Philosophy of religion discusses the fundamental religious values and

concepts of God that originated in the Western civilization. As a supremely good

being, distinct and independent of the earth, all-powerful, all-knowing, and the

creator of the universe, God is conceived of. In the western civilization, the dominant

conception of God, then, is that of a supremely good, creator of an all-powerful,

all-knowing, eternal and self-existent creator, but independent of and independent of

the universe. Of course, only as far as the elements themselves are known can this

list of the key elements in this concept of God illumine us. This chapter focused on

the attributes of God which includes: (1) omnipotence and perfect goodness, (2)

self-existence, and (3) separation, independence, and eternity.

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

I. Omnipotence and Perfect Goodness

A. Omnipotence

1. Omnipotent – able to do all thing that are possible

2. 2 kinds of possibility

a) Relative possibility

(1) It lies within the power of some being or

beings to do

(2) God’s omnipotence means he can do all

things that are in his power to do

b) Absolute possibility

(1) Not contradiction in terms

(2) God’s omnipotence is explained as the

ability to do all things that are possible

and square at the same time.

a) There are many things that god despite being

omnipotent cannot do

b) It would be a mistake to conclude that god's power

is somehow limited, that there are things he cannot

do which if only his power were greater he could

do.

c) Whatever implies contradiction does not come

within the scope of divine omnipotence.

B. Perfect Goodness

1. God cannot destroy himself or do what is evil for doing

such a thing is not consistent with God's nature.

2. He has the power to do evil but because he is supremely

good it is a power he will never exercise

3. God can do anything that is an absolute possibility and

not inconsistent with any of his basic attributes

a) Paradox of the stone

(1) Either god has the power to create a stone

so heavy that he cannot lift it or god does

not have that power. If he does have the

power to create such a stone, then there is

something God cannot do: lift the stone he

can create. on the other hand, if god cannot

create such a stone, then there is also

heavy he cannot lift it. In either case there is

something God cannot do. Therefore, God

isn’t omnipotent.

(2) Soln: God cannot create such a stone any

more than he can do an evil deed. In the

case of evil deeds, God cannot perform that

way because his perfect goodness is

essential to him.

4. Certain past happenings cannot now be changed even by

an omnipotent being

5. God is not just a good being, his goodness is

unsurpassable.

6. God is absolute moral goodness.

a) Moral goodness

(1) Source are standard of what it is for human

life to be moral

b) Non moral goodness

7. God commands is morally right independent of his

commands

a) Commanding us to perform certain actions does

not make those actions morally right; they are

morally right independent of his commands and he

commands them because he sees that they are

morally right.
 8. Some things are not ultimately a matter of God's will for

commands. Perhaps the basic truths of morality have the

same sort of status as the basic truths of mathematics.

II. Self existence

A. God is a self existent being

B. According to Anselm, among a lot of beings that exist there is

one that is supremely great and good, nothing that exists or ever

did exist is its equal

C. Three cases to consider

1. Something's existence is explained by another

a) Each of them exists because of other things

2. Something's existence is explained by nothing

a) No explanation whatever of the fact that it exists

rather than not

3. Something's existence is explained by itself

a) Found within the nature of that very being

D. For something to be a self existent being is for it to have the

explanation of its existence within its own nature

E. God has the explanation of his existence within his own nature.

III. Separation, independence, and eternity

A. God is separate from and independent of the world

1. Means that he is not governed by any of the physical

laws according to which the universe operates

2. God is not subject to the laws of space and time

the same time

b) The supreme nature exists in place and time in a

way that prevents it from existing simultaneously,

as a whole, in different places or times.

B. Monotheism

1. Belief that one's own God was the creator of heaven and

earth, the God not only of one's own try but of all people.

2. God is separate from the world constitutes a rejection of

pantheism

C. Henotheism - Belief that there are a number of gods but worship

only one of them, the God of one’s own tribe

D. Polytheism - Belief in plurality of divine being or God.

E. Pantheism - Everything that exists has an inner nature that is

one and the same in all things, and that inner nature is God.

F. Judo-Christian and Islamic conception of God

1. The world is entirely distinct from god

G. Eternal

1. To have endless temporal existence, without beginning

and without end

2. To have infinite duration in both temporal directions

H. God is outside of time, not subject to its fundamental laws.

I. According to Samuel Clarke, to be eternal is simply to be

everlasting, existing in time but having neither beginning nor end

that it has been interpreted in two distinct ways.

K. God is a supremely good being, creator of but separate from

and independent of the world, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal,

and self-existent.

Atheist - anyone who believes that the theistic God does not exist

Agnostic - the theistic idea of God but believes neither in the existence nor in the

nonexistence of the theistic God.

The expression "the God out there" and "the God of the traditional

theologians" to refer to this idea of God. This view of God, however, we shall now

call the theistic concept of God. To be a theist, therefore, is to believe in the

presence of a supremely good being, a creator, omnipotent, omniscient, immortal,

and self-existent, but distinct from and independent of the universe. In the Aquinas’

Summa Theologica​, omnipotence is seen as God being able to do all possible

things, where possibility is characterized as relative possibility and absolute

possibility. On the question of self-existence, St. Anselm observes three instances to

consider: something is either explained by another, explained by nothing, or

explained by itself, in which God necessarily resides within his own being, as if his

existence were due to something else, he would not be [Link]-Christian

and Islamic conception of God was also debated to create divine distinction from and

independent of the universe and the conception of God as an everlasting being,

having it that the world is entirely distinct from God while the divine relates to the

sense of eternity as God is not bound by the law of time.