Potential Christian-Platonist Contradiction?

[MindForgedManacle]

If the only good is God - which the Platonistic answer to the Euthyphro Dilemma and the privation view of evil necessitate and entail - then God could never have done anything in the service of producing a greater good. He is the ONLY good. Producing anything entails decreasing the amount pf good in reality necessarily. So theodicies like Plantinga's Free-will Defense can't even get off the ground, since their whole point is to explain evil existing as the necessary result for God to bring about a greater good.

You present a very insightful and, at least to me, original critique of theodicy. Bravo! I wasn't expecting that one.

Hah, thanks. The last time I had thought of this was a couple of months ago I think. But I hadn't written it down anywhere, so I forgot (I wonder how many times that has happened?).

At the same time, I'm not certain that this critique applies to Swedenborg's theology, which I do not expect you to know. As a student of him I myself am still working out my understanding the metaphysics of Swedenborg, which I see as Panentheistic in nature.

Sounds interesting. I'd be interested in hearing more about it.

I cannot speak as to its effectiveness as a rebuttal to Plantinga since I have never seriously looked into his work.

It wasn't exactly intended as a rebuttal to Plantinga per se. It was more that I came to the realization that this seems to prevent Abrahamic theists from holding these 2 popular position simultaneously, at least not without a very nuanced unpacking of the concepts involved. And by that point, I think it will have become too altered to really allow one to still hold on to them.

[Neo-Scholastic]

This is one of my earliest posts on the forum. I cannot say I still agree with it in its entirety. For example, I no longer advocate pan-psychism and have moved more toward substance dualism.

A Very Early Post

[MindForgedManacle]

Figured I'd make a quick addendum here, and see if anyone else had some input they'd like to give.

Although I tend to see syllogisms as a bit pretensious (especially if you've already gone through your line of reasoning), I figured I give it a go with putting this into a valid and sound deductive argument. And whilst I do so, I'd like to say that I think that even if this particular syllogistic structure is in error, I think my reasoning enumerated earlier is still successful, and that it undoubtedly could be made into a valid argument with additional little effort. Anyway, on to it then:

1) God is the omnipotent, omniscient paradigm of moral goodness itself. [From typical apologist response to the Euthyphro Dilemma]


2) The existence of moral evil in the world is the necessary result for God to actualize the best of all possible worlds: a world with creatures possessing free will in the libertarian sense and thus the only possible world with moral goodness. [From the Free Will Defense]

3) Either #1 is true or #2 is true.


4) If #1 is true, then the existence of moral evil in the world cannot be explained by an appeal to the intent to actualize the only possible world with moral good (#2), because the thing which can properly be called 'morally good' is God himself. [Necessary consequence of the Platonic answer to the Euthyphro Dilemma]


5) If #2 is true, then God cannot properly be called the paradigm of moral goodness because then true moral goodness is then possible by agents whom are not God.


C) Therefore, if God exists either #4 is true or #5 is true, but both cannot be.

The argument takes the form of a dilemma syllogism (Maybe I should call it the "Platonic-Theodicy Dilemma"?) and thus should be valid. Abstracted, it is something like:

1) A is X.
2) B is Y.
3) Either A or B.
4) If A, then C.
5) If B, then D.
C) Therefore, either C or D.

[MindForgedManacle]

Hm. Divine-Command Theory may make this argument problematic.

[bennyboy]

Hmmmmm.

Hijacked my thread on idealism, and now a self-resurrected thread. Could you please post links to a homepage where you sell your indie books, so I don't have to wait any more for the other shoe to drop?

[MindForgedManacle]

Lol. I necroed this because I wanted to see if anyone else wanted to give their thoughts on it. And I'm too lazy to write a book. :p

[tor]

No theist ever told me why god created the world.
Also the "evil is absence of good" and "god is good" are bullshit.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Necroposting! Bad mfm, bad!

[MindForgedManacle]

I are bastard.