Judaeo-Christian influences on philosophy of religion - OCR AS

The concept of God as Creator

The way the Bible presents God as involved with his creation.

•Creation is not just mentioned in Genesis One and Two but throughout the Bible.

•Mark 10:6 "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.'

• Isaiah 40:28 The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

The way the Bible presents God as involved with his creation.

Genesis One

• God as the creator of the Universe. • God’s Word is the creating agent • World comes about through his

command.• “Divine Fiat” - creative command of God. Latin word fiat, "let there be".• Hebrew ‘bara’ = "create".• Hebrew ‘asah’ = "make".• Hebrew ‘yasar’ = "form"

Genesis Two

• Relationship between God and man• God gave man

stewardship over the animals and plants• First covenant made

and broken• Epistemic distance

(Fall of man from paradise)• More poetic account,

story telling

CraftsmanThroughout both stories

God is seen to be working:

• To a plan. • With purpose and

intention behind his creation.

• Towards a deliberate act

Therefore he is not only a creator but a craftsman.

God is seen to take certain pride over His creation.

This is why creation is mentioned throughout the Bible

Creatio ex nihilo• God created the whole universe, along with

everything in existence, out of nothing. • This is a deliberate action by God and one that is

Good.• It means that God is the master of the world• God is active, yet remains outside of his creation.

“In the beginning…the raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness.” Genesis

• Ex nihilo is a Latin phrase meaning "out of nothing". • Also appears in classical philosophy as “ex nihilo nihil

fit” which means “ Out of nothing comes nothing”• This is not a view necessarily found in Genesis.• Could be seen as added later by the Fourth of the

Lateran Councils “His omnipotent power made from nothing.”

Part B) EvaluationCreation not that far fetched…• Many argue that the Creation and

Genesis is a far fetched story , little accuracy, no indication of purpose but compared to other creation myths.....

Other view point against Creatio ex NihiloMany argue creation was started out of pre-

existent matter or “Creatio ex materia.“ This not only removes God’s omnipotence but

also God’s deliberate action (craftsman).Problem: where did the pre – existent matter

come from? = infinite regression.

Chinese myth ‘Pan Gu’ - giant’s body decomposes after his death.

Various parts of his body become parts of the world (the parasites living in his hair become the people of the World.)

But nothing comes from nothing?

But if this is a deliberate action by God and one that is Good what does it mean by good? G. E. Moore

Where does goodness come from?

• Autonomy Thesis: morals already there – God loves them cause they are good, independent of God. Diminishes God ‘s omnipotenceImplies even God obeys rules

• Divine Command thesis: morals good because God says they areGod could have said anythingNew dilemmas – no guidance

Euthyphro Dilemma: Plato’s origin of morality:“God commands things because they are good or whether things are good because God commands them.”It is a dilemma because it questions where goodness comes from: •If goodness is from God what is the problem?

•If Goodness is separate from God what is the problem?

= Hence the dilemma.

The Euthyphro Dilemma• The first premise of the Euthyphro dilemma presents two alternatives to the divine command theorist: either morally good acts are

willed by God because they are morally good, or morally good acts are morally good because they are willed by God. The two options offered to the divine command theorist are intended to be logically exhaustive, so that if divine command theory is true then one of the options must be the case. The divine command theorist is therefore forced to choose one of the options to affirm.

• The second premise states the consequences of the divine command theorist affirming the first of the options offered to him in premise (1), “morally good acts are willed by God because they are morally good”. It states that if the first option is true then the morally good is morally good independent of God’s will. This claim is supported by an argument known as the independence problem.

• The third premise denies that the morally good is morally good independent of God’s will. Of course, the critic of divine command theory does not believe this premise to be true; he believes that morality is independent of God’s will. However, the divine command theorist is committed to accepting this claim because divine command theory just is the theory that all moral truths are dependent on God’s will. Though critics of divine command theory disbelieve this premise, then, they can still use it against the divine command theorist.

• The first sub-conclusion, (4) is the rejection of the first option offered to the divine command theorist in premise (1), “morally good acts are willed by God because they are morally good”. That this option is false follows from premises (2) and (3).

• Premise (5) states the consequences of the divine command theorist affirming the second of the options offered to him in premise (1), “morally good acts are morally good because they are willed by God”. It states that if this option is true then there is no reason either to care about God’s moral goodness or to worship him. The first claim is supported theemptiness problem, and the second by the problem of abhorrent commands.

• (6) states that we do have reason both to care about God’s moral goodness and to worship him. Again, this is used as a premise to which the divine command theorist is committed, rather than as a premise that the critic of divine command theory believes is true.

• The second subconclusion, (7), is the rejection of the second option offered to the divine command theorist in premise (1), “morally good acts are morally good because they are willed by God”. (7) follows from premises (5) and (6). Instead of the emptiness problem and the problem of abhorrent commands, thearbitrariness problem can be used to support it, if need be.

• Finally, (8) concludes that divine command theory is false. Premise (1) stated that if divine command theory were true then one of the two alternatives offered to the divine command theorist would also be true. The argument from (2) to (7) has, it is claimed, shown that neither alternative is true. It is therefore inferred that divine command theory is false.

Attributes of GodOmnipotence of GodOmnipotence = all powerful

• “And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians.” (Exodus 14)

Old Testament: • Plagues/ Parting the Red Sea• Creating Universe by words and

commands alone• Creatio ex nihilo

Omniscience of God• All knowing = Omniscience

• Limitless nature of God’s knowledge of both the act of creation and everything that happens within creation

• “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight.” (Hebrews 4)

God’s Omnipresence• God is present throughout his creation at the same

time is transcendent (separate.)

Old Testament:• Answers Hannah’s prayer for a child• Stops Abraham before killing Isaac• Helps the Israelites to escape slavery• Gives the Decalogue as guidance when neededNew Testament: • Miracles that Christ performs = God acting/present

through Christ. • Feeding of 5000 (Matthew 15:29)• Healing the blind "According to your faith will it be

done to you"; and their sight was restored.” (Matthew 9)

Responsibility of God• Many argue that as God is creator

God is therefore responsible for his creation.

For example if you design a car and sell it to the public you will be held responsible if the car explodes.

Two main views: 1. God is designer therefore

responsible = not an omnipotent craftsman.

2. Earthquakes, volcanoes are just part of the design, fulfilling a purpose and not deliberately there to cause humans harm.

Earthquake only evil when hurts humans – egocentric view.

God as the Creator in comparison

Aristotle’s Prime Mover: Aristotle's God is not the efficient cause. That is to say, God did not actively create the world like the Christian God did. Aristotle's God is the teleological cause of the universe. The three defining characteristics of Aristotle's God are that he is:1. Indestructible2. Eternal3. UnmovableThis is because Aristotle considers the idea that the world had a beginning incoherent and nonsensical; movement and time cannot have come into existence, "For there could not be a before and an after if time did not exist," and movement and time are the same thing (there would be no movement without time, and vice versa). The First Mover must also be immaterial, since only then will it be entirely actual (it has no possibility of falling into non-being).

God as the Creator in comparison cont…God, for Aristotle, is the Prime Mover. God is needed to create movement in the heavenly spheres. Aristotle’s God is not personal and is beyond the world. God does not DO anything- Aristotle’s God neither creates nor sustains. However, God is a cause, acting as the great attractor; God Attracts all things and thus has a causal influence- albeit without doing anything! God's very existence causes the movement of the outermost heavenly body; the "Firmament." The question of why the Firmament moved in the first place was an important one for Aristotle, and led to his conception of God. Thus, while God is not the efficient cause of the universe, his very existence is the teleological cause.

God Is Responsible For Everything That Happens In The Universe If you read the first chapter of Genesis, you see that there are things that are seemingly uncreated, and things that just seem to appear. The darkness does not appear to be created, for example - it just is.

So it's not necessarily a valid assumption to assume God created everything. He started and fashioned everything, and allows things to progress to a new/different creation, but He did not "create" everything. He did not create sin. He allows for free will, and sin can follow as a consequence of that.

The devil is another example of this principle. He started out as an angel in heaven pleasing to God and sinless, but when he rejected God and heaven, he turned into a new creation - his own due to his rejection of God.

God Is Responsible For Everything That Happens In The Universe God has consciousness and identity. When confronted with the reality that the universe could not start itself or keep itself going, some might erroneously think the universe was started by some mindless force. It takes a mind with intelligence to construct and maintain such an orderly universe. The old argument is, if you found a watch on Jupiter, you would know intelligent life was responsible; the watch did not come about naturally. In the same way, the universe’s clockwork precision betrays the intelligence of its Creator. Thus, God is a person. God has no gender, but "he" is preferable to "it.”

Since God is outside time and space, he is eternal. Augustine asked, "What was God doing before the universe was created?" The answer is at the Big Bang, not only was the universe created, but time also began. Astrophysicists claim that before the Big Bang, time did not exist. Because God is out of time, he always is; God has no origin. Furthermore, past, present, and future are simultaneously present to God. He sees us dead and buried already. He knows everything that is going to happen.

God as source of ethics

God is morally perfectGoodness of God: Psalm 145“The LORD is good to all; he has

compassion on all he has made.”Protector: Psalm 116“The LORD protects the simple-hearted;

when I was in great need, he saved me.” (protects Isaac but removes protection

from Job?)

All Loving Omni - Benevolent: Psalm25“All the ways of the LORD are loving and

faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.” (promise)

(gives Hannah a child, rewards Job for his loyalty, gives Abraham a nation)

God is source of human ethicsTen Commandments (Decalogue): Exodus 24 “The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the

mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction.”

The first four commandments are about the relationship between God and mankind. (E.g. 1. You shall have no other gods before me. ) The other 6 are how mankind should treat each other. (E.g. 10. You shall not covet.)

• Note: God is not creating new commandments but rather reminding his people of the ways of righteousness they had forgotten.

Question: What do you think the terms lawgiver and judge mean?

God as Lawgiver• Decalogue• Covenant• 613 Mitzvot

Lawgiver: James 4:“There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.”

Guide: Exodus 15 “In your strength you

will guide them to your holy dwelling.”

God as JudgeGenesis Two: The Fall – God expels Adam and Eve from

paradise. Vengeful and bitter God? No = God clothes

them + gives humans free will to turn back to = fair

Noah flood: Genesis 6:13“So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an

end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence.”

Moses/ Egyptians: Exodus 14:26“Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out

your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.”

Revelation 20:11-15“And they were judged, every man

according to their works.”