Omnipotence

The current debate around the openness of God is one that needs to be addressed as it is a debate that questions the very nature of God. This essay endeavours to look at the two opposing views and outline the main issues that are being debated. I will then look at why the issues being discussed are important for how we approach theology and Christian living. The two sides of the debate that we will be discussing are made up of those supporting ‘classical’ theism and those supporting ‘free will’…

In this paper, I will support the idea of the existence of God. First I will present Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God, then I will present Gaunilo’s criticism on Anselm’s argument. Finally, I will show the coherent existence of God and evil. To understand the argument for the existence of God, we first define the usage of God in this paper. God is the greatest conceivable being who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. He is capable of knowing everything and doing…

St Thomas Aquinas was born around 1225 in the city of Naples. In his growing up, Aquinas was dubbed the “Dumb Ox” because he was quiet and rather large in size. However his Teacher at the time told his fellow classmates that his “Bellows” would one day be heard around the world. His teacher, Albert the Great, was right and today Aquinas is renowned as one of the best philosophers of his time because of his ideas on the existence of God including the five proofs that God exists. Thomas Aquinas…

God: absolute, limitless, and perfect. It is a wonder to many if such an omnipotent being truly exists, or if it is nothing more than a fictitious concept. However, renowned French philosopher(and mathematician) René Descartes is confident in his belief that God exists. Descartes arrived to his conclusion on the premise of his “causal principle”, based on the twin concepts of intrinsic and representative reality; intrinsic reality being the scale of “perfection” a thing that exists has (ie: a…

In Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Philo argues that the best and only method of giving someone a sense of religion, or an idea of it, one must use representations of man’s misery, and what he call wickedness. That exaggeration of past events, particularly those that involve some degree of pain and sorrow, are easy for man to relate to. Nevertheless, Cleanthes proceeds to argue that this is not the case, as he has not felt an abundant deal of anxious feelings. He then proceeds to describe…

Evil exists because we chose it to. We, as free agents can choose between right and wrong. Through this we can justify our actions. What kind of world would we lead if everything was already decided for us and all we would have to do is perform it? God, although knows how we will choose, plays absolutely no role in our process of choosing. When we choose the wrong from right, we are creating evil, but that's our choice. Just like Hick portrayed in his theodicy, when…

Man can be sustained by faith in God and prayer alone. This is a profound statement that is reverberated throughout the Bible. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that, “We live by faith, not by sight.” George Müller adopted this principle and made an incredible impact on the lives of thousands of orphans in England and millions of people across the world. He devoted his life to the will of God and relied solely on prayer and faith for the sustainment of his family and the orphans under his care.…

In Shakespeare’s theatrical career, he often critiqued or commented on the playwright’s ability to handcraft a play and manipulate characters and settings. This was often delineated through a play within the play, however there are multiple ways to express the playwright’s capacity to play puppet-master with the characters. While Shakespeare’s well-known comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, does not have a play within the play, it exposes characters attempting to control the consequences of other…

If God is good, why evil? If God is all-good (omnibenevolent), all-powerful (omnipotent), and all-knowing (omniscient), why does evil occur? These are the questions most suffering people ask concerning God. Most of the time, we blame God for our pain, sorrow, grief, and distress that happen to us. The question that come in our mind is why me? Last Wednesday, I was on call. When the nurse called me, she informed me about a woman who was lying on the hospital bed while her daughter is…

The standard definition given to God is a being that is supreme, omniscient and omnibenevolent. To give understanding on whether a being of this nature exists or does not exist requires investigation of what reasons or proof is there for tolerating the presence of God as genuine or false and whether the conditions expressed are conceivable. When regular contentions for the presence of God are assessed, the point will be to demonstrate the presence of God is unprovable and that it is sensible to…