Metaphysics of God — Key Terms and Definitions
The Concept and Nature of God
- Omniscient
- All-knowing. God knows every true proposition and believes no false ones. This raises philosophical questions about whether God's knowledge of the future is compatible with human free will.
- Omnipotent
- All-powerful. God can do anything that is logically possible. Most philosophers hold that omnipotence does not extend to logical impossibilities — God cannot make a square circle, since this is not a coherent task.
- Omnibenevolent
- Perfectly or maximally good. God always acts in the morally best way possible. The combination of omnibenevolence with omniscience and omnipotence creates the problem of evil — if God is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, why does evil exist?
- Eternal / timeless
- Existing outside of time altogether. A timeless God has no temporal location, no past, present, or future. God does not experience time passing but sees all of time 'at once'. Contrasted with 'everlasting', which means existing within time but without beginning or end.
- Everlasting
- Existing within time but having no beginning and no end. An everlasting God has always existed and will always continue to exist, but experiences time passing. Contrasted with 'timeless' or 'eternal', which means existing outside time altogether.
- Paradox of the stone
- A challenge to the coherence of omnipotence: can God create a stone so heavy that even God cannot lift it? If yes, God cannot lift it and is not omnipotent. If no, God cannot create it and is not omnipotent. Either way, omnipotence seems contradictory.
- Euthyphro dilemma
- A dilemma about the relationship between God and morality: is something good because God commands it, or does God command it because it is good? If the former, morality is arbitrary. If the latter, morality is independent of God and God is not the source of moral truth.
Arguments for God's Existence
- Ontological argument
- An a priori, deductive argument for God's existence that attempts to prove God exists from the concept or definition of God alone, without appealing to any empirical evidence. Associated with Anselm and Descartes.
- Existence as a predicate
- The claim, which Kant denies, that 'exists' is a genuine property that adds to the concept of a thing. Kant argues that existence is not a real predicate — saying something exists does not add a new property to it but merely says that the concept is instantiated in reality.
- Teleological argument (design argument)
- An a posteriori argument for God's existence: the order, complexity, and apparent purpose in nature are evidence of an intelligent designer. Versions include Paley's argument from spatial order and Swinburne's argument from temporal order (the laws of physics).
- Spatial order
- The arrangement and organisation of parts in space, such that they work together to achieve a purpose. Paley's example is the eye, whose parts are arranged in exactly the right way to project an image onto the retina.
- Temporal order
- The consistent, law-like regularities of nature over time — the laws of physics. Swinburne argues that the regularity with which nature behaves (e.g. gravity always operating the same way) requires explanation, and the best explanation is God.
- Cosmological argument
- An a posteriori argument for God's existence: the existence of the universe requires a cause or explanation, and that cause must be God. Everything that exists has a cause; the universe exists; therefore the universe has a cause — namely God.
- Necessary being
- A being whose existence is necessary — it could not have failed to exist. Its non-existence is impossible. God is held to be a necessary being, in contrast to contingent beings which exist but might not have existed.
- Contingent being
- A being whose existence is contingent — it exists but might not have existed. Its non-existence is possible. Everything in the natural world is contingent. The cosmological argument argues that contingent beings require a necessary being as their ultimate cause.
- Infinite regress
- An endless chain of causes, explanations, or reasons stretching back without a first member. Aquinas and other cosmological arguers claim that an infinite regress of causes is impossible, so there must be a first uncaused cause — God.
- Principle of sufficient reason
- Leibniz's principle that everything that exists must have a sufficient reason or explanation for why it exists rather than not. Since contingent things cannot explain themselves, there must ultimately be a necessary being (God) that explains everything else.
- Fallacy of composition
- The error of assuming that what is true of each part of a whole must also be true of the whole itself. Used against the cosmological argument: just because each thing in the universe has a cause does not mean the universe as a whole has a cause.
The Problem of Evil
- Problem of evil
- The argument that the existence of evil and suffering is incompatible with, or strong evidence against, the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent God. If God is all-powerful and all-good, he would eliminate evil — but evil exists.
- Moral evil
- Evil and suffering caused by the deliberate actions of moral agents who freely choose to act wrongly. Examples include murder, theft, cruelty, and war. Moral evil is distinguished from natural evil.
- Natural evil
- Evil and suffering caused by natural events or processes, not by human agency. Examples include earthquakes, diseases, floods, and famines. Natural evil is harder to explain via free will since no human chose to cause it.
- Logical problem of evil
- The argument that the existence of any evil is logically incompatible with an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent God. If such a God exists, evil could not exist. But evil does exist. Therefore such a God does not exist. Associated with Mackie.
- Evidential problem of evil
- The argument that while evil might be logically compatible with God, the sheer amount and distribution of evil in the world is strong evidence against God's existence. The scale of apparently pointless suffering makes God's existence improbable.
- Theodicy
- An attempt to explain why an omnipotent, omnibenevolent God permits evil and suffering. A theodicy aims to show that God has morally sufficient reasons for allowing evil. Hick's soul-making theodicy and the free will defence are prominent examples.
- Free will defence
- Plantinga's response to the logical problem of evil: it is possible that God cannot create a world containing free creatures who always choose good. Free will is so valuable that it justifies God in permitting the moral evil that free creatures cause.
- Soul-making theodicy
- Hick's theodicy: God permits evil because suffering is necessary for spiritual and moral development. A world without challenges would produce morally and spiritually undeveloped beings. Evil provides the conditions in which virtues such as courage and compassion can develop.
Religious Language
- Cognitivism (about religious language)
- The view that religious statements are truth-apt — they make factual claims about the world that are either true or false. 'God exists' is a statement of fact, just like 'the earth orbits the sun'. Religious language describes reality.
- Non-cognitivism (about religious language)
- The view that religious statements are not truth-apt — they do not state facts and cannot be true or false. Instead, they express commitments, attitudes, or ways of seeing the world. 'God is love' expresses a way of living, not a factual claim.
- Falsification principle
- Flew's principle that a statement is meaningful only if there is some possible observation or evidence that could count against it — that could show it to be false. If nothing could disprove a claim, it asserts nothing and is meaningless.
- Unfalsifiable
- A claim that no possible evidence could count against or disprove. Flew argues that religious believers continuously qualify their claims so that nothing could ever count against them, making those claims meaningless — they 'die the death of a thousand qualifications'.
- Eschatological verification
- Hick's response to the verification challenge: religious claims are verifiable in principle because they will be confirmed or disconfirmed after death. If there is an afterlife, the claim 'God exists' will be verified. A claim need not be verifiable now to be meaningful.
- Blik
- Hare's term for an unfalsifiable way of seeing the world that is meaningful and important to the holder, even though it cannot be tested empirically. Religious beliefs are bliks — they shape how believers interpret everything, even though no evidence could disprove them.
- Via negativa (apophatic theology)
- The approach of describing God by stating only what God is not, rather than what God is. For example, 'God is not limited', 'God is not material'. This avoids the problem of applying human concepts to a being that transcends human understanding.
Practice All Terms
33 terms across 4 topics — smart order
33 terms across 4 topics
Tap any term to reveal its definition — use Practice mode for active recall