QUALITIES OF GOD
SPECIFICATION
God's attributes:
Omniscient
Omnipotent
Supremely good (omnibenevolent)
The meaning(s) of these divine attributes
Competing views on such a being’s relationship to time including
God being timeless (eternal) and God being within time (everlasting)
Arguments for the incoherence of the concept of God including:
The paradox of the stone
The Euthyphro dilemma
The compatibility, or otherwise, of the existence of an omniscient
God and free human beings - Freewill.
[TIP: when explaining arguments for God's existence, also explain concept of God which is being
assumed or defended by that argument]
, OMNISCIENCE
-> eternal/timeless
-> all-knowing
God must exist outside or beyond time. To exist in time would limit his capacity to know the
future
BOETHIUS
If God, by definition, lacks nothing and “includes the fullness of life” then such a being must
always be “present to itself” and have “the whole of moving time” present to it, because no time
can be missing for God
-> knowledge transcends the movement of time and exists only in a single, simple, unified
present; an ‘eternal present’. This contrasts with contingent human existence which is
characterized by limitation and a lack of knowledges:
God must live in an ETERNAL PRESENT, with no past or future
- His knowledge transcends the movement of time and exists only in a single, simple, unified
present
- He experiences all moments in time as they happen, as they happen, in one single "present"
- human freedom is maintained as although all moments are present to God, he only sees them
in the 'present' as spontaneous events
concepts such as 'past' and 'present' are expressions of limitation, and since God is without limit
they mean nothing to him.
BUT…
Is human freedom an illusion as God can see the outcome of our 'free choices' before we make
them?
SOLUTION 1 - redefine what we mean by 'simultaneous'.
ANTHONY KENNY - Boethius' understanding of time is incoherent
-The idea that two events, separated by hundreds of years, can at the same time be 'simultaneous'
with each other is incoherent because it contradicts the very idea of 'time' - that is a succession of
separate moments
-the notion of eternity as an 'eternal present' is incoherent and meaningless.
-If God exists, he cannot exist in eternity or any kind of 'timeless' state (must exist inside time, cannot
know the future and therefore human freedom is protected)
NORMAN KRETZMANN and ELEANORE STUMP (response to Kenny)
-fails to understand the idea of simultaneity - experiencing two simultaneous events in the contingent
world will not be the same as experiencing the same events in an eternal present
->T-simultaneity; our own temporal experience
->E – simultaneity; the experience of God in an eternal present
-> Einstein's concept of the 'relativity of simultaneity'
SPECIFICATION
God's attributes:
Omniscient
Omnipotent
Supremely good (omnibenevolent)
The meaning(s) of these divine attributes
Competing views on such a being’s relationship to time including
God being timeless (eternal) and God being within time (everlasting)
Arguments for the incoherence of the concept of God including:
The paradox of the stone
The Euthyphro dilemma
The compatibility, or otherwise, of the existence of an omniscient
God and free human beings - Freewill.
[TIP: when explaining arguments for God's existence, also explain concept of God which is being
assumed or defended by that argument]
, OMNISCIENCE
-> eternal/timeless
-> all-knowing
God must exist outside or beyond time. To exist in time would limit his capacity to know the
future
BOETHIUS
If God, by definition, lacks nothing and “includes the fullness of life” then such a being must
always be “present to itself” and have “the whole of moving time” present to it, because no time
can be missing for God
-> knowledge transcends the movement of time and exists only in a single, simple, unified
present; an ‘eternal present’. This contrasts with contingent human existence which is
characterized by limitation and a lack of knowledges:
God must live in an ETERNAL PRESENT, with no past or future
- His knowledge transcends the movement of time and exists only in a single, simple, unified
present
- He experiences all moments in time as they happen, as they happen, in one single "present"
- human freedom is maintained as although all moments are present to God, he only sees them
in the 'present' as spontaneous events
concepts such as 'past' and 'present' are expressions of limitation, and since God is without limit
they mean nothing to him.
BUT…
Is human freedom an illusion as God can see the outcome of our 'free choices' before we make
them?
SOLUTION 1 - redefine what we mean by 'simultaneous'.
ANTHONY KENNY - Boethius' understanding of time is incoherent
-The idea that two events, separated by hundreds of years, can at the same time be 'simultaneous'
with each other is incoherent because it contradicts the very idea of 'time' - that is a succession of
separate moments
-the notion of eternity as an 'eternal present' is incoherent and meaningless.
-If God exists, he cannot exist in eternity or any kind of 'timeless' state (must exist inside time, cannot
know the future and therefore human freedom is protected)
NORMAN KRETZMANN and ELEANORE STUMP (response to Kenny)
-fails to understand the idea of simultaneity - experiencing two simultaneous events in the contingent
world will not be the same as experiencing the same events in an eternal present
->T-simultaneity; our own temporal experience
->E – simultaneity; the experience of God in an eternal present
-> Einstein's concept of the 'relativity of simultaneity'
