Help for James White on Identity
Sincere advice on how to move past a merely verbal defense of “the Trinity.”
Being
podcast 164 – On Counting Gods
The terms “atheism,” “monotheism,” and “polytheism” seem straightforward enough… BUT important ambiguity lurks in the root term “theism.”
Does God have a body?
Dale writes: A self is being which is in principle capable of knowledge, intentional action, and interpersonal relationships. A god is commonly understood to be a sort of extraordinary self. In the Bible, the god Yahweh (a.k.a. “the LORD”) commands, forgives, controls history, predicts the future, occasionally appears in humanoid form, enters contracts with human beings, and sends prophets, whom he even allows to argue… Read More »Does God have a body?
Necessarily so?
It ain’t necessarily so It ain’t necessarily so The t’ings dat yo’ li’ble To read in de Bible, It ain’t necessarily so In God as Biblical Character and as Divine Reality, the Maverick makes the curious distinction between a Biblical character, and the external reality corresponding to the character. The two philosophers [Aquinas and Spinoza] are clearly referring to the same Biblical character when they… Read More »Necessarily so?
An eternal dance of Three?
Perhaps the greatest issue for Social Trinitarians with respect to the Holy Spirit is “his” personhood.
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 8
If God exists necessarily, and this not because of anything else (e.g. there’s some other necessary being which necessarily causes God to exist too), then what explains this? Our friend the Maverick Philosopher urges that the only explanation is that God’s essence just is God’s existence. I disagree. I now try again to start with God’s existence, and a few essential divine attributes which should… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 8
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 7
Here’s where we stand. Bill urges that we should say that God’s essence = God’s existence because this (and only this) explains why God necessarily exists (and this not because of any other being). Me, I don’t grant that it’s even coherent to suppose that something’s essence just is its existence. So last time, I took a shot at a different argument for that conclusion… and… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 7
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 5
In the most recent post in this series, I plunged into some metaphysical issues about God, essence, existence, and necessity. As promised, I now discuss why is it impossible that God doesn’t exist. Let me start by saying that I know I’m out on a speculative limb here. This is uncertain business, metaphysics. But I’m going to state my views forthrightly. Refute them if you… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 5
podcast 88 – Dr. Trent Dougherty on the Problem of Evil
In this episode Dr. Trent Dougherty of Baylor University tells us about his spiritual journey from secular, to evangelical, to Roman Catholic. Then we then discuss his general approach to what philosophers call “the problem of evil.” If God is perfect, and perfectly good, then why do so many terrible things happen?
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 4
Last time we ended with this argument by Bill. But if God is a necessary being, what is the ground of his necessity if it is not the divine simplicity? We agree that God cannot not exist. But I ask: why not? If in both God and Socrates there is a real distinction between essence and existence, and if in Socrates his contingency is rooted… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 4
Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 3
Many thanks to my fellow bloggers Bill Vallicella and Aiden Kimel for their thoughtful posts on the discussion/debate between Bill and me on whether God is to be thought of as a unique and perfect being, or not a being, but rather “Being itself” or “Existence.” I was simply not able to keep up, due to travel and other immediate demands. For those following the… Read More »Dialogue with the Maverick Philosopher: God is a being, not Being itself – part 3
Passing Feser’s Laugh Test
Philosopher Ed Feser thinks my comments about God (here and here) are ridiculous. So, he breaks out his rhetorical brass knuckles, and tries to knock some sense into me. Feser may suspect that I’m trolling, simply dishing out accusation of “atheism” just to get a rise out of people, or to get attention, or just for the joy of annoying others. But I’m afraid the… Read More »Passing Feser’s Laugh Test
more thoughts on “God,” atheism, and panentheism
Dr. James McGrath has responded to my post on belief in “God” where this amounts to an ineffable Ultimate – which, I claimed, is a variety of atheism. He seems to think that thinking that God resembles humans to any degree or in any way counts as “anthropomorphism.” I think that’s a goofy use of the term, but why quibble about words? So, in James’s… Read More »more thoughts on “God,” atheism, and panentheism
Atheistic belief in “God”
Not “inconceivable” – but rather, “God.” Check out this interesting post, The Dread God Roberts, at our friend Dr. James McGrath’s blog Exploring Our Matrix. (Which amazingly, just had its 10th birthday. He was blogging way before it was cool.) Dr. McGrath describes himself as a Progressive Christian. I commented over there, and he’s replied. The part of his post that got me going was this. Tillich’s… Read More »Atheistic belief in “God”