RE: I wouldn’t be a Christian
November 3, 2018 at 5:18 am
(This post was last modified: November 3, 2018 at 5:24 am by vulcanlogician.)
(November 3, 2018 at 5:07 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: Are you trying to argue that gods based on Christian mysticism and Plato aren't stupid? Okay. I'm all ears. Give it your best shot.
The problem with calling Plato's God stupid is that it is really tough to figure out what he actually meant by positing the existence of this "God." You run into the same problem with reincarnation. In some works, Plato seems to suggest that he believes in reincarnation (Book X of The Republic for instance). If you take this at face value, Plato appears to be giving his readers a complete doctrine of reincarnation and showing us exactly how it works in Book X. The problem is, in another work, Phaedrus, he presents us with a completely different scheme of how reincarnation supposedly works. Something is awry.
http://www.john-uebersax.com/plato/plato4.htm
The thing that is stupid is the circle squaring that later Christian thinkers did with Plato's God concept. They erroneously took his conjecture at face value because it seemed to fit so well with their mythos. I would say that their interpretations constitute a fundamental misunderstanding of Plato.