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Single Idea 19454

[filed under theme 28. God / A. Divine Nature / 6. Divine Morality / b. Euthyphro question ]

Full Idea

The concept of God depends on the concepts of justice, kindness and wisdom - a God who is not kind, not just, and not wise is no God. But these concepts do not depend on the concept of God. That a quality is possessed by God does not make it divine.

Gist of Idea

A God needs justice, kindness and wisdom, but those concepts don't depend on the concept of God

Source

Ludwig Feuerbach (Introduction of 'Essence of Christianity' [1841], II)

Book Ref

Feuerbach,Ludwig: 'The Fiery Brook: Selected Writings', ed/tr. Hanfi,Zawar [Anchor 1972], p.119

A Reaction

This is part of Feuerbach's argument for atheism, but if you ask for the source of our human concepts of justice, kindness and wisdom, no one, I would have thought, could cite God for the role.

The 41 ideas from Ludwig Feuerbach

19456 Philosophy is distinguished from other sciences by its complete lack of presuppositions [Feuerbach]
19441 All philosophies presuppose their historical moment, and arise from it [Feuerbach]
19442 I don't study Plato for his own sake; the primary aim is always understanding [Feuerbach]
19443 Truth forges an impersonal unity between people [Feuerbach]
19445 A dialectician has to be his own opponent [Feuerbach]
19444 Each proposition has an antithesis, and truth exists as its refutation [Feuerbach]
19446 To our consciousness it is language which looks unreal [Feuerbach]
19447 The Absolute is the 'and' which unites 'spirit and nature' [Feuerbach]
19458 Egoism is the only evil, love the only good; genuine love produces all the other virtues [Feuerbach]
19451 When absorbed in deep reflection, is your reason in control, or is it you? [Feuerbach]
19448 Consciousness is said to distinguish man from animals - consciousness of his own species [Feuerbach]
19450 Reason, love and will are the highest perfections and essence of man - the purpose of his life [Feuerbach]
19449 Religion is the consciousness of the infinite [Feuerbach]
19455 Today's atheism will tomorrow become a religion [Feuerbach]
19453 If love, goodness and personality are human, the God who is their source is anthropomorphic [Feuerbach]
19454 A God needs justice, kindness and wisdom, but those concepts don't depend on the concept of God [Feuerbach]
19452 The nature of God is an expression of human nature [Feuerbach]
6902 Catholicism concerns God in himself, Protestantism what God is for man [Feuerbach]
6903 If God is only an object for man, then only the essence of man is revealed in God [Feuerbach]
6904 Modern philosophy begins with Descartes' abstraction from sensation and matter [Feuerbach]
6905 Absolute idealism is the realized divine mind of Leibnizian theism [Feuerbach]
6908 Consciousness is absolute reality, and everything exists through consciousness [Feuerbach]
6911 God is for us a mere empty idea, which we fill with our own ego and essence [Feuerbach]
6913 God's existence cannot be separated from essence and concept, which can only be thought as existing [Feuerbach]
6918 Philosophy should not focus on names, but on the determined nature of things [Feuerbach]
6919 Absolute thought remains in another world from being [Feuerbach]
6920 Being posits essence, and my essence is my being [Feuerbach]
6921 Particularity belongs to being, whereas generality belongs to thought [Feuerbach]
6923 God is what man would like to be [Feuerbach]
6924 Plotinus was ashamed to have a body [Feuerbach]
6925 The new philosophy thinks of the concrete in a concrete (not a abstract) manner [Feuerbach]
6927 If you love nothing, it doesn't matter whether something exists or not [Feuerbach]
6926 The only true being is of the senses, perception, feeling and love [Feuerbach]
6928 Only that which can be an object of religion is an object of philosophy [Feuerbach]
6931 Empiricism is right about ideas, but forgets man himself as one of our objects [Feuerbach]
6932 Ideas arise through communication, and reason is reached through community [Feuerbach]
6933 The laws of reality are also the laws of thought [Feuerbach]
6935 In man the lowest senses of smell and taste elevate themselves to intellectual acts [Feuerbach]
6934 Man is not a particular being, like animals, but a universal being [Feuerbach]
6936 The essence of man is in community, but with distinct individuals [Feuerbach]
19457 Being is what is undetermined, and hence indistinguishable [Feuerbach]