My estimate that there are more than three millon ways to analyze the word ‘God’ (using just four attributes in the analysis) was inflated by some incorrect assumptions. I will now make a second attempt to determine an accurate count of the various combinations and permutations of conditions that form different definitions, taking into consideration … How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’?

Assume there are only four possible divine attributes: powerknowledgefreedomgoodness Each of the above attributes can occur in four degrees: humansuperhumanperfecteternally perfectThere can be 14 different combinations of acceptable degrees for each attribute: Four combinations with just one acceptable degree (e.g. only ‘perfect’ knowledge is acceptable).Six combinations with just two acceptable degrees (e.g. either ‘superhuman’ or … Three Million Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’

Could God be a hero? I don’t think so. Based on recent discussion of this question, I can formulate an argument for the claim that God is not capable of being a hero: 1. Only a being who can suffer or be harmed can be a hero.2. A person who is eternally omnipotent, eternally omniscient, … What God Cannot Do – Part 5

Swinburne takes the word ‘God’ to be loosely tied to a list of criteria or descriptions, similar to how he takes the words ‘person’ and ‘bodiless’ to be criterially defined concepts. Among the criteria or descriptions used to denote or identify an individual as ‘God’, if there is such an individual, is the criterion that … What God Cannot Do – Part 4

In Chapter 6 of Our Idea of God (1991), Thomas Morris provides a brief but helpful explanation of different types of necessity in relation to divine attributes.Morris explains three different types or levels of necessity. Let’s use claims about the divine attribute of omnipotence as examples of the three types of necessity. I think this … What God Cannot Do – Part 3

There are two types of actions that God cannot do (see The Coherence of Theism, p.164): T1. Actions that are logically impossible for any being to perform.T2. Actions that are logically possible for some beings to perform, but logically impossible for God to perform.No being, including God, could produce or discover a four-sided triangle. No … What God Cannot Do – Part 2

For the past couple of months I have been reading philosophers of religion, esp. Richard Swinburne, about divine attributes. According to most theists, omnipotence is a divine attribute, a property of God. There are some interesting problems and puzzles concerning omnipotence, a key problem being the paradox of the stone. Here is a summary of … What God Cannot Do – Part 1

As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing better than doing philosophy, and philosophy of religion is the chocolate-fudge frosting on the cake. In philosophy of religion, you get a full serving of each of the major areas of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science, to name just the … The Meaning of Divine Attributes

The first chapter in Part II of The Coherence of Theism (revised edition), is Chapter 7, which focuses on the following sentence: (3) An omnipresent spirit exists. Swinburne’s initial clarification of (3) is brief: By a ‘spirit’ is understood a person without a body, a non-embodied person. By ‘omnipresent’ is meant ‘everywhere present’. That God … The Sentence “God exists” – Part 6