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Single Idea 5208
[filed under theme 28. God / A. Divine Nature / 4. Divine Contradictions
]
Full Idea
The notion of a person whose essential attributes are non-empirical is not an intelligible notion at all.
Gist of Idea
A person with non-empirical attributes is unintelligible.
Source
A.J. Ayer (Language,Truth and Logic [1936], Ch.6)
Book Ref
Ayer,A.J.: 'Language, Truth and Logic' [Penguin 1974], p.154
A Reaction
Non-empirical and non-causal are not quite the same thing. A being which never had any effects is a bizarre, and probably pointless, fantasy. A being which affected our world (through ideas, say) but is unobservable is a perfectly good theory.
The
17 ideas
with the same theme
[contradictions in our concept of a supreme being]:
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1719
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In Empedocles' theory God is ignorant because, unlike humans, he doesn't know one of the elements (strife)
[Aristotle on Empedocles]
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2630
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If Plato's God is immaterial, he will lack consciousness, wisdom, pleasure and movement, which are essential to him
[Cicero on Plato]
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2645
|
Why shouldn't the gods fear their own destruction?
[Cicero]
|
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16651
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God can do anything non-contradictory, as making straightness with no line, or lightness with no parts
[Auriol]
|
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6224
|
An omnipotent will cannot make two things equal or alike if they aren't
[Cudworth]
|
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21252
|
Perfections must have overlapping parts if their incompatibility is to be proved
[Leibniz]
|
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2920
|
A God who cures us of a head cold at the right moment is a total absurdity
[Nietzsche]
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18978
|
It is hard to grasp a cosmic mind which produces such a mixture of goods and evils
[James]
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5208
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A person with non-empirical attributes is unintelligible.
[Ayer]
|
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3459
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You can only know the limits of knowledge if you know the other side of the limit
[Searle]
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8055
|
If God is omniscient, he confronts no as yet unmade decisions, so decisions are impossible
[MacIntyre]
|
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7602
|
In the Bible God changes his mind (repenting of creating humanity, in the Flood)
[Armstrong,K]
|
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16427
|
Presumably God can do anything which is logically possible
[Chalmers]
|
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10332
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Omniscience is incoherent, since knowledge is a social concept
[Kusch]
|
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9122
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God cannot experience unwanted pain, so God cannot understand human beings
[Sorensen]
|
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3874
|
How could God know there wasn't an unknown force controlling his 'free' will?
[PG]
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3873
|
An omniscient being couldn't know it was omniscient, as that requires information from beyond its scope of knowledge
[PG]
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