Zusammenfassung der Ressource
God the Creator
- Juaeo-Christian belief that he's the Creator; in control
- Apostle's Creed: 'I believe in God [...] creator of heaven and Earth
- Genesis
- 'In the beginning when God created the heavens and the Earth' (Genesis 1:1)
- Genesis 2= very human image of God (walking)- anthropomorphic!
- Isiah 40= God
watching over
creation, people in
creation=
grasshopper-sized
to God
- Craftsman
- Job 38- the designer, laying
foundations, etc, & in control
of sun and moon
- Genesis 2= making Adam from dust- potter!
- In Control
- Isaiah 40: 22-23= has powers to reduce the earth to nothing
- Throws Adam and Eve out of GofE
- Creatio ex nihilo
- Key Christian belief
- Creation out of nothing
- !! Some hints from early Bible
that God= craftsman, shaping
pre-existent formed matter
- Genesis 1:2 God's spirit hovers over formless void
- Psalm 104:26 is similar
- Fits with idea of universe/ time beginning with Big Bang
- Human being's place in Creation
- Jewish scripture= human beings at top of hierarchy of all life
- Psalm 8: You have been
given dominion over the
works of your hands; you
have put all things under
their feet
- Genesis 1:26 humans made in the image of God
- Superior?
- Privileged?
- Imago Dei suggests share some of God's attributes?
- Rationality; to think and reason?
- NOT that God is like a human and
made humans to match himself
physically
- The Beauty of Creation
- God creates ordered, beautiful, harmonious, world
- The beauty off creation reveals the creator
- "The beauty of creation
reflects the infinite
beauty of the Creator" -
Catechism of the
Catholic Church 341
- Disharmony= caused by humans; against God's wishes
- Genesis and Myth
- Message of myth= important, not the literal truth of it
- What matters is the MESSAGE of the creation stories
- Genesis= communicates Jewish beliefs of
God as Creator of World (1) and humans as
most important part of creation (1)
- 7 Days of Creation= myth?
- Many species of animals
walked earth before humans
or writing of the Bible
- G1 creation story= adopted ideas from the
culture it emerged from? Influenced by
earlier Psalm 104?
- Developed from Canaanite
creation myths from Ugarit
(Syria)- esp. God moving over
water
- Dates don't matter
- When Bible refers to God creator its not concerned with the
date when Earth began
- Aquinas= G as C is concerned
with G causing universe to
exist & continuing to cause it
to exist
- Omni Qualities
- Bible= analogies to say something about God
- Omnipotent
- Unlimited power
- Created world!
- Job 38:12 : Have you
commanded the morning
since your days began,
and caused the dawn to
know its place
- Present through creation;
world imbued with His power
- Controlling weather
- Joshua 10: 11b, 13 : the LORD threw down
huge stones from heaven [...] ...And the sun
stood still, and the moon stopped,
- Supremacy &
greatness to
humans (God is
exalted in his
power- Job 36: 22)
- Aquinas= God is 'active power'
- Can do anything logically possible?
- Omniscience
- 'Infinite, limitless knowledge
- God's aware of his creation; knows
exactly what happens within
- E.g. when Eve eats fruit from Tree of Knowledge
- Job 38: 31-33 : Do you know
the ordinances of the
heavens? Can you establish
their rule on the earth?
- Omnipresence
- Present throughout creation
- Responsible for
everything that
exists and
continues to exist
- Job 38= God's presence is everywhere from the stars, weather, animals, death
- Linked to omnipotence
- Uniqueness of God
- Its highlighted by his Omni qualities
- Completely different from anything which exists/ lives in the universe
- God's responsibility for what happens within the universe
- Usually associate a
creator with the object
that has been created;
held responsible. Is God?
- BUT God shouldn't be compared to a human designer of any sort!
- OR, natural disasters= God did a poor job---
THUS the world could be better if God's
omnipotent; therefore he can't be omnipotent
- BUT God omnipotently made world full of change & natural law- natural disasters are consequence of
world working in regular way. Makes world understandable for humans; world in which they can learn
things. No change & development would = no births, no deaths!
- Possible explanations for why God, for example,
created earthquakes- only in earthquake zones, and
you can't blame car manufacturer if you step in
front of car, really?
- Different Approach
- God's responsible for everything coming
into existence; how things behave within
universe is according to natural laws of
science or a personal decision
- People cause most evil in the world; the 'Free Will Defence'
- If God omnipotently intervenes then people don't have free will
- World exists as fact, but its a mistake to say God's responsible for what happens in it
- Science explains how world & universe work- gravity, evolution
- God X responsible for what happens in
world because there's no need to
believe in God to explain what happens
in the world
- Richard
Dawkins:
"The desire
to see
purpose
everywhere
is a natural
one"
- Its a faith choice; only matters if you believe in God