universe is in order to preserve free
will.
Kenosis: God carried out the process of “self-emptying” in order to
send Jesus Christ as a human to the world.
Macquarrie and Religious language: We will fail to understand
the extent of God’s power because we have finite minds and run off
an analogy
2. God does what is logically possible
Aquinas: God does everything consistent with his nature
Swinburne: (The Coherence of Theism) The things he cannot do
are logical contradictions that are not really “things” at all i.e.,
making a square into a circle
3. God can do what the most powerful human being can do
(like a superhero)
Hartshorne: God being an absolute power is not very impressive,
as that means he receives no resistance. It is more impressive if
God is a being that can overcome all resistance given to it, such as
us humans with free will.
Geach: God is almighty, meaning he has power over all, rather
than the most power
Descartes and God’s Omnipotence (God can do the impossible)
God can do anything, even what is logically impossible
He needs to be all powerful so he can carry out the plans for our
salvation as humans
God can even change the fundamental laws of physics, even though
they are usually unchanging. If God set the laws, he can change the
laws.
God can make a square circle because he invented the circle
Rejected all other forms of God’s greatness, as this put limits on
God’s greatness
Descartes’ God is both capable of doing evil because pf his power,
as well as incapable, because of his love. God is a logical
contradiction to us, as our logic cannot understand that of God’s.
This is an example of his omnipotence
Criticisms of Descartes
, 1) If God is so powerful and loving, why do we exist in such a horrible world?
(Problem of Evil) We could have had free will without the consequence of Evil.
2) God can be inconsistent, as he cannot truly be relied upon. His moral code
can change. If God made Mary pregnant, who says he cannot do that to me?
3) God can do anything, but a logical contradiction is not necessarily a “thing”.
His nature of himself cannot be seen in the same criteria as his powers.
4) Numbers “God is not human that he should lie” this directly contradicts
Descartes view on God’s attribute of being contradictory
OMNISCIENCE
Four Key issues over God’s Omniscience
God should be infallible and not make mistakes (Criticism of
Schleiermacher)
A genuine freedom of choice is needed for moral decision-making
If God’s omniscience determines what we do, he can’t reward nor punish
us for our actions
If blame is preprogrammed, how can justice be done on earth
God as Timeless/Atemporal
God of Classical Theism: Exists outside of time and created it
Less free will for human beings, as God observes all but only judges
CRIT: What is the point of prayer? Problem of Evil?
God as Everlasting/Sempiternal
God exists on the same timeline as us
God is with us constantly and is engaged in our present
More free will, as God cannot determine what happens in our future
CRIT: Ontological argument; God is understood more and therefore
less absolute
Boethius
God’s knowledge transcends any notion of “past and future” and he
holds divine knowledge
All actions by us occur at once, simultaneously
Since the future is uncertain and nothing is preemptively seen, we
have free will
There is no predestination and God ponders no uncertainty from his
“lofty peak”
Simple necessity: Physical laws that will always be carried out
Conditional necessity: God sees our actions because we choose
to do them, God has no foreknowledge
Anselm
God is not limited by time and space, and all terms like “past” are simply
relative to us.
God can see us through the fourth-dimension view; at once rather than
from a “lofty peak”
Following necessity: The certainty God knows through us
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