Arguments Against Thomistic philosophy

[KevinM1]

You're right in that I don't know jack about Neo-Platonism.

That said, why are we assuming that things related to god are only positive.  In other words, if there's an epitome of evil, why isn't it also associated with god?  Why is there a distinction that says "well, the ur-version of these traits belong to, and point to, a god, but the ur-version of those traits do not?"

I'm sincerely asking, BTW.  Because from the outside it makes no sense.  It seems to be backwards.  There's a definition of the Christian god, and among its attributes is goodness, and so because it is god, it must contain or exhibit the most goodness.

I'm also still not convinced that the 5th way is actually saying anything meaningful about intent.  That a smashed piece of glass doesn't turn into butterflies doesn't mean that an intelligence made it so.  Then again, like I freely admit, I'm probably not understanding what you or Aquinas are actually saying.

You know...that's a good question..I'll let Neo handle the response from A-T...but...from a modal standpoint, if the maximally great premise holds then so too would the maximally evil.  This..however, is an argument for polytheism, not an objection to theism. You could repeat this for the maximally -anything-.  Talk about a plurality of the divine.  It would hold, ofc, for maximally great islands and maximally great bikinis as well......but...I think you might be able to find both of those things in the same place.

(Bolding mine)

And isn't that one of the classic problems with the good 'ole "maximally great" ontological argument? You know, the one Randy (I think it was Randy... the dude with the bee avatar) used to trot out every week?

Because, without relying on the biblical definition of god, I can claim that maximal evil also points to such a creature. Same with maximal lust, or greed, or anything else, for that matter. Especially if the being is the Prime Mover (like you imply, we could be dealing with a class of entities that are themselves Prime Movers). That god can only be or exhibit good is begging the question. We're right back down to god is good because the bible says it is.