Metaphysics of God question practice
THE CONCEPT AND NATURE OF GOD
1. What does it mean to say God is omniscient (3)
God knows everything and everything logically possible to know, there is nothing that God does
not know
2. What does it mean to say God is omnipotent (3)
God can do anything or anything logically possible to do, there is nothing that God cannot do
3. What does it mean to say God is omnibenevolent (3)
God is perfectly and supremely good, God’s will is always in accordance with moral values
4. What does it mean to say God is everlasting (3)
God exists in time, but with no beginning nor end- he exists in the same way as a finite temporal
thing but without limits. If God is everlasting, he is immanent and can interact with his creation.
5. What does it mean to say God is eternal (3)
God is timeless and atemporal. He exists outside of time.
6. What is the di?erence between a necessary and contingent being (3)
A necessary being must exist and cannot not exist- cannot begin to exist or stop existing. It
would be a logical contradiction for a necessary being not to exist. A contingent being doesn’t
have to exist. It doesn’t have to exist. He start existing and can stop existing. There is no logical
contradiction is a contingent being not existing.
7. What is the di?erence between saying God is eternal and God is everlasting? (3)
To say that God is eternal is to say that he is timeless and atemporal, he exists outside of time.
To say that God is everlasting is to say that he exists in time but with no beginning nor end, he
exists in the same way as a finite temporal thing but without limits. If God is everlasting, he is
immanent and can interact with his creation
8. Explain why there are competing views on God’s relationship with time (5)
If God is everlasting and within the universe, he is in time, but that means he is not immutable
and omniscient as he is not aware of the future, he learns as we do.
If God is outside the universe (transcendent and eternal) then he is immutable but that means
he cannot make things happen or intervene in space and time and does not know things in time
this therefore has an impact on his omnipotence.
God cannot be eternal and everlasting as there is a logical contradiction. God is timeless (due
to being eternal) and creatively active in the temporal world (due to being everlasting), however
this is a logical contradiction as if God is creatively active in the temporal world, he is related to
the temporal world. If God is really related to the temporal world, God is temporal. This logical
contradiction leadings to competing views showing that God cannot be both eternal and
everlasting
9. Outline the paradox of the stone (5)
, The paradox of the stone explains how God cannot be an omnipotent being. The definition of
omnipotence is to have the power to do anything or anything logically possible, meaning there is
nothing that God cannot do.
The paradox of the stone states that either God can create a stone that he cannot lift, or God
cannot create a stone that he cannot lift. If he can create a stone that he cannot lift, he cannot
lift the stone, meaning he cannot be omnipotent. If he cannot create a stone that he cannot lift,
he cannot be omnipotent as there is something that he cannot do (create the stone and lift the
stone). In each case, there is at least one thing that God cannot do, meaning he cannot be an
omnipotent being.
10. Outline the Euthyphro dilemma and why it shows that the concept of God is incoherent
(5)
The Euthyphro dilemma challenges God’s omnipotence and his perfect goodness. The
Euthyphro dilemma is split into two horns either God loves X because X is good, or X is good
because God loves it.
If God loves X because X is good, it means that morality is independent of God, limiting God’s
power, meaning that God cannot be omnipotent. If X is good because God loves it, God’s
goodness is not meaningful but rather derived from his omnipotence, meaning that morality is
arbitrary. This also means that if God suddenly decided that actions such as ‘murdering new-
born babies is good’, it would have to mean they are moral actions even though it is seen as
immoral.
Therefore God cannot be both omnibenevolent and omniscient.
11. Explain why the existence of an omniscient God and free human beings is compatible
(5)
An omniscient God is all knowing or able to know everything possible to know, typically this is
seen to interfere with human free will as God being aware of what decisions we would make
creates the illusion of truth. ET simultaneity provides an explanation for how an omniscient God
and free human beings is compatible. The issue with omniscience and free will is to do with the
truth value of propositions about the future. This is resolved if we say that there are no true
propositions about the future in the mind of God. Many arguments often presuppose a temporal
perspective on actions and events, but God is eternal and therefore all actions and events are
eternally present to God. ET simultaneity states that my future is still undetermined in my eyes,
but as God is ET simultaneous, he can observe temporal events from his atemporal standpoint.
12. Explain why the existence of an omniscient God and free human beings is not
compatible (5)
Free will is the ability to say, ‘I could have chosen or acted otherwise’, but I cannot choose
anything other than what God knows I will choose as he is an omniscient being. If an omniscient
God exists then free human beings cannot possibly exist because God’s infallible knowledge is
incompatible with humans making free choices.
P1: God is omniscient if and only if God knows all true propositions.
P2: There are true propositions about the future.
P3: God is omniscient only if God knows all true future propositions (from 1,2).
P4: If God knows all true future propositions, including those about my future actions, then it is
impossible for those propositions about my future actions to be false.
, P5: If it is impossible for those propositions about my future actions to be false (due to a logical
contradiction), then it is impossible for me to do otherwise than the action specified in those
propositions, and so I am not free
C: Therefore, if God is omniscient, I am not free as I do not have the ability to do otherwise from
what is set out
13. Outline the view that God is both omnibenevolent and omnipotent and explain how the
Euthyphro dilemma challenges the view that the concept of God is coherent (12)
14. Outline the view that God is omnipotent and explain how the paradox of the stone
challenges this attribute (12)
15. Explain why God is omniscient and explain why God’s omniscience is not compatible
with human free will (12)
16. Explain why God’s omniscience is incompatible with the existence of free human beings
and explain the response that God’s omniscience is compatible with the existence of
free human beings (12)
There are truths about our future actions. God is omniscient, and so must know all of these
truths. If God knows on Monday, that on Tuesday, JeS will feed ducks, then JeS must feed ducks
on Tuesday, as God’s knowledge and beliefs cannot be false (he is omniscient). On Tuesday,
God still knows that JeS will feed ducks. The only way that JeS could avoid feeding ducks is he
could make it so that God did not believe and know that JeS would feed ducks on Tuesday. But it
is logically and impossible for JeS (a human) to choose to do or not do something. JeS has no
free will in this situation as he cannot choose to not feed ducks as God believes he will, and God
is omniscient, so cannot be wrong. Therefore, omniscience is incompatible with humans having
free will.
Boethius responds to this issue by saying that God is not in time and his beliefs and knowledge
have no temporal location. Therefore it is not an issue that you can’t change God’s past beliefs,
as God has no ‘past’ beliefs: he believes all truths at one, instantaneously. However, we still
have a problem: If Boethius is correct, how can God know the order of events? Not knowing this
would make him not omniscient. Aquinas responds with the claim that God observes temporal
events. This means that God knows when each event occurs. This response creates yet another
issue because this would mean that God has a relation to time, which is impossible if he is
eternal. The final solution is that God being eternal means not that his past, present and future
occur instantaneously but they occur forever, as the word ‘eternal’ suggests a duration. So, God
can be omniscient, and humans can have free will.
17. Is the concept of God coherent? (25)
TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS
18. Explain the di?erence between inductive and deductive arguments in relation to proving
the existence of God (5)
Inductive arguments are when the conclusion is inferred from the premises, if the premises are
true then the conclusion is likely to be true. It is the most likely explanation. An example is “God
does exist”, but there is a possibility of him not existing. Design arguments tend to be inductive
