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Summary Metaphysics of God Study Pack AQA
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3marks● What does it mean to claim that God is eternal?
Eternal –God is outside time (a temporal). All time is simultaneous for him (no past or future)
● Explain the difference between the claims ‘God is eternal’ and ‘God is everlasting’.
Everlasting –God is in time, he has a past and a future but has always existed and will always exist
Eternal –God is outside time (atemporal). All time is simultaneous for him (no past or future)
● What does it mean to claim that God is omnipotent?
Omnipotent ◦All powerful
God can do whatever is logically possible
Argued by Aquinas–illogical things are self-contradictory and therefore are not things at all –it makes no sense to
say God can perform these
2.God can do absolutely ANYTHING
◦Argued by many such as Descartes–God can do anything, even the logically impossible e.g. round square
● What does it mean to claim that God is omniscient/omnibenevolent?
Omniscient ◦All knowing
Omni-benevolent ◦All good/supremely good
● How does Anselm/Descartes define God in his ontological argument?
Anselm - Anselm’s definition -God is ‘a being greater than which nothing can be conceived
God is omnipotent is true by definition◦
God exists ia. s true by definition
◦God is not omnipotent is a contradiction
God does not exist is a contradiction
Descartes - If God didn’t exist he would lack something and a supremely perfect being cannot lack anything. So
God exists
For all necessary truths, when you deny them you get a contradiction
This is what makes them certain
Descartes says that ‘God does not exist’ is a contradiction, so ‘God exists’ is necessarily true
● What is meant by ‘spatial/temporal order’?
Spatial order◦
The physical complexity and structure this gives rise to, e.g. the human eye, the planets
Temporal order◦
Things continue to happen in the same way (the regularity of events) this allows us to formulate laws, e.g. water
boils at 100 degrees, F = Gm1m2/r2 (law of gravity)
● What does it mean to have contingent/necessary existence?
, ● What does it mean to exist necessarily/contingently?
● What is moral/natural evil?
Moral - Pain and suffering caused by people
Natural- Pain and suffering caused by nature
● What is cognitivism/non-cognitivism?
Cog- Religious language expresses beliefs that can be true or false (are ‘truth-apt’)Religious language tries to
state facts, describe the world and can be verified Belief in God like belief in atoms, dispassionate and supported
by evidence
Non cog- Religious language is not describing the world it’s expressing a commitment to a particular way of life It
says something about you not about the world Belief in God not about evidence but about a way of life (and it’s
passionate)
● What does it mean to say religious statements are ‘verifiable eschatologically’?
Hick challenges the claim by Ayer that there are claims that can in principle be verified.
Eg: There is life on Planet Neptune
This may not be verifiable at the moment, but it may be verifiable in the future: it is in principle, verifiable. We
know what we would have to do in order to establish the truth of the claim.
5 marks
The concept of God
● Outline the paradox of the stone.
Can God create a stone too heavy for him to lift?◦If he can create it, then he can’t lift it, so he is not omnipotent◦
If he can’t create it, then he is not omnipotent
God either can or cannot create a stone so heavy that even God cannot lift it
2.If God can create the stone then he cannot lift it, so there is at least one thing God can't do
3.If God cannot create the stone then there is at least one thing God cannot do
4.Therefore, God is not omnipotent
● Outline/explain the Euthyphro dilemma
In the dialogue Socrates meets Euthyphro outside a courthouse in Athens
Euthyphro says he’s prosecuting his own father for manslaughter
Socrates replies that he must be very confident in his knowledge of morality to do is and asks Euthyphro what
good is in his opinion
Euthyphro replies that ‘it’s what the gods love’
Socrates then asks the now well-known question - “Is what is good loved by the gods because it is good, or
is it good because it is loved?”
● Explain the view that an omniscient God is incompatible with the existence of free human
beings.
Omniscience–Knowing all things
, Omniscience is one of the defining characteristics of God
Yet this appears to create a conflict with human free-will, how?
If God knows what choice I will make in a given situation am I free to do otherwise?
Knowledge is of what is true, if God knows my future actions it must be true that I will do them
This creates a dilemma: Either God is omniscient but we are not free
We are free but God is not omniscient
If we are not free we are no longer morally responsible for any of our actions and we can’t be judged
1. If God is omniscient then God knows the future.
2. If God knows the future then he knows what I will do before I’ve done it.
3. If he knows what I will do before I’ve done it then I’m not free to do otherwise.
4. Therefore, if God is omniscient, we do not have free-will
The ontological argument
● Outline/explain Anselm/Descartes/Norman Malcolm’s version of the ontological argument
Anselm - All the arguments for God’s existence try to prove that God exists but only the ontological argument
argues that existence is part of the very concept of God
He wrote that only the ‘fool’ would not believe in God and formulated this argument to show the fool why they are
mistaken...
GOD- A perfect being ◦
The greatest possible being◦
A being without limits◦
Anselm’s definition -God is ‘a being greater than which nothing can be conceived
If you reflect on the concept of God properly, you will realise that God must exist (just as God must be
omnipotent)◦A God that does not exist is not God as he is not the greatest conceivable being◦ Existence is part of
the concept of GoD
1. By definition God is ‘a being greater than which nothing can be conceived.’
2. It is greater to exist than not to exist
3. Therefore, if God did not exist he would not be a being greater than which nothing can be conceived.
4. Therefore, God must exist
Descartes-
If God didn’t exist he would lack something and a supremely perfect being cannot lack anything. So God exist
For all necessary truths, when you deny them you get a contradiction
This is what makes them certain
Descartes says that ‘God does not exist’ is a contradiction, so ‘God exists’ is necessarily true
1. God is the supremely perfect being by definition
2. A supremely perfect being contains all perfections
3. Existence is a perfection
4. Therefore God exist
Norman Malcolm’s-
Malcolm thinks there are actually two versions of Anselm’s argument •He thinks the second is significantly
different from the first
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