Transcript Introduction to the Attributes of God

OMNIBENEVOLENT
GOD
GOD IS GOOD
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Holiness
Creation
Commandments
Miracles
Answered prayer
Jesus
Love
Justice
How does each of these
things illustrate the goodness
of God?
THE BIBLE PROCLAIMS THE
GOODNESS OF GOD
• ‘He is good; his love endures for ever.’ 2 Chronicles 7:3
WHAT EXACTLY DOES IT MEAN TO
SAY THAT GOD IS GOOD?
• ‘the perfections of everything exist in God, he lacks no
excellence of any sort’ Aquinas, Summa Theologica.
• Swinburne draws analogies between God’s goodness and the
role of a parent. E.g. rewarding and punishing.
ISSUES REGARDING GOD’S
BENEVOLENCE
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What is the relationship between God and goodness?
Can God do evil?
Should a good God reward and punish?
If God is omnibenevolent, can hell exist?
WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP
BETWEEN GOD AND GOODNESS?
• The Euthyphro dilemma poses the question of the link
between God and goodness.
• Does God set the standards in determining what is
good and bad or do these standards exist regardless of
the views of God?
• For example, would murder have been good if God has
said so, or was it already wrong before God gave the
commandments?
SHOULD A GOOD GOD REWARD AND
PUNISH?
• This reward/punish concept is well established in
theistic faiths.
• Some are concerned that this leads to religious
morality being selfish, people only being good to ‘get
into heaven’, not for ‘good’ motives!
• If God knows what our actions will be and that they
cannot be otherwise, it does not seem just for God to
judge those actions.
IF GOD IS OMNIBENEVOLENT, CAN
HELL EXIST?
• For some hell is incompatible with the notion of a good
God.
• Universalists (those who believe that all people will
ultimately achieve salvation) such as John Hick
argue that all will be saved.
• Swinburne however rejects this arguing that human
freedom must include the freedom to damn ourselves.
• Other philosophers give a symbolic interpretation to
the rewards and punishments of heaven and hell. i.e.
not real places but symbols to inspire people to Jesus’
teachings.
PHILOSOPHERS VIEWS:
• John Stuart Mill openly criticised the idea of an omnibenevolent
God, attacking the design argument in particular. Mill stated that
God cannot be loving if he created a world where animals had
to kill each other in order to survive.
• Wiles – why turn water into wine, yet let the holocaust happen
• Aquinas, however, states that we cannot judge the seemingly
unjust world around us, because we do not know God's 'master
plan'. Events may seem to cause suffering, but there may be a
greater outcome. This is similar to the belief of Peter Vardy.
• Immanuel Kant also argues that God's omnibenevolence is
redeemed in heaven, and links this to his moral argument for the
existence of God. Aquinas also said that God understands our
suffering and can empathise with us; this links to the idea of God
being everlasting.
HOW CAN A GOOD GOD ALLOW EVIL
IN THE WORLD?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it7mhQ8fEq0 Ravi
Zacharias, Christian Apologist.