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Posted by Toby Inkster on 05/31/06 18:51
dorayme wrote:
> His existence is part of his essential nature. The idea of a
> non-existent God is a silly idea. After all, the idea of God is
> of a perfect being, how perfect would a non-existent God be?
This is an old, and seriously flawed argument.
If I create the concept of a "perfect unicorn", then by the argument,
this perfect unicorn must exist, because non-existence is an
imperfection. Similarly, perfect minotaurs, perfect singing poodles,
perfect flying three-headed tigers and perfect billionaire philanthropist
pigs must all exist.
The only problem is that the argument assumes existence is a pre-requisite
for perfection. In reality, anything that exists can never be perfect.
For example, say anything that exists has a height. If that height is big,
then the object is too big to fit into my little gold box, so it can't be
perfect, because to be perfect it should be able to fit into my gold box.
If the height is small then the object is too small to see from a mile
away, so it's not perfect, because if it can't be seen from a mile off,
it's just not good enough!
So if God is defined as a perfect being, God cannot exist, as existence
implies imperfection.
So you are left with two possibilities:
- God does not exist; or
- God is not perfect.
(The latter of course fits in nicely with the problem of evil.)
--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
Contact Me ~ http://tobyinkster.co.uk/contact
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