Analysis Of God As A Creator and Sustainer
It is generally accepted in western philosophy that if God is a
creator then he must also by definition, due in part to his other
attributes, be a sustainer. This essay assumes that a God does exist
because otherwise, rather than analysing the attributes in question,
one regresses into providing evidence for God's existence which is the
purpose of arguments such as the ontological argument. Using evidence
and reason, this essay will see whether creatorship and sustainership
can be assigned to God and if they are necessary for His existence.
The main literary source of this evidence is from Hugh J McCann in his
essay on "Creation and Conservation" as noted in the bibliography.
This essay argues that the world's authorship should be assigned to
God given his omnipotence, and will show that it is logical and
necessary for him to sustain it having created it.
Firstly, it must be noted that in certain scenarios this essay will
assume that one of the other Judaeo-Christian attributes of God is a
fact, because there is not time to prove their necessity here.
However, if the proof is a crux of my argument, it will be dealt with.
Creatorship is an absolutely essential attribute of God in any
religion but especially the Judaeo-Christian perspective. This is
because, if God did not create, then who did and what power does God
in fact have? The first scenario, 'who did?' is an obvious
contradiction to the concept of God. If something other than God
created the universe then it would be greater than God and would thus
be defined as God. If one says that the universe is brute fact as
Bertrand ...
... middle of paper ...
...and was a free
choice on God's behalf. If God did create the universe, it seems
inevitable that he sustains because of his immutable nature.
Furthermore, because the only coherent concept of God depends on the
fact that God is illogically omnipotent, it follows that he is able to
be both transcendent and immanent at the same time. Thus God is able
to create ex nihilo and sustain the universe and still be coherent.
Bibliography
============
Peterson, Michael. & Hasker, William. Reason and Religious Belief.
Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998.
Quinn, Phillip L. A Companion To The Philosophy Of Religion. Trans.
Hugh J McCann. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 1997Vardy, Peter. The
Puzzle Of God. Glasgow: Fount Paperbacks 1999
Ward, Keith. The Concept Of God. Great Britain: Basil Blackwell Oxford
1974
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