It's sometimes claimed that God's omnipotence is logically impossible because of certain paradoxes that one could come up with. Such an attempt to show that some of God's attributes, as classically conceived, are logically inconsistent, either in and of themselves or with each other, is usually said to challenge the coherence of theism. If such coherence of theism objections are successful, then the very project of natural theology is useless, as it would be the same thing as arguing for a square circle or thing with shape but no colour -- it would be a waste of time.
Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Omnipotence and Paradox
It's sometimes claimed that God's omnipotence is logically impossible because of certain paradoxes that one could come up with. Such an attempt to show that some of God's attributes, as classically conceived, are logically inconsistent, either in and of themselves or with each other, is usually said to challenge the coherence of theism. If such coherence of theism objections are successful, then the very project of natural theology is useless, as it would be the same thing as arguing for a square circle or thing with shape but no colour -- it would be a waste of time.
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
A Critique of Brute Facts as Explanation
Maybe there really isn't a need for an absolutely simple being, as deduced from stage one of the Argument from Composition. Why can't it be what is called a brute fact that accounts for composite beings? This article will have me briefly discuss my thoughts on such an objection. I won't be repeating the Argument from Composition here, so it's recommended that one takes a look at the original article.
Sunday, March 10, 2024
A Critique of the Argument from Desire
This article will lay out my thoughts and critiques of the Argument from Desire, whose most popular proponent is the great C.S. Lewis, but has found defenders from many different Christian traditions in history, with St. Thomas Aquinas being one famous example, with Edward Feser and Peter Kreeft being more contemporary examples.
Friday, March 8, 2024
Notes: The Atlas of Reality: A Comprehensive Guide to Metaphysics: Part I: Foundations, Chapter 1: Introduction
Notes: The Atlas of Reality: A Comprehensive Guide to Metaphysics: Part I: Foundations, Chapter 1: Introduction
2.1 Beginning of Metaphysics
2.2 Hellenistic Period
2.3 Late Antiquity
2.4 17th and 18th Centuries
2.5 Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries
2.6 20th Century
2.7 21st Century
3.1 Skeptical Objection
3.2 Pragmatist Objection
3.2.1 Fatalism
3.2.2 Causation
3.2.3 Science
3.2.4 Mind-Body Problem
3.2.5 Identity
What's This?
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Does Everything Have a Cause?
This will be a short but important article, in which I will merely be repeating something that theistic philosophers have been for about two decades now, in response to new atheist strawmen of cosmological arguments for the existence of God. This will also hopefully help set the stage for the various cosmological arguments that can be found on this blog.
Stage 2: From Simplicity to God
The second stage of the Argument from Composition is to show that the absolutely simple or non-composite being that was deduced in Stage 1 is God. This article will briefly outline the lines of reasoning that leads one to conclude that an absolutely simple being would be God and I will defend them in more detail in future articles. And as a reminder, I use parts to refer to metaphysical and physical parts.
Stage 1: From Composition to Simplicity
The Argument from Composition, or, as Feser calls it, "the Neoplatonic Proof", which I will be summarising the first stage of here, first argues for an absolutely simple or non-composite being. To do this, I will first lay out some metaphysical concepts that are required for this argument.
Essentially-ordered causal series are causal series where prior members of the series must continually exist in order for the causal series to continue to exist and for later members to remain as they are in the series as well. Further, in such causal series, there must necessarily be a "first" and most fundamental member, or else the series would not subsist.
To illustrate, take a stack of shirts that have been neatly folded. The shirt at the bottom holds up the shirt above it, which in turn holds up the shirt that is above that. Take the bottom shirt to be a prior member and the shirts above it later members. If the bottom shirt were removed, then this causal series of the shirts at the bottom causing the shirts above it to be held up would cease and the shirts would all drop by one shirt.
In this case, there necessarily had to have been a first shirt or else all the other shirts would have dropped and not be able to cause shirts on top to be held up anymore.
For more on essentially-ordered causal series, read this and this.
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Atheism and Belief
It's a common claim from atheists that they merely lack belief. Specifically, what they mean is that they lack belief in any God or god. Though I have encountered some that claim that they lack belief in anything. Now, this is obviously problematic and ultimately self-refuting. But I think it good to explain why that is the case in this article. I will also explain why it is that atheists do in fact have beliefs. I will also discuss how the realisation that atheism is a positive claim affects theist-atheist discussions.
Saturday, March 2, 2024
Stage 2: From Pure Act to God
The second stage of the Argument from Motion is to show that the being of pure act that was deduced in stage 1 must be God. This article will briefly outline the lines of reasoning that one could give to deduce the specific properties of the purely actual being, I will go into more detail in other articles in future.
1 Changeless
Since change is an actualisation of a potential and a purely actual being would have no potential to be actualised, this being cannot change.
2 Spaceless, Timeless and Immaterial
Since a being of pure act is changeless, and being in space and time and being made of matter implies change and potential, a being of pure act would be spaceless, timeless and immaterial.
3 Eternal
Since the being is timeless, it cannot have a beginning or end, as that implies being subject to some temporal order, so it is eternal.
4 Unity
Divine Unity states that God is not a particular being, of which there can be multiple of the same type, but that He is unique, in that there could only be one God.
Two or more beings can only be distinguished by their properties. However, two beings of pure act would have the exact same properties. So, there would be no way to distinguish them and they would be identical. This means that there can only be one being of pure act.
5 Perfection
For a being to be imperfect, it must have some unactualised potential, but a purely actual being has no potential to be unactualised. So a purely actual being would have to be perfect.
6 Omnibenevolent
Things are bad insofar as they have unactualised potential, but a purely actual being has no potential to be unactualised. So, a purely actual being would be good. A purely actual being also is perfect, which entails perfect goodness.
7 Omnipotence
Power is the ability to actualise potential. Since a being of pure act would be the one actualising all potential[as there is only one such being actualising all potential], it would be the source of all power[and all possible power]. This means that it is omnipotent.
8 Omniscience
The purely actual being is the one that actualises all potential, meaning that it is the source of all things in existence[since everything in existence but the purely actual being would have unactualised potential and therefore be actualised by the purely actual being], which includes concrete objects.
However, due to the Principle of Proportionate Causality, that states that every effect must be in one way or another in its total cause, all concrete objects must be, in some way, in the purely actual being, as it is the cause of all concrete objects.
Yet these concrete objects cannot be in the purely actual being concretely, so they must be in it conceptually or abstractly.
Further, concepts can only exist in minds. So, the purely actual being must have a mind that knows all concepts[as all possible concepts would have to be actualised by the purely actual being to be concrete]. This means that the purely actual being is omniscient.
9 Conclusion
Therefore, a being of pure act could only be one, would be changeless, spaceless, timeless, immaterial, eternal, perfect, omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent. These all align perfectly with the standard claim made by monotheists.
Since a purely actual being exists, therefore God exists.
The Argument from Motion, B-Theory and Cartesian Doubt
I've come across an objection to the Argument from Motion that uses a more modern approach and asks how do we really know that change exists, in light of skepticism and the B-Theory of time? I explain the Aristotelian theory of act and potency here. Just a quick note, these objections and responses aren't original to me and come from others that I have read. However, I may occasionally give some of my own thoughts, whenever I see fit.