Philosophy and God

Nature and Attributes of God

• Western Theologians think of God as creator and sustainer of the
universe, who is supremely good, all powerful, all knowing who is
separate from and independent of the world.
• Certain attributes have been given to God such as self-existent,
eternal, omniscient and omnipotent.
• Understanding of these attributes will help to know who God
really is.
 Nature of God
Christianity believes there is a being who is invisible and who is the
creator of the universe. This God is said to be having personal
attributes such that he speaks and sees things. Read Genesis
Chapter 1
This God made himself known in various forms in the Old Testament
and made himself visible in the New Testament as the Son Jesus
Christ. Read Hebrews 1: 1-3
After the death of Jesus Christ this same God relates to human
beings in a form called the Holy Spirit.
Discuss briefly on the nature of the three in one God-Trinity
 Some attributes of God
Omnipotence and Perfect Goodness
Omnipotence means God is Almighty. He can do all things.
Thomas Aquinas in his book, Summa Theologica, discusses the
omnipotence of God. For God to be omnipotent it means God
should be able to do all things that are possible. Aquinas sees
possible things in two categories (i) Relative possibility and (ii)
Absolute Possibility.
Relative possibility → All that are in your power to do is what you
can do if is it not in your power you cannot do it. Eg. Flying by birds
is in their natural power.
• Absolute possibility → All that are possible to be done by
something is an absolute possibility if it is not a contradiction
to conditions /terms set for it to be done.

• Eg To change a triangle to a square, it will cease to be a

triangle. If God’s power is absolute, it means he can do all
things that are possible to him.

• The question is can God do what is evil? What Aquinas

explains by God’s absolute possibility include deeds which
are possible..
• The question is if God does what is evil, would he still be
considered as a perfect God?
• So it calls for a second look at the definition of God’s absolute
possibility.
• It would be better to think that God can do anything that is an
absolute possibility that is not inconsistent with his nature (any of
his basic attributes).
• If God cannot do evil it does not conflict his omnipotence
• Can God create a stone too heavy that he cannot lift? If God
creates a stone too heavy that he cannot lift, then he is not
omnipotent, it would be inconsistent with his nature.
• How can God create a stone he cannot lift? God’s omnipotence
does not include the power to bring about logically impossible
state of affairs.
• Eg. Can God change past events? Is it possible and right to say that
Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kuffour were never
presidents of Ghana?
• . If God is a perfect God, he deserves unconditional praise, worship
and gratitude. God’s nature is perfect goodness, does not have the
power to do evil.
• Because God’s nature is perfect goodness, his goodness is
unsurpassable and He is the source of all moral goodness. God’s
moral goodness is what gives perfect Justice and benevolence
God is the source of all moral obligations. It is out of God’s moral
perfection that religious people get commandments.
The moral duties can be put two categories:
(i) Positive duties: what is morally good for man to do and
(ii) Negative duties: what is not morally right for man to do.

•There is the question as to whether moral duties are right because

they come from God, thus God is the source of moral duties or God
sees that the moral duties are right that is why he has commanded
them.
a) Is something right because it is commanded by God

b)Something is right that is why God has commanded it

• If it is because they are right that is why God
commands man to obey them, then it means they do
not come from God, they originate from somewhere.
For example some things are right yet they are not
commanded by God. Eg. 2+2 = 4.
• Is it because God says so or because it is true?
 Self-Existence:
• One of the attributes of God is that he has self existence, thus he exits on
his own. The self-existence of God is often discussed using an “a priori”
argument of ontological arguments.
An Ontological Argument tries to “prove” the existence of God by
establishing the necessity of God's existence through an explanation of the
concept of existence or necessary being .
Definition of a priori: An a priori argument is one where certain basic
principles are assumed to be true. Therefore, it is not necessary to use
empirical evidence but rely on the axioms being true. A priori contrasts with
arguments a posteriori arguments.
• A posteriori arguments discuss issues based on evidence and facts.
 Self-Existence:
Anselm: Ontological Argument for God’s Existence
https://iep.utm.edu/anselm-ontological-argument/

•In the 11th century, St. Anselm developed and explained the idea
that God was self-existent. He argued that the very existence of
God has no equal.
•To develop his argument about the existence of God, he took a
general look of all things that exist. He said that existence can be
put into three
•(i) Things which depend on other things to have existence, eg a table
depends on a carpenter to have existence
• (ii) Things that depend on nothing for its existence
• (iii) Some things that exist on their own.
• From these three categories where do we put the existence of God? Does
God depend on something to exist or depends on nothing or depends on
itself to exist?
• If God needs to depend on something else to exist, then he is not a perfect
Supreme Being who is all in all. However from Anselm’s explanation,
whatever that exist must have an explanation for its existence.
• Anselm accepts the difficulty in thinking that something exists out of
nothing.
• In this case God cannot exist out of nothing, he must depend on something,
and since should God’s existence depend on something, he would cease to
be the Supreme Being, God’s existence therefore should be thought of as
depending on itself.
•
• Anselm does not account for what makes God’s existence depend on
itself. That also does not mean the Supreme Being brought himself
into being, because it would mean he existed before bringing himself
into being. Eternity is God’s characteristic, so it means he did not
come into the world at a certain time.
• Existence is therefore parts of God’s nature. Fire is warmth (hot) not
because somebody set it but it is its nature to be warm. God’s
existence is part of its nature not because something makes him God.
Separation, Independence And Eternity
• Western theology (Christianity included) which upholds the
concept of monotheism holds that the theistic God is separate
from the world.
• God is seen to be independent of the world in that the laws of the
cosmos, the universe do not apply to him.
• Among the laws of the universe is the law of space. The law of
space says that no object can exist at two different places at one
and the same time.
• By this law it means you can be at one place or something can be at
different places in parts at one and the same time , but the whole
parts cannot be at more than one place or the whole object will be
at all places but in different parts.
• This law does not apply to God, because the traditional idea about
God is that the whole of God can be everywhere at one and the
same time.
• By the concept of God’s eternity it means the whole
beginningless and endless life of God is present to him at
each moment of time and the whole of God is
simultaneously present at every place in space.
• Being eternal means with no a beginning and without an
end. Being eternal means you are not subject to the laws of
time. God is seen to be eternal.
• The theistic God is seen to omnipotent, omniscient, creator
and sustainer of the universe who is independent separate
from the universe and who is eternal
 Review Questions
1. What is the difference between positive duties and negative
duties?
2. Distinguish between Relative Possibility and Absolute Possibility
3. What restrains God from carrying out any imaginable acts that
he can?
4. Distinguish between A priori arguments and A Posteriori
Arguments?
5. Why is the Ontological arguments used to explain the self-
existence of God?
6. Why is the law of space not applicable to God?
THANK YOU