Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: God

  • Can the Existence of God be Proven?

    A reader inquires, I was wondering whether you had any direction you could offer for rational arguments for God's existence? If you are looking for arguments that are not merely rational, but rationally compelling, I don't believe that there are any.  I also believe that there aren't any such arguments for the nonexistence of God. …

  • More on “God + World = God”

    The thesis under examination as expressed by Diogenes Allen: "The world plus God is not more than God alone. God less the world is not less than God alone." Is this a defensible position?  Let's consider both sides of the question. A. First, a crisp little argument against the view. Consider two possible scenarios.  In the…

  • God and Our Rights

    Conservatives regularly say that our rights come from God, not from the state. It is true that they do not come from the state. But if they come from God, then their existence is as questionable as the existence of God. Now discussions with leftists are not likely to lead anywhere; but they certainly won't…

  • An Atheological Argument from the Evil of Radical Skepticism

    Bradley Schneider sends this argument of his devising: Premise 1: If God exists, God has the power to eliminate/overcome/defeat any evil in reality without creating more evil (i.e., God and evil can coexist but God should prevail over evil in the end). Premise 2: Radical skepticism about the world is an evil (NOT that radical…

  • How Could God be Justice itself?

    David Gudeman writes; I reply:   George Berkeley was the first author who really shook my confidence in my existing world view. Before I read Berkeley, I had a Mr. Johnson-style contempt of physical idealism; after reading Berkeley, I realized that I had been naive–not because Berkeley was necessarily right, but because once I suppressed…

  • Pascal the Jansenist

    Herewith, a note on Pascal inspired by Leszek Kolakowski's fascinating book, God Owes Us Nothing (University of Chicago, 1995). Faith is a divine gift, bestowed arbitrarily, not a reward for merit. We postlapsarians groaning under Adam's sin are wholly without merit. There is no way we can get right with God by our own efforts. …

  • Is Classical Theism a Type of Idealism?

    I return an affirmative answer.   If God creates ex nihilo, and everything concrete other than God is created by God, and God is a pure spirit, then one type of metaphysical realism can be excluded at the outset. This  realism asserts that there are radically transcendent uncreated concrete things other than God.  'Radically transcendent' means…

  • Rand and Peikoff on God and Existence

    The following is by Leonard Peikoff, acolyte of Ayn Rand: Every argument for God and every attribute ascribed to Him rests on a false metaphysical premise. None can survive for a moment on a correct metaphysics . . . . Existence exists, and only existence exists. Existence is a primary: it is uncreated, indestructible, eternal. So if you…

  • Does Divine Immutability Entail Modal Collapse?

    That divine simplicity entails modal collapse is a controversial thesis, but one for which there are strong arguments. Does the same hold for divine immutability? I don't think so. That immutability should entail modal collapse strikes me as based on a simple confusion of the temporal with the modal. Modal Collapse In the state of…

  • World + God = God? The Aporetics of the God-World ‘Relation’ (2020 Version)

    This from a reader: I just started reading Philosophy for Understanding Theology by Diogenes Allen. The first chapter is devoted to the doctrine of creation.  These two sentences jumped out at me: "The world plus God is not more than God alone. God less the world is not less than God alone." Do you agree? How would…

  • Summa Theologica, Q. 19, Art. 3: Whether Whatever God Wills He Wills Necessarily

    This is the question we have been discussing. Let us now see if the answer Thomas gives is satisfactory.  The question is not whether, necessarily, whatever God wills, he wills.  The answer to that is obvious and in the affirmative. The question is whether whatever God wills, he wills necessarily. If so, then God's willing…

  • Sound or Unsound on Classical Theism? If Sound, then What?

    1) The existence of God is necessary for the existence of creatures: no God, no creatures. 2) The existence of God is not sufficient for the existence of creatures: the existence of God does not entail the existence of creatures. Therefore 3) God is really distinct from the act whereby he brings creatures into existence.…

  • Necessary God, Contingent Creatures: Another Round with Novak

    In an earlier thread, Lukas Novak writes, . . . God simply does not need any causal acts to mediate his causal power. He is causally efficient through his very essence, directly, and contingently, imparting being to the created essences immediately. It is only with respect to this causal power which is an aspect of…

  • The Euthyphro Dilemma, Divine Simplicity, and Modal Collapse

    The Question God commands all and only the morally obligatory. But does he command it because it is obligatory, or is it obligatory because he commands it? The question naturally arises, but issues in a dilemma. A dilemma is a very specific sort of problem in which there are exactly two alternatives, neither of which…

  • Divine Simplicity, Modal Collapse, and the Difference Principle

    The question before us is whether the doctrine of divine simplicity (DDS) can be upheld without the collapse of modal distinctions.  In "Simply Impossible: A Case Against Divine Simplicity" (Journal of Reformed Theology 7, 2013, 181-203), R. T. Mullins asks (footnote omitted): Could God have refrained from creating the universe? If God is free then it seems…