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Full Idea
Numenius argues that material reality depends on intelligible being, which depends on a first god - the Good - which is difficult to grasp, but which inspires a second god to imitate it, turning to matter and organizing it as the world.
Gist of Idea
There is a remote first god (the Good), and a second god who organises the material world
Source
report of Numenius (fragments/reports [c.160]) by Dominic J. O'Meara - Numenius
Book Ref
'Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy', ed/tr. Zeyl,Donald J. [Fitzroy Dearborn 1997], p.354
A Reaction
The interaction problem comes either between the two gods, or between the second god and the world. The argument may have failed to catch on for long when people scented an infinite regress lurking in the middle of it.
| 8148 | Brahma, supreme god and protector of the universe, arose from the ocean of existence [Anon (Upan)] |
| 7343 | Beside me there is no God [Isaiah] |
| 7994 | Everything, including the gods, comes from me, says Krishna [Anon (Bhag)] |
| 22726 | When things were unified, Mind set them in order [Anaxagoras] |
| 2629 | Anaxagoras was the first to say that the universe is directed by an intelligence [Anaxagoras, by Cicero] |
| 6011 | There is a remote first god (the Good), and a second god who organises the material world [Numenius, by O'Meara] |
| 7835 | The key question for Spinoza is: is his God really a God? [Stewart,M on Spinoza] |
| 23031 | God is the ideal end of the mature mind's final development [Green,TH] |
| 4497 | The concept of 'God' represents a turning away from life, and a critique of life [Nietzsche] |