Omnipotent
Biblical references
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Different Understandings of omnipotence
"But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases." - Psalm 115:3 - he has the power to do whatever he wants
"And God said "Let there be light" and there was light" - Genesis 1:3 - he wishes it into existence, his power shaped the universe as we know it.
"Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure." - Psalm 147:5
Descartes : thought that an omnipotent God should be able to do anything, even the logically impossible
God could make 2+2 = 5 because God is the supreme perfection and therefore has no limitations.
Descartes states that although we may not be able to understand how a God exists (because we are limited by human understanding), God can see how to be self-contradictory because he is omnipotent.
Most Christian scholars disagree with Descartes idea of an omnipotent God, God can do anything but logical contradictions are not 'things'.
it is not a lack of power that stops God from making 2+2=5 or a circle square but the fact that these things are and would be nonsense.
God's existence is prior to logic
Responses to omnipotence
Aquinas: God can do anything that is logically possible. It doesn't make sense to say that God is weak just becuase he can't do the logically IMPOSSIBLE.
God is completely omnipotent in the sense of being in charge of the world, cresting it., and keeping It in existence.
God can 'do anything that is absolutely possible ', qualifying this in Summa Theologica saying that God can do anything that is logically possible, but if it is not logically possible then it cannot be done, even by God.
Even Aquinas' definition should be narrower
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Potential LImitations
"God is not man , that he should lie." - choosing not to lie, or physically can't.
God could make 2+2 = 5 because God is the supreme perfection and therefore has no limitations.
Descartes states that although we may not be able to understand how a God exists (because we are limited by human understanding), God can see how to be self-contradictory because he is omnipotent.
Can God ride a bicycle? If God is not embodied it's hard to see how he could. Why can't he be embodied? No reason why he can't
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"I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son" - Genesis 18:10 - physical omnipotence, ability to create life and take it away
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Augustine: God can do everything that he chooses/wills to do. So he can't do evil because he doesn't will that.
Luis de Molina created Molinism which says God is omnipotent but limited by the laws of logic and the necessity of non-contradiction.
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Augustine: He imposes limitations on himself that are contrary to his nature
"who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible"
"And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings." - Acts 17:26 - predeterminism, he has the power to dictate the lives of everyone
A perfectly good and powerful God would not have created evil: is there some flaw/limitation somewhere that caused it to happen?
Logical paradoxes are the result of the limitations of human thinking and language
- John Macquarrie and Thomas Aquinas
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God is not omnipotent per se, but is 'unsurpassably great'
A.N. Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne
John Locke: omnipotence = infinite power
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