A blog devoted to understanding the teachings of St. Augustine and others influenced by him.
Search Problems With Divine Omnipotence Omnipotence is a part of the concept of deity; God, if he exists, is omnipotent. It is sometimes argued, however, that the concept of omnipotence is paradoxical, logically incoherent, and so that it is logically impossible that there be any being that is omnipotent.
This position, if it can be sustained, precludes the existence of God. The argument that the concept of omnipotence is paradoxical is best introduced by presenting the theist with a dilemma.
For each of these questions, God, if he exists, will either be capable or incapable of performing the feat described. The atheistic argument is that either alternative forces the conclusion that God is not omnipotent.
The argument, constructed using the first of the questions above, therefore has the following structure: The Paradox of Omnipotence 1 God either can or cannot create a rock that is so heavy that he cannot lift it. The controversial premises of this argument are the second and the third.
Proponents of the argument defend these premises in the following way. If God can create a rock that is so heavy that he cannot lift it, then there is something that he cannot do, namely lift the rock in question.
If God cannot create a rock that is so heavy that he cannot lift it, then there is something that he cannot do, namely create such a rock. Either way, then, there is something that God cannot do, and if there is something that he cannot do then he cannot be omnipotent. One response the paradox of omnipotence is to attempt to dissolve the problem.
The most common theistic response to the problem, however, rests on the thought that omnipotence is limited by logical possibility. An omnipotent being, it is suggested, is one that can bring about any logically possible state of affairs.
The existence of a rock so heavy that God cannot lift it, though, is arguably a logically impossible state of affairs.Divine Command Theory.
Philosophers both past and present have sought to defend theories of ethics that are grounded in a theistic framework.
Roughly, Divine Command Theory is the view that morality is somehow dependent upon God, and that moral obligation consists in obedience to God’s pfmlures.com Command Theory includes the claim that morality is ultimately based on the .
Aquinas: Philosophical Theology. In addition to his moral philosophy, Thomas Aquinas () is well-known for his theological writings. He is arguably the most eminent philosophical theologian ever to have lived. To this day, it is difficult to find someone whose work rivals Aquinas' in .
Read this essay on Divine Omnipotence & Thomas Aquinas. Come browse our large digital warehouse of free sample essays. Get the knowledge you need in order to pass your classes and more. Only at pfmlures.com". St. Thomas Aquinas The Summa Theologica (Benziger Bros.
edition, ) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. Sources. I.
Patristic. — The Fathers in general have never attempted any analysis of faith, and most patristic treatises De fide consist of expositions of the true doctrine to be held. But the reader will have already noticed the precise teaching of ST. Omnipotence is a part of the concept of deity; God, if he exists, is omnipotent.
It is sometimes argued, however, that the concept of omnipotence is paradoxical, logically incoherent, and so that it is logically impossible that there be any being that is omnipotent.