Omnipotence (The Nature of God)
Descartes
Aquinas
Swinburne
Vardy
God's omnipotence means God can do everything that is within his nature and does not imply a contradiction
all-powerful
so God cannot be cruel or fail or be unwise
argue = if there are things God cannot do and he is limited by his own nature, then he cannot be omnipotent
Bible attributes omnipotence to God, for example in the creation stories in Genesis, at the end of the book of Job and in miracle stories
God is deliberately limits his own power
created the world in such a way that his own power would have to be limited as a result
don't reduce or undermine God because God chose to do this in order to create a world suitable for free and rational human beings
letter to the Philippians in the Bible suggests the same
when God came to the world as JC he deliberately limited his own power in order to be accessible to humanity
kenosis = Christian doctrine that God deliberately empties himself of his own power
God can do everything but logical impossibilities are not things
Square circles are not things and neither are stones too heavy for God to lift or knots that God cannot untie
They could never exist
God can do everything possible
God must be omnipotent in the sense of being able to do even the logically impossible
God has all the perfections so therefore God has no limitations at all
God can create a stone too heavy for himself to lift
Most scholars disagree
things that are logically impossible are not really 'things' at all because they are impossible
God can do anything except the logical impossible
Links to Swinburne
disagree = God who could do anything at all would be able to do things that go against his loving nature
such as acts of cruelty
weakness = view of a totally powerful God who can do the logically impossible makes it difficult to find an acceptable theodicy
Most scholars believe omnipotence means God can do everything possible
Descarte thought omnipotence meant God could have no limitations
Other ideas
discussions about whether omnipotence means God can do absolutely anything or whether this has other meanings
discussion about whether omnipotence is compatible with other attributes traditionally ascribed to God
discussions about whether omnipotence makes sense as a concept
perhaps an all-powerful being could not possibly exist
perhaps omnipotence is a problem of religious language where we don't have the words to frame an adequate concept of the power of God
Whitehead and Hartshorn argue that a totally omnipotent God would not be as impressive as a God who could meet resistence
compatibility with omni-benevolence
illogical for God to be able to do evil and unable to do evil at the same time
compatibility with omniscience
illogical for God to be both able able to add to his knowledge and at the same time unable to add to his own knowledge
Genesis - 'Let there be light'
Abraham and Sarah - 'Is anything too hard for the Lord?"