God Creator/Good

God as Creator - The Biblical view of God

• Genesis 1 tels how God created the world over a period of six days. God is described as transcendent and pre-existent. The world is shown to owe its being to the divine action of a sovereign God. Creation is described as good. The old testament creation myth is characterised by the warmth and tranquility of its description of the origin of the universe.
• It seems that God created from that which was already there, as God's spirit moves over the Earth and gives shape. God causes everything that exists to exist, as it exists by his command.
• After each day, God surveyed what he created and 'saw that it was good'. On the sixth day he created 'man in his ow image'. This is the climax of the first creation myth and shows that the world exists for mankind who is given dominion over creation but is also required to act as steward over creation.

God as Craftsman

• Genesis 2-3 shows God as a craftsman, making man from the dust, and in Job 38 God is described as designer who laid the foundations of the Earth. Again it is God who is responsible for everything existing.

The concept of Creatio ex nihilo

• Creatio ex nihilo is how christian teaching explains how God created the world - from nothing. This idea is not found in Genesis but can be implied from God creating by his word.

Biblical view of God Vs Prime Mover

• Aristotle's God is not interested in the world.
• Aristotle's God is the Final Cause and Prime Mover.
• He is unchanging, transcendent and impersonal.
• The Judeo-Christian God loves and sustains the world.
• The God of the Bible is portrayed in anthropomorphic language.
• Both views see God as responsible for the world.

Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence

• Omnipotence - God is all powerful. His power is seen through his creation.
• Omniscience - God is all knowing. God knows exactly what is happening in his creation and has limitless knowledge of the whole universe.
• Omnipresence - God is present throughout creation and sustains it in being. God's presence is constantly emphasised in the creation stories. Another way of saying this is that God is immanent - within all the created world including humans, involved and active.
• These qualities are often explained by describing God as having human qualities - he cares about and is involved in creation. This is totally different from the God of Aristotle.

Is God responsible for everything in the U?

• For religious believers, God is responsible for the existence of the universe but most of the problems in the world are caused by humans.
• Others would disagree and say that science gives a satisfactory explanation for everything that happens in the world.
• The existence of evil in the world can raise questions about God's omnipotence, omniscience and goodness.

Evaluation of God as Creator

• Belief in God as creator can be challenged by science.
• Taking the creation stories as myth rather than literal truth stresses the importance of the message: that God is the all-powerful creator, that the world he created is good and created for humans.
• Analogical language and anthropomorphisms can sometimes hide the message as God is made to seem too human.
• If God is the craftsman of the world, why did he include faults?
• Even if science can explain how the world is, it still does not completely explain that it is, and why it exists.

The goodness of God

• The God of the Bible is good and his actions are good.
• The God of the Bible is seen as the standard of morality. Goodness is defined by God. He is morally perfect and the source of human ethics.
• God is also seen as lawgiver. He gave Moses the Ten Commandments, which he said people must obey as part of the covenant between him and the Israelites.
• God is seen as benevolent dictator who is swift to anger when disobeyed - he is a 'jealous' God.
• God is dynamic and involved with his creation.

God as moral and the source of morality

• In the Bible, God's creation is often said to be good, and God reveals himself through creation. God's goodness is visible in the creation and sustaining of the world.
• His actions in the world, for example, through miracles, are seen to be good. God acts for the benefit of his people.
• His actions are not to be questioned snd must be obeyed - as shown in the story of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son in obedience to God's command. This story also shows that the goodness of God cannot be measured by human standards of goodness but has to be experienced within a relationship which is base on faith, not reason.
• The Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 show how God sets the standard of good behaviour. They are also part of God's covenant with the Israelites and tell them how to behave towards God and towards other people. The Israelites in turn have a duty or obey God's commandments as they will enable them to lead a good life. So, people are to respond to God's goodness with obedience to his commands, as their own ethical behaviour comes from an ethically perfect God.

The concept of God as lawgiver and judge

• God is not just a lawgiver, but also a judge who responds angrily to those who disobey him. In the new testament this view of God as judge is seen in the parable of the sheer and the goats, where God is seen as a king judging people and sending the good to heaven and the evil to hell. God is angry at injustice because he cares about his creation, and calls upon his prophets to let his people know they are failing him.

Euthyphro Dilemma

• In the writings of Plato, Socrates raised the question of what makes an action good, using dialogue with a character called Euthyphro who asks: Is it good because God commands it, or does God command what is good?
• The God of the Bible is shown as the absolute standard of morality, so whatever God says is good, even if that is rape or sacrificing a son. This shows God as a dictator commanding as law whatever he wants. But if God only commands what is good, goodness does not come from God but is external to him; God simply enforces this standard.
• The God of the Bibles perfectly good, and so is the standard of what is good. The God of the Bible also acts in morally good ways in the world, unlike the Form of the good, which does not interact with the world.

Evaluation of the goodness of God

• There is too much evil and suffering in the world for God to be good.
• Creation itself may point to the goodness of God - but science may give other explanations.
• God's goodness, as seen for example in miracles, does not seem to be experienced by many people today.
• The Ten Commandments may show people how to live a morally good life but many of the actions of God in the Bible do not seem good, for example the complete destruction of the enemies of Israel or the command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.