The idea of God as creator

Role as creator
1. Causes the universe to exist
2. Creates the things in it
3. Sustains existence
4. Is involved with his creation
Creation stories
1. Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heavens and earth....
2. The Bible actually has two creation stories - the seven-day creation story, and that of the Garden of Eden
  1. Probably adapted from different tribal stories
  2. Seven day
    1. God is transcendent
    2. God creates light first
    3. God seems more benevolent
    4. God is separate from humanity
  3. Garden of Eden
    1. God is immanent
    2. God creates people and the Garden of Eden first
    3. God seems more vengeful
    4. God is anthropomorthised (he walks in the garden)
3. Could be taken literally or as stories with values and morals
Creatio ex nihilo
1. 'Creation out of nothing'
  1. No pre-existing 'building blocks' as with Plato's demiurge
    1. Creation happened via verbal comand
  2. Never explicitly stated by the Bible to be the case with God and the universe, but implied
    1. The official position of the Church
    2. There are some references to pre-existing matter
      1. Genesis 1:2 - 'God hovered over the chaos of the waters.'
      2. Adam formed from dust
Beliefs about creation
1. Thomas Aquinas
  1. 'Whether the world had a beginning is unimportant.'
2. Scientific explanation: a 4.5 billion year old world that developed slowly
  1. The Bible is uninterested with when the world began
  2. Though Bishop Ussher calculated the date when he believed the world began by adding up the ages of people in the Bible - Monday 10th November 4004 BC was when men left Eden
3. Ideas may be gleaned from different cultures and writings
4. God created a beautiful world
  1. Psalm 8: God is a craftsman
    1. 'The stars you have set in place.'
The 'omni' qualities
1. Omnipotence - all-powerful
  1. Can be interpreted in different ways
    1. Can do everything logically impossible (Descartes' theory)
      1. So he cannot make a square circle
    2. Can do anything, logical or not (Aquinas's theory)
    3. Can God create a stone too heavy for him to lift?
      1. The 'Omnipotence paradox' addressed by Averroes and Aquinas
        Richard Swinburne: God can do anything that's possible according to his nature
        Can God sin?
        God's inability to sin is a consequence of his nature, not a limitation
        Nelson Pike: He could but chooses not to
        God has power over everything,, but not a power to do all
2. Omniscience - all-knowing
  1. Hebrews 4 verse 13: 'Nothing is hidden from God'
  2. God is non-physical - his knowledge does not come through senses
  3. issues
    1. If God is unchanging, can he learn new things?
    2. If he knows our future, do we have free will?
    3. How can he know the future before it happens?
    4. If he knows all our problems, why should we pray?
3. Omnipresence - all-present
  1. Exists in all time and space
    1. Proverbs 15:3 - The eyes of the Lord are in every place.'
4. Biblical writers saw no reason to justify/explain them
The role of humans
1. Made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26)
  1. Privaleged positoin
  2. God is concerned with us
Issues with the theory
1. Is God responsible for everything?
  1. Natural disasters?
  2. If he created the world, did he do a bad job>
    1. Counter-arguments
      1. God cannot be compared to humans
      2. God made a changing world so people can learn
      3. We have free will - we could just stay away from natural disaster zones
      4. If God stopped us from using free will, we wouldn't have it.

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The idea of God as creator

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