God’s attributes pt 1

GODS ATTRIBUTES 

A01- God is necessary and perfect- means he must have all 3 omniscience:

OMNIPOTENCE: all powerful 

‘God is that which nothing greater can be imagined’- anselm. God for the xians in perfect- by definition. He needs all 3

Pantheism- God is in everything. 

God creates by willing- In genesis God creates by saying/thinking, ‘God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.’- GENESIS [1:3]

God creates the universe ex nihilo- out of nothing.

Does not act as a contingent being- doesn’t make/do, just wills or is the thing. Effectively does not create the universe, he just wills it or is. 

Paradox of the heavy stone- if he cant lift the stone then he’s not all powerful, but if he cant create a stone even he cant lift it then he’s not all powerful too then bc he cant do it- to create or not create the stone would be to limit himself in some way. 

Paradox of the heavy stone- a necessary being cannot be bound by contingent things. 

Like asking to be crushed by a dream- not a physical thing, you haven’t understood what a dream is. 

Aquinas- use the words abt God in an analogical way, God is nothing like us, to speak abt him riding a bicycle (could God ride a bicycle?) is to not understand him. He’s not going to the same way the bible is not literal- it is a means to an end, a way of educating people about God and the world, it embodies truths in myths and stories. Dif from New Testament- as the writers claimed they were relaying true accounts of their experiences.

Possibilities for Gods omnipotence:

1.        If G is truly omnipotent he is not bound by logic- can make square circles etc (Descartes agrees, he is not bound by logic etc, he writes the rules of the universe  and is therefore outside of them)- traditional biblical xian God. 

2.        aquinas disagrees, once God creates logic, time, laws of the universe etc he too is bound by them within the universe. His God can do anything which is possible or logical- problem: can god perform miracles- catholicismstems from aquinas and catholics follow the bible literally, believe miracles are real- which m=is a problem bc they contradict each other. If God is not bound to the rules of the universe there would be no logic to anything, which we know is absolute. – Catholicism stems from Aq, so xian god but not that traditional to biblical teaching. As thinks we ca never know anything abt him and can only speak analogically- so bible must be analogically speaking abt god- which even it (writers, readers, its not actually alive) cannot really understand 

3.        Maurice wiles- a transcendent being cannot be compared to us. We are limiting Gods possibilities by what is possible for us, we can never know what is possible. Like anselms God, perfect and unknowable, dif from the traditional xian God though. 

4.        OORRR (controversial op): God is very powerful but not all powerful. E.g. he can create…