God is something of which nothing greater can be thought
It is clear from the Christian definition of god that our conceptions of this being are how we judge how great a being is. There can be no arguments that our conceptions of greatness are somehow invalid or cannot be used when discussing how great any given being is.
Can we conceive of a being so great that it would not allow its worshippers to be tortured, persecuted and killed for their faith and worship of this being?
I can conceive of a being so great that it would not pass by on the other side while its worshippers are being killed for their faith.
Therefore the Christian god is not a being so great that we can conceive of none greater.
Therefore there is no god.
Can we conceive of a being so great that it would not allow its worshippers to be tortured, persecuted and killed for their faith and worship of this being?
I can conceive of a being so great that it would not pass by on the other side while its worshippers are being killed for their faith.
Therefore the Christian god is not a being so great that we can conceive of none greater.
Therefore there is no god.
posted by Steven Carr at 12:22 AM
2 Comments:
The ontological arguments have always seemed rather bizarre. Wouldn't a Sultan's idea of God be quite different than a Priest's? Father Copleston has an idea of a perfect being, of which no greater can be thought, so might a Al Capone, or Hitler. There's a built-in agency problem. With no attributes except great, or infinite, vast, God really still hasn't been defined. And that's usually how God is used--merely stands for infinity. The next step in the argument may be just as bizarre: we can conceive of an infinite Being, therefore the Being exists...more or less
I'm not sure that your "different perspectives on what is perfect" really works...you sort of answer it yourself. If you think of them as quantitative rather than qualitative you avoid that problem, which is what you hint at with the comment on infinity.
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