RE: Interesting argument for the non-existence of God
April 21, 2012 at 4:18 pm
(This post was last modified: April 21, 2012 at 5:09 pm by Tea Earl Grey Hot.)
I'm going to try to get the conversation back on course.
I could be wrong, but I don't see how defining evil is needed for this argument. It's not your standard existence of evil means there's no God argument. I think it's showing how theists acting inconsistently towards what they (the theists) see as evil, shows God doesn't exist. Here's an outline of the argument taken from the Iron Chariots wiki:
Quote:A1. The most rational theists know (i.e., have a justified, true belief) that God exists.
A2a. For any possible world W, if God exists in W, then every instance of evil in W is objectively justified.
A2b. If God exists, then there is objective justification for any actual instance of evil, including those evils for which there is a human onlooker
A2. If God exists, then there is objective justification for every actual instance of evil, justification that will occur even if no onlooker intervenes to stop or prevent that evil.
A3. Some members of the class of most rational theists (as I have defined that class) are theists who know A2.
A4. Some of the most rational theists (namely, those who know A2) know that there is objective justification for any actual instance of evil, justification that will occur even if no onlooker intervenes to stop or prevent that evil.
A5. If human person P knows that there is objective justification for evil E, and that this justification will occur even if P does not intervene to stop or prevent E, then P is morally justified in allowing E to occur.
A6. Some of the most rational theists (namely, those who know A2) are morally justified in allowing any actual evil to occur.
A7. If the most rational theists know that God exists, then some of those theists (namely, those who know A2) are morally justified in allowing any evil to occur.
A8. Even the most rational theists (including those who know A2) are not morally justified in allowing just any evil to occur.
A9. Even the most rational theists do not know that God exists.
A10. If the most rational theists do not know that God exists, then no theist knows that God exists.
A11. No theist knows that God exists.
A12. For any given theist, that theist’s belief that God exists is either false or unjustified.
A13. If God exists, then some theists are justified in believing that God exists.
A14. If God exists, then no theist has a false belief that God exists.
A15. If God exists, then some theists know (i.e., have a justified, true belief) that God exists.
A16. It is not the case that some theists know (i.e., have a justified and true belief) that God exists.
A17. God does not exist.
This argument can be summarized as follows:
A1 to A2 – If God exists, then all instances of evil are morally justifiable by definition.
A3 to A7 – If all events are morally justifiable, then some believers know that they should not try to stop any instance of presumed evil.
A8 – Yet they do intervene.
A9 to A17 – Therefore their own behaviour proves that God does not exist.
My ignore list
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).
