2516554
Description
Mind Map by slatter.e07, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by slatter.e07
about 9 years ago
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Philosophy AS: Philosophy of Religion - Attributes of God.
- 1. God's attributes:
- Eternal
- Outside of time
- Outside of time
- Omnipotant
- All powerful
- If God is all powerful, can he do the logically impossible?
- a) God can do anything
- 1a. Religious philosophers like St Thomas Aquinas grappled with
the concept of omnipotence, trying to articulate it in a coherent
way.
- When Aquinas asks, ‘Is god omnipotent?’ he finds an immediate
difficulty as all things can be moved or acted upon, however God is
changeless (Immutable) And so there is one thing God cannot do:
namely change. So he wrote a list of things he cannot do.
- 1. Alter past events...
2. Change the laws of
mathematics: (2 + 2 =
6) cannot be done...
3. Or do something
self-contradictory:
(Make something
exist and not, or
make something
totally black and
totally white at the
same time.)
- These examples, amongst others, have led
theologians to amend a) to the more
qualified claim that…
- b) God can do anything
logically possible.
- 1b. Even this isn’t the right formulation, for some believers agree
God cannot do some things, even though they are logically
possible. For example, Aquinas asks whether God can create evil -
his reply is no; God cannot sin.
- God is not able to sin. Nor can he act in anyway that goes against
his fundamental nature or which contradicts other elements of his
perfection (Such as omniscience or immutability).
- So, as part of an even more nuanced account of omnipotence,
religious philosophers have to further modify their understanding
of God’s omnipotence:
- c). God can do anything which is logically possible and which does
not limit his power.
- Aquinas: no. What is impossible is a contradiction in terms
- The words that you use to describe the impossible literally
contradict each other. So any description of a logically
impossible state of affairs or power is not meaningful So
what is logically impossible is not anything at all. This is no
limitation on God’s power – there is still nothing that God
can’t do.
- The words that you use to describe the impossible literally
contradict each other. So any description of a logically
impossible state of affairs or power is not meaningful So
what is logically impossible is not anything at all. This is no
limitation on God’s power – there is still nothing that God
can’t do.
- Aquinas: no. What is impossible is a contradiction in terms
- c). God can do anything which is logically possible and which does
not limit his power.
- So, as part of an even more nuanced account of omnipotence,
religious philosophers have to further modify their understanding
of God’s omnipotence:
- God is not able to sin. Nor can he act in anyway that goes against
his fundamental nature or which contradicts other elements of his
perfection (Such as omniscience or immutability).
- 1b. Even this isn’t the right formulation, for some believers agree
God cannot do some things, even though they are logically
possible. For example, Aquinas asks whether God can create evil -
his reply is no; God cannot sin.
- b) God can do anything
logically possible.
- These examples, amongst others, have led
theologians to amend a) to the more
qualified claim that…
- 1. Alter past events...
2. Change the laws of
mathematics: (2 + 2 =
6) cannot be done...
3. Or do something
self-contradictory:
(Make something
exist and not, or
make something
totally black and
totally white at the
same time.)
- When Aquinas asks, ‘Is god omnipotent?’ he finds an immediate
difficulty as all things can be moved or acted upon, however God is
changeless (Immutable) And so there is one thing God cannot do:
namely change. So he wrote a list of things he cannot do.
- 1a. Religious philosophers like St Thomas Aquinas grappled with
the concept of omnipotence, trying to articulate it in a coherent
way.
- a) God can do anything
- If God is all powerful, can he do the logically impossible?
- All powerful
- Omniscient
- All knowing
- All knowing
- Omnibeneveloent
- All good
- All good
- Transendent
- God is beyond our world
- The writers of the bible stated that
god is both: he holds a peronal
relationship and can exist beyond,
and outside of, a limit of boundary.
- The writers of the bible stated that
god is both: he holds a peronal
relationship and can exist beyond,
and outside of, a limit of boundary.
- God is beyond our world
- Immanent
- God's in the world, and present in all time and
places connected within the universe
- Spinoza
- Spinoza
- God's in the world, and present in all time and
places connected within the universe
- Personal
- Relationship with god
- Relationship with god
- Perfectly intellectual
- No limits on his intelligence
- No limits on his intelligence
- Maximally great
- "God is greater then which cannot be conceived"
- "God is greater then which cannot be conceived"
- Everlasting
- He is timeless, he is ATEMPORAL
- What is god's relation to time?
- What is god's relation to time?
- He is timeless, he is ATEMPORAL
- 2. Paradox's of God's
attributes
- Omnipotent
- The paradox of the stone
- 'Can God make a stone so heavy he cannot lift it?'
- Mavrodes
- Mavrodes
- Savage
- 'Can God make a stone so heavy he cannot lift it?'
- The paradox of the stone
- Omnibenevolence,
omniscience,
omnipotence
- The problem of evil
- The evidential problem of evil
- The logical problem of evil
- The evidential problem of evil
- The problem of evil
- Omnibenevolent
and omnipotent
- To commit evil is to fail to be supremely good.
- If God is supremely good, then God cannot commit evil.
- Therefore, if God is supremely good, there is something that God cannot do.
- Therefore, God cannot be both supremely good and omnipotent.
- Three solutions:
- 1. God can commit evil (omnipotence), but
always chooses not to (goodness).
- 2. There is no distinct power of
‘committing evil’ because ‘evil’ is not a
type of act
- 3. Aquinas: there is no distinct power of
‘committing evil’ because ‘evil’ is simply the
absence of good
- Being ‘able’ to fail is not a power, but a lack
of power to succeed
- God does not lack the power to do good, so
God cannot commit evil.
- God does not lack the power to do good, so
God cannot commit evil.
- Being ‘able’ to fail is not a power, but a lack
of power to succeed
- 1. God can commit evil (omnipotence), but
always chooses not to (goodness).
- Three solutions:
- Therefore, God cannot be both supremely good and omnipotent.
- Therefore, if God is supremely good, there is something that God cannot do.
- If God is supremely good, then God cannot commit evil.
- To commit evil is to fail to be supremely good.
- God's supreme
goodness
- The Euthyphro dilemma
- The Euthyphro dilemma
- Omniscnience
- The compataibility of god's foreknowledge and human free will
- The compataibility of god's foreknowledge and human free will
- Omnipotent
- Eternal
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