RE: Is God a logical contradiction?
July 29, 2019 at 10:31 pm
(This post was last modified: July 29, 2019 at 10:32 pm by Belacqua.)
(July 29, 2019 at 8:54 pm)LadyForCamus Wrote: For me, I suppose it comes down to the question: what is the definition of a god? What makes something a god? What are the minimum necessary attributes or characteristics that qualify something as a god, and is there any evidence or reason to believe that such a thing, which fits that hypothetical description, actually exists?
That sounds reasonable to me. And I'm pretty sure we'll never get a coherent definition from the fundamentalists. That's why I don't spend my time on them.
In classical theism, or the God of the philosophers, there is a fairly well-agreed definition. With variations among the various thinkers:
Absolutely simple, absolutely unmoving, absolutely good, absolutely act with no potential, absolutely unique.
The apophatic and negative theologians have a good point, though: because we are people and are limited in our thinking, definitions are usually misleading. So for example if I say "God is good," I think I have a conception of what good is, and what God must be like in order to match that concept. But they say that since any human idea of goodness will be too limited, even such a simple statement is bound to block my understanding as much as it clarifies. We didn't evolve to perceive absolutes, and it's hard to think them.
Quote:To be fair to the atheist community here as I’ve come to know them, many of the theists who have come here for debate have come with that very particular kind of god in mind.
And if they think that posting here is an effective way to fight against stupid fundies, then more power to them. I've never said they shouldn't.
I don't enjoy that, so I don't do it.
Back in my hometown -- a tiny town in Kansas -- the fundies were getting noisy, so my sister got on the school board and ran the textbook committee. She was always the practical one in the family.