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Posted by dorayme on 05/31/06 23:05
In article <9751l3-bdl.ln1@ophelia.g5n.co.uk>,
Toby Inkster <usenet200605@tobyinkster.co.uk> wrote:
> 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.
>
You are not wrong about this!
> ... the argument assumes existence is a pre-requisite
> for perfection. In reality, anything that exists can never be perfect.
>
But on this specific thing, it is more complicated. There are a
few different strands of argument of this general sort. One of
them is about examining the concept closely and finding in it the
idea of a type of existence that is different to the existence of
ordinary things. If God exists, he does not exist in the same
sort of way to the way a brick exists. A brick could puff out of
existence, but it would be more than silly to suppose that God
had such a a precarious type of existence. His existence is much
more like the existence of classes or numbers, the prime between
6 and 9 could not just disappear or not be in the way that a
brick could disappear or not be. There is a quality of necessity
to Him, in the very idea of Him - so the theists say.
In the end, this fails, but not for nothing has it spawned such a
vast literature over the centuries, especially in the 1950s and
60s.
> 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.
No, there is a scope problem here. Something can be perfect in
respect to certain parameters. Tables for tabular data. It is not
a mark against a hammer that it it fails miserably as a
screwdriver. It is not a mark against God that he is an obstacle
to a thief who has a sudden consciousness episode... But
existence - so it is claimed - is very much a relevant parameter.
God is the ground of all being and all that...
Ho hum...
--
dorayme
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