ASPECTS OF GOD OMNIPOTENCE

The idea of a powerful God is a key religious belief. Christian tradition – God’s power enables all things to be possible. GOD HAS POWER BEYOND HUMAN COMPREHENSION LUKE 1.37 AQUINAS – GOD= ACTIVE POWER

Three main ways in which philosophers view god’s omnipotence: God’s ability to do anything, including the logically impossible. God’s ability to do what is logically possible for a perfect God to do. a statement of the power of God.

1. God’s ability to do anything, including the logically impossible Rene Descartes – God can change the fundamental laws of physics, even though they are usually unchanging and universal. BUT: This view is rejected by many later philosophers who claim that there is actually nothing which is ‘logically impossible’.

One such philosopher is J. L. Mackie – the idea of logically impossible actions is “only a form of words which fails to describe any state of affairs.”

2. God’s ability to do what is logically possible for a perfect God to do. God’s power is different from our powers and abilities, and talk of God’s omnipotence is talk of what is logically possible for a being, such as God, to do. God has the power to do whatever it is logically possible for God to do. E.g. it is logically possible for you to climb Mount Everest; but this does not mean you have the power to do it.

However, in God’s case, saying God is the omnipotent Creator is both logically possible and saying that God has the power to create.

Aquinas – God’s power is omnipotent because it is infinite; God is not limited. God is also eternal and not bound by the limitation of physical existence: “Whatever involves a contradiction is not held by omnipotence, for it just cannot possibly make sense of being possible…for a contradiction in terms cannot be a word, for no mind can conceive it.”

This quote answers many challenges to God’s omnipotence, such as ‘Can God climb a tree?” If God is eternal and not physical, then God does not have a body with which to climb, and thus the idea that God is not omnipotent because God cannot climb trees is mistaken, because the concept of God climbing is illogical.

Aquinas also considered whether God could change the past using his omnipotence, and again rejects this as illogical.

Consider the following example: The Nazis lost the Second World War. The Nazis won the Second World war. The first statement is true, the second false. God could not change the past so that statement two is true because this contradicts what we know to be the case; that the Nazis lost the Second World War:

“ If you think of it [an event] as a past event and definitively so, then it is not only in itself but also absolutely impossible that it did not take place, for it implies a contradiction. As such it is more impossible than the raising of the dead to life.” (Aquinas, Summa Theologiae)

God’s omnipotence is an aspect of the nature of God and so God cannot sin because this contradicts the nature of God as good. ‘God cannot sin’ is more than just saying God does not sin or chooses not to sin; it is a statement that the idea of God sinning goes against God’s nature as perfect.

Anselm – suggested that God could not sin as sin involves a lack of control over one’s actions. So sinning would indicate that God lacks power over his/her activity.

However, omnipotence as the ability of God to do what is logically possible for a perfect God to do, has been criticised by philosophers such as Peter Geach. Geach argues that this definition of omnipotence relies on the view of God’s nature as perfect. God’s omnipotence might be better understood as a statement concerning the power of God.

3. A statement of the power of God Philosophers like Anthony Kenny have suggested that omnipotence is best understood as a statement of God’s power: “ A being is omnipotent if it has every power which it is logically possible to possess.”

Omnipotence = a. what is logically possible for God, b. but also the fact that God has the power to do whatever is logically possible for God. This is different from humans who often have the logical capability to do something, but lack the power necessary to achieve the goal.

Challenges to omnipotence CAN GOD CHANGE PAST HISTORY? Response: God cannot change past history as this would involve a ________of what we know to be the case. This is illogical. God cannot do what is illogical unless you adopt ________’s view of omnipotence.

CAN GOD SIN? Response: 1. God cannot sin as this would stop God being _______. 2. God cannot sin, as sin involves change and an ______God cannot change. 3. Sin involves a lack of power over one’s ______(Anselm). An omnipotent being has power over his/her______, therefore an omnipotent God cannot sin.

CAN GOD MAKE A STONE THAT IS TOO HEAVY FOR GOD TO LIFT? Response: Talk of god omnipotently making a stone that is too heavy for the omnipotent God to life is incoherent and therefore________. If something is omnipotently made immovable then that is how the thing is – you do not lack any possible power if you cannot lift the stone as the stone by nature, omnipotently, is__________.