by jimwalton » Sun Oct 20, 2019 5:41 pm
Simply defined, God is a supreme supernatural divine being. I've been reading in Richard Swinburne the last week or so, and he defines God (and I agree with him) as follows:
God is a non-embodied personal spirit who exists as omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient, and necessarily so. He cannot not be these attributes. His essence is an eternal essence. He is self-existent and the personal ground of being. He has reason, intentions, and free will (perfectly free). He is perfectly moral and good (His moral judgments have truth value). He is completely rational (he is subject to no non-rational influences); He always has a just, moral, and rational reason for His actions). He has capacities that are as great as they logically can be. He is the terminus of complete explanation. No greater being can be conceived.
With that out of the way, God is not a physical being, but instead a spiritual (non-corporeal, metaphysical) being. He is real. He is really there. He is not just an idealism, but has true existence as a true being. He doesn't occupy space (he is not spatial), but He's not just an idea, either. He really exists.
There are many things that have no spatial reality but exist, such as time, memories, intuitions, language, etc.
I hope this helps. Let's keep talking.
Simply defined, God is a supreme supernatural divine being. I've been reading in Richard Swinburne the last week or so, and he defines God (and I agree with him) as follows:
God is a non-embodied personal spirit who exists as omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient, and necessarily so. He cannot not be these attributes. His essence is an eternal essence. He is self-existent and the personal ground of being. He has reason, intentions, and free will (perfectly free). He is perfectly moral and good (His moral judgments have truth value). He is completely rational (he is subject to no non-rational influences); He always has a just, moral, and rational reason for His actions). He has capacities that are as great as they logically can be. He is the terminus of complete explanation. No greater being can be conceived.
With that out of the way, God is not a physical being, but instead a spiritual (non-corporeal, metaphysical) being. He is real. He is really there. He is not just an idealism, but has true existence as a true being. He doesn't occupy space (he is not spatial), but He's not just an idea, either. He really exists.
There are many things that have no spatial reality but exist, such as time, memories, intuitions, language, etc.
I hope this helps. Let's keep talking.