THE CHRISTIAN CONCEPT OF GOD Essay

God cannot determine the outcome of our free choice. So either there is no omniscient god or we are created without free will and therefore are forced/unable to avoid doing evil. Again this shows that god is not benevolent, nor omniscient, therefore he is non-existent. Theists may argue the following reason for god to have granted humans free will. It is possible that god raised homo sapiens to rationality giving the gift of abstract thought, language and disinterested love. And so it is arguable that god gave us free will to allow for love, as free will is necessary for love. Although this may be one of many reasons that god granted us free will, it is one that we may understand. Free will is necessary for both erotic and platonic love. One may argue that evil is only trumped by love. And that the existence of evil, although in its masses is worth it for the sake of

1. Examine the strengths and weaknesses of the argument for the existence of God based on religious experience. (18) 2. ‘The argument merely indicates the probability of God and this is of little value to a religious believer.’ Discuss. (12)

in this world, and they are effects derived from a cause. The effects in turn

Before we begin our journey into the analysis of omnipotence, we need to frame this term within a particular definition, so that our discussion of the word will stay focused and clear. The word omnipotent itself means something having unlimited or universal power, authority, or force. Or in more modern and easy to understand terms: all-powerful. However, there is a caveat to such a simple definition. If we impose the meaning of the word omnipotence itself as the functional definition of one of God’s divine attributes, we encounter some problems. These problems were recognized early on in church history. The first problem that I will address is whether divine omnipotence means the ability to do anything, or whether it means the ability to a particular set of things. “But how art thou omnipotent, if thou art not capable of all things?” According to Anselm, we need to distinguish acts of doing into two categories. One category is the act of doing something that is powerful. The second category is the act of doing something that is impotent, or showing weakness. When a being performs an act that is impotent, it also gives the forces which are contrary to that being greater power over itself. An example that Anselm gives to demonstrate an impotent act is the ability to become corrupted. Being corruptible is worse than being incorruptible. When you are corruptible,

But surely we can know, for example, that cruelty is wrong independently of any reference to what God has revealed. Also, the person whose moral life consists in blindly following what he or she takes to be moral rules revealed by God is morally immature, just as the child who sticks rigidly to the rules of a game without ever asking what those rules are for is immature.

Furthermore, god is supposedly full of wisdom, his wisdom is infinite, yet the world lacks heavily. One way this can be viewed is with nature, how nature scarcely tends to the need of human and animal happiness. One question that one may ask is can and is god able to prevent evil? Does he have what it takes; maybe god is impotent (lacking power, strength). According

The one thing that we know about God is that he is perfect and does not lie to us. Jesus implores us in Matthew 5:48 to “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (ESV). Numbers also tells us in chapter 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” Knowing that our God is perfect, his words are also perfect and

God does what He does and we do what we can do and good things are the result. I have also realized there are some things that God will not do. It doesn’t mean that God can’t do them; it’s just that He won’t do them. Big difference! God has no limitations but He does have boundaries. God has placed certain restrictions upon Himself these restrictions are a reflection of His nature and essence within our created world. God created all of humanity to be participants in His creation and not to be spectators of it

Therefore, it is not the case that God is an omnipotent and wholly good being.

The second portion asks if he is able but not willing. This would make him malevolent. God is supposed to be omnimalevolent, all loving and all good. A God who is able to stop all evil but doesn’t is clearly not loving then, correct? Christians would respond that this apparent ignorance from God is actually human sin and not God turning his back on us.

The problem of evil questions the nature of God and threatens his status as a figure worthy of worship. Surely human beings would not wish to worship a God that is neither all good nor all-powerful? The figure we call God is seen to be entirely perfect and flawless in every way. The problem of evil also questions God’s omniscience, in respects that he is all knowing. If God is omniscient then he must know the harm that evil does and the suffering it will cause. The attributes in question are the essence of the nature of God and without them he becomes more like a human than a God. If any of God’s characteristics are omitted, he

First, many theologians have assumed that if God is all-powerful, omnipotent, which the Bible clearly teaches (e.g., 1Chron 29:11; Jer 32:17; Mt 19:26; Rev 1:8; 19:6), that nothing in his creation can ever thwart his will. At the very least, it is reasoned, God

One possible answer is the fact that we can not see what God’s plans are, and so in the scheme of the entire universe our error could be making everything perfect. A second and more in-depth answer Descartes argues errors are mistaken judgments. When looking at what a judgment is composed of, one finds it involves two things, the intellect and the will. Both are faculties of the soul or self; whose existence is proved in the second meditation. The Intellect is limited, “through the intellect alone, [one] merely perceives ideas about which [one] can render a judgment. Strictly speaking, no error is to be found in the intellect when properly viewed in this manner.” (56) There is no error because the intellect does not make a judgment it simply takes in information. Descartes says error arises when the will affirms or denies a judgment the intellect has

a) Christians believe many different things about God’s nature; due to the huge spectrum of Christians that there are. However, as a general rule they perceive God as being one of the following four things:

Omnipotent quite literally means all powerful, Omni- all, potent-powerful. Most theists believe there to be one all-powerful, perfect being, so the idea of an omnipotent being is essential to most western religions. I will focus on Christianity, throughout my essay to allow me to focus on the question without getting sucked into discussing the different religious point of views. So the God we speak of is the traditional Christian one unless otherwise specified. There are plenty of quotes directly from the bible that promotes God as all-powerful, though omnipotent is a later word. “The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.” (Job 37:23) The discussion of how to define God is an essential one to theists as it can cause a lot of problems. If for example, we raise questions such as if God is all powerful why is there suffering in the world? Before we can move on to problems with this definition and other definitions we first need to look at them in some more depth. In