{"id":5144,"date":"2017-10-14T05:26:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T05:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/10\/14\/creation-and-existence\/"},"modified":"2017-10-14T05:26:42","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T05:26:42","slug":"creation-and-existence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/10\/14\/creation-and-existence\/","title":{"rendered":"Creation, Existence, and Extreme Metaphysical Realism"},"content":{"rendered":"

 This entry is a continuation of the ruminations in The Ultimate Paradox of Divine Creation<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recapitulation<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Divine creation ex nihilo<\/em> is a spiritual\/mental 'process' whereby an object of the divine consciousness is posited as non-object<\/em>, as more than a merely intentional object, and thus as a transcendent reality. By 'transcendent reality' I mean an item that is not immanent to consciousness, whether human or divine,  but exists on its own. And by 'consciousness' in this discussion I mean intentional (object-directed) consciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n

(I deny that every instance of consciousness is a consciousness of something: there are, I claim in agreement with Searle, non-intentional conscious states, states not directed upon an object.   See Searle on Non-Intentional Mental States<\/a> and the  good ComBox discussion to which Harry Binswanger and David Gordon contribute. Objectivist Binswanger disagrees with Searle and me. And even if every consciousness is a consciousness of something, it does not follow that every consciousness is a conscious of something that exists.)<\/span><\/p>\n

So God creates independent reals. What he creates exists on its own, independently, an sich<\/em>. At the same time, however, what he creates he sustains moment-by-moment. At every moment of its existence the creature depends on the Creator for the whole of its Being, for its existence, its nature, as well as for such  transcendental determinations as its intelligibility and goodness.  Ens et verum convertuntur<\/em> is grounded in God's being the ultimate source of all truth,and ens et bonum convertuntur<\/em> is grounded in God's being The Good itself and thus the ultimate source of all goodness in creatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Creatures, then, depend for their whole Being on the Creator according to the classical conception of divine creation that involves both an original bringing-into-existence (creatio originans<\/em>) and an ongoing conservation of what has been brought into existence (creatio continuans<\/em>). And yet creatures exist on their own, independently. As I emphasized in the earlier post, finite persons are the prime examples of this independence. And yet how is such independence possible given divine conservation? It appears to issue in a contradiction: the creature exists both independently and dependently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Does it follow that a creator God does not exist? (It would take a separate post to show that a God worth his salt cannot be conceived along deistic lines.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Rand to the Rescue?<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thinking about this I recalled Ayn Rand and her notorious axiom, "Existence exists." On a charitable reading it is not the tautology that whatever exists, exists, but expresses an extreme metaphysical realism: whatever exists exists independently of all<\/em> consciousness, including divine consciousness.  But then it follows that God cannot exist, and our problem dissolves. Here, then, is a Rand-inspired argument for the nonexistence of God resting on Rand's axiom of existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1) To exist is to exist independently of all<\/em> consciousness. (The notorious axiom)<\/span><\/p>\n

2) Things other than God exist. (Obviously true)<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore<\/span><\/p>\n

3) Things other than God exist independently of all consciousness. (Follows from 1 and 2)<\/span><\/p>\n

4) If God exists, then it is not the case that everything that exists exists independently of all consciousness. (True given the classical conception of God as creator)<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore<\/span><\/p>\n

5) God does not exist. (Follows from 3 and 4 by standard logical rules including modus tollens)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is there any good reason not to accept the above argument?  <\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
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<\/a>Maverick Philosopher: The Ultimate Paradox of Divine Creation<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 This entry is a continuation of the ruminations in The Ultimate Paradox of Divine Creation. Recapitulation Divine creation ex nihilo is a spiritual\/mental 'process' whereby an object of the divine consciousness is posited as non-object, as more than a merely intentional object, and thus as a transcendent reality. By 'transcendent reality' I mean an item … Continue reading “Creation, Existence, and Extreme Metaphysical Realism”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,142,143,79,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aporetics","category-existence","category-god","category-idealism-and-realism","category-rand-ayn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}