Philosophy - Attributes of God

Philosophy attributes of God - Simple.

What Philosophers mean by God being ‘simple’ is:

• God is unchanging - If God was able to change it would mean that he was no longer perfect. Because to change means to move from one thing to another and if God is already supposedly perfect it would mean that if God changed, He would no longer be perfect. Also, it is argued by Brian Davies that for God to be the creator of the world He has to be unchanging because if He could change it would mean that he was a part of the world: “If a changeable being accounted for the world…then it would be a part of the world and therefore could not account for it”.
• God is immaterial - This means that God is not made up of physical parts like human beings who are made up of flesh, bone etc.
• God is not made up of parts - This means that God is not made up of many parts for example how humans are made up of hair colour, eye colour etc. Aquinas argued that God is not a type of being and Davies argued that you cannot refer to God in the way you would refer to a human being you should refer to Him in a way which you would refer to the whole human race.

Philosophy attributes of God - Eternal.

Eternal = hinted at in the Bible and also in classical Philosophy such as Plato.

What Philosophers mean by saying God is eternal:

Judeo Christian philosophy: 

• Eternal refers to God existing outside of time and space.
• Eternal refers to God having no beginning or end.

The eternal God (Aquinas, Anselm and Boethius)

Anselm: God exists outside of time because nothing can contain God.

Aquinas: Time and change are inseperable and because God cannot change, time must not apply to Him.

Six main reasons why Christians believe God is eternal:

1. Bible suggests God always exists.
2. God is non-physical and therefore is beyond physical passing of time.
3. God is the creator of the universe. As God created the universe he be beyond it and have always existed.
4. God is the ultimate cause…