Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Nature
of God
- Plato
- Analogy of the cave
- Prisoners incapacitated at the bottom of
a cave, all they see is shadows cast by
things behind them, one prisoner is then
forced to leave and climb out of the
cave, once out he saw the light which
was painful and dazzling, he wants to
return and tell the others but is dragged
out, over time he grows used to the light
and is able to look at the sun itself.
- This
represents a
theologian
or a
philosopher
who wants
to become
more aware
of the world
and teach
his findings.
- Wondered how we
knew beauty and
perfection
- Form of the good
- In Christianity the form of the
good becomes God as it is the
source of all things, immutable,
eternal, perfect, and invisible.
- It gives everything else
value and purpose
- It is the form of all other forms
- Beauty
- Justice
- Chairs
- Tables
- Aristotle
- Took Plato's ideas of the
world of forms to develop
the ide of the four causes.
- Material
- What something is made from
- Efficient
- The activity that makes
something happen
- Formal
- The form or shape something takes
- Final
- Reason or purpose for something
- World is in
a continual
state,
everything
changes or
moves
- Thought there must be a
final cause/ explanation for
all of this movement and it
itself must be unmoved,
uncaused and unaffected
whilst changing other things
- Unmoved mover, uncaused cause.
- Exists necessarily
- Is perfectly good and eternal
- God as a
Creator
- Ex Nihilo
- God created
everything out
of nothing
- "In the beginning
God created the
heavens and the
earth" Genesis 1:1
- God didn't work
on pre-existing
matter and is not
an agent among
other agents
- He is the
absolute origin of
all that exists - all
matter, energy
and organisation
- God as the origin of
everything is used to
explain the notion of
God's absolute mastery
over all existence
- Because He
created
everything,
He has
authority
over it all.
- Ex Mareria
- Less common in
Christianity, but it
has its roots in the
philosophy of
Aristotle
- The universe had always
existed independently
from God, but in the
creation God imposed
order and form upon it
- Bible has some
references that
suggests to some
philosophers that
God worked on pre
existent matter
- "Who marked off its
dimensions? Surely
you know! Who
stretched a measuring
line across it?" Job 38:5
- Ex Deo
- Out of the very
substance of God
- God created the world from
himself rather than from nothing
or pre-existing matter
- "Through him all
things were made;
without him nothing
was made that has
been made" John 1:1-5
- God and
our
material
reality
are not
wholly
different
- God quite literally
shares in our
existence through
our experiences of it
- As we grow and
develop, so does God
- Eternal
- Timeless
- Aquinas
- Cosmological
argument
- God is the creator
of the universe
and all life
- He exists always
- Boethius
- His life is not only
endless but it is not like
physical life as it doesn't
involve change
- All of time is present to
God at the same
time/simultaneously/all
in one glance
- He is simple
and doesn't
learn new
things so
time
mustn't
pass for
Him
- God is
outside
of time
- Life isn't
a series
of events
- He possesses
the whole of his
life without end
- Since time consists of
parts and the notion of
time involves beginnings
and ends he must exist
outside of time
- Everlasting
- God has no
begining and no
end but time
does pass for
God
- Swinburne
- Refuses to
accept God as
timeless
- The idea of
events occuring
at the
simultaneously
to God cannot be
made sense of
- Belief of an everlasting God
fits more satisfactorily with
God as revealed in the Bible
- Reactive
and
responsive
God
- Wolterstorff
- The only way to understand
some of God's actions as
indicated in the Bible is to
underdstand them as free
actions in response to
human behaviour
- The 10
Plagues
- Suggests that time
passes for God as
it does for us
- If God exists timelessly
then we cannot have a
relationship with him
which goes against
religious beliefs
- Omni
Characteristics
- Omnibenevolent
- God is
perfect
- Essentially
perfect
- Impossible
for him to
do or will
evil
- Goodness
comes
from God
- Without
God
moral
standards
don't exist
- God
desires
perfection
- God is
still
capable
of doing
evil
- Makes
his
failure to
do evil
more
praise
worthy
- Moral
choice
- Morality doesn't
come from God
but from an
external source
that God also
abides by
- Not widely
accepted by
Christians as it
would then mean
he wasn't perfect
because he would
be lacking
something
- Omniscient
- Limited
- Gods
knowledge
is limited
to what is
logically
possible to
know
- Fits with
everlasting
- God
chooses
to limit
himself
to let us
remain
free.
- Unlimited
- God has
unlimited
knowledge;
past,
present and
future
- Fits with timeless
- Omnipotent
- God can do
anything
including
the logically
impossible
- Descartes
- God can change the
fundamental laws of Physics
- It is
logically
impossible
for God to
perform
miracles
- However, imagine God as a game
designer, the designer can change
the rules of the game because the
rules don't apply to him. This is the
same for God and the universe
- God can do what
is logically
possible for a
perfect God to do
- Aquinas
- Gods power is
infinate as he
is not limited
- Relies on the
idea that God
is eternal and
therefore not
bound by the
limitation of
physical
- It is a contradiction to say that God
is limited because God is perfect