Creator and controller

• Swinburne said there are two ways to understand omnipotence:

  • God can do absolutely anything
  • God can only do what is logically possible
• God can do absolutely anything:

  • Can God make a stone he cannot lift- questions God's omnipotence
  • Links to the Problem of Evil
• God can do what is logically possible:

  • Answers the Problem of Evil
  • Issues relating to free will and determinism
• God as creator:

  • Minority of Christians believe the universe came out of God's being
  • Many believe God created the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo)
  • God ordered a chaotic universe- adopted from Process theology
• The issue of the universe coming out of God's being is that it limits God and does not show omnipotence
• A strength of the belief that God created the universe ex nihilo is that it is supported by scripture: "let there be ... and there was" -Genesis 1:1-3
• The issue with the idea of God ordering a chaotic universe is that it implies God is not actually a creator
• There are biblical references to God as a king, indicating that God is a controller with all things as his subjects
• Issues with God as a controller:

  • No free will
  • Most believe that God did not only create the world but he also sustains it
• Strengths of God as a controller:

  • supported by scripture
• Issues with an omniscient God:

  • problem of evil- how can God knowingly let suffering happen
  • free will- how can we do what we want if God knows everything
• 3 approaches to an omniscient God:

  • Theological determinism
  • God knows everything, but is not causitry
  • God exists within time and knows all that is logically possible for God to know
• Theological determinism is the idea that God knows everything past, present, and future in a causative sense
• The issue of theological determinism is that it implies God controls everything, including our actions
• The issue with God knowing everything is that God is said to be beyond space and time, meaning that spatio-temporal language is not appropriate to be used to describe God
• Aquinas believed that God knew everything, but not in a casuistry sense
• The idea of god existing within time says that God might be able to predict our future choices, but he is not the cause of those actions
• According to Swinburne, the idea of God existing within time and not controlling individuals is the only approach that allows christians to have a relationship with God