The nature and attributes of God

• omnipotence: all- powerfulness classic attribute of God, bible supports views that God is omnipotent- Genesis and miracles, 4 different views: God can do anything including logically impossible (Descartes), God can do anything logically possible (Aquinas and Swinburne) , God limits his own power (Vardy), God is the greatest power but this is limited (Whitehead and Hartshorn) .
• Dascartes' omnipotent: God must be omnipotent in the sense of being able to do the logically impossible, God has all perfections and no limitations, can make a stone too heavy for him to lift. -square circles are impossible therefore God cannot make a thing that can't exist, a God that could do anything would also go against his nature as he would have the ability to do evil. - makes God a unpredictable tyrant, also means God could have taken away evil (Mackie)
• Aquinas' omnipotence: God can do anything that is logically possible and does not contradict his nature (couldn't be evil) - if he is limited by contracdictions to his nature is he really omnipotent?
• Swinburne's omnipotence: God can do everything- logical impossibilities aren't things and so could never exist E.g. square circle - doesn't answer POE
• Vardy's view: God limited his own power to ensure that humans could have genuine free will- letter to Philippians supports this- God limited his power when he came to the world as Jesus (called kenosis) - God is being limited, can God regain the power and chose to control humans? issues with free will
• Whitehead's omnipotence: God is not omnipotent within our world as he is limited by the laws of nature - not supported by scripture, not omnipotent
• Hartshorne's omnipotence: not a perfect level of omnipotence but the highest that can be reached, people cannot resist God - atheists don't believe in God
• God and time: God could be seen as timeless - God is outside time and is not bound by time (Boethius, Anselm, Aquinas) or everlasting- God has no beginning or end but moves along the same timeline as us (Swinburne)
• Eternal= Timeless: builds on Platos's ideas of the realm of the forms, the real world is beyond space and time and here God is unchanging and timeless, we live in the unreal world where we are in time, as God is outside of time he sees past, present and future with perfect knowledge, created time and so cannot be limited by it - immutable, impersonal God
• Boethius on God: Wrote the 'consolidation of philosophy', God sees everything simultaneously, time doesn't pass for God, God looks down -'as though from a lofty peak above them' , doesn't see our free choices as there is not future for God
• Aquinas on God as timeless: influenced by Boethius, God exists unendingly without beginnings or ends, time doesn't pass for God, language about God is an analogy, we know God exists due to the 5 ways but we cannot know what God is like because he is outside of space and time
• Anselm's 'fourth dimensionalist approach': developed Boethius's idea that God can see everything at once, time is relative in the same way distance is relative, time is the 4th dimension, humans are limited by space and time, God is not, God can judge us as we have all responsibility over our actions, human imagination cannot contradict God as timeless, just because we cannot conceive it doesn't mean it isn't true.
• Swinburne on God as everlasting: God needs to be capable of love and so must be within time so he can respond to situations, a perfect being doesn't have to be immutable (supported in the bible) story of King Hezekiah, God said he would die because he was ill, he prayed to God and then God added 15 years to his life. 'The God of the old testament.... is a God in continual interaction with men' - argues the ideas of timelessness are incoherent
• -Problems with God as timeless: How could God exist in the world as the incarnation (Kierkegaard -Absolute Paradox), no personal relationship with God, free will
• -Problems with God as everlasting: why does God help some but not others, God must have always existed so what was he doing before the universe existed, is this God TWNGCNC, is he limited by time, challenges omniscience
• Omniscience: the state of knowing everything, no false beliefs, no mistakes
• Calvin on omniscience: we don't have full free will we are predetermined by our personalities and past experiences, we still have some free will as we can choose to do actions and aren't forced- questions omnibenevolance we are predetermined to go to heaven or hell
• Boethius and Anselm on omniscience: God is timeless, he can see all actions at once, this isn't causal knowledge- we are making free choices, but God is seeing these choices all at once.- relies on belief of God as timless, issues with omnipotence
• Swinburne on omniscience: As God moves along the same timeline as us he can only know what is logically possible, as the future hasn't happened he can't know it, impossible to know what isn't there, God's knowledge changes overtime- relies on belief of God as everlasting, questions omnipotence and the OA - we can conceive something greater
• Vardy's omniscience: God is making a deliberate choice to not know the future to preserve free will, he knows his ultimate purpose will be fulfilled, but cannot see every action along the way.-questions omnipotence- can he be certain of the future?
• Schleiermacher on omniscience: analogy of friends, we can make a reliable guess on what a friend is likely to chose from a dinner menu, God can make reliable guesses on our choices due to his detailed knowledge of us-questions true omniscience as the guesses might not be accurate
• omnibenevolence: nature of God is love, when God creates the universe everything is good, the good of the bible is explained as good morals for Christians, God is only angry as his people when they treat each other poorly rather than not following religious rituals, God's love is exemplified in Jesus and his sacrifice, God is found wherever love is found - God in the OT is not good (Asking Abraham to sacrifice his son), POE (The inconsistent triad), can contradict God other attributes