Divine Attributes: What is god like?

To know some common attributes given to god

To understand where these ideas have come from

To reflect upon the ways in which these ideas of god are present in religion and culture today

DISCUSSION

• In pairs think about where people may find god. What kind of qualities to they attribute to god?

For Example – is god angry or peaceful, caring or uncaring?

• Have a discussion and be prepared to feedback to the class in 5mins.

Divine Attributes: What is god like?

Where can people find god?

Divine Attributes: What is god like?

Our ideas of god have changed over time…

ANSELM – god is ‘that than which nothing greater can be conceived’

DESCARTES – god is a ‘supremely perfect being’

Divine Attributes: What is god like?

What do you think god is like?

Eternal?

All Loving?Omnipresent? (not limited by space or time)

Omniscient? (all knowing)

Incorporeal? (lacking material

form)

Personal?

Creator?

Perfectly good?

Sustainer?

Which are the most important, and why?

Anthropomorphic?

Divine Attributes: What is perfection?

.

Divine Attributes: What is god like?

• OMNIPRESENT – the idea that god is not limited by space or time. God can be everywhere at

once.

• OMNISCIENT – all knowing and all understanding.

• OMNIPOTENT – that god can do all things that are logically possible.

Divine Attributes: What is god like?

• INCORPERAL – god as a non-material thing, he cannot occupy space or mass. ‘He is not the body, but the spirit.’

• TRANSCENDENT – god as unique and distinct from our world.

• SIMPLICITY – god as an entity without separate parts.

• ANTHROPOMORPHIC – a non human subject possessing human attributes

Look at the sheets in front of you

• You have an extract from D H Lawrence’s The Rainbow (1915) and a poem by Buddhist poet Sri Arubindo called Who

• I need you to read your quotation carefully – your task is to extract the words and ideas that show us the divine attributes we have already discussed in class