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Single Idea 22735
[filed under theme 28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / b. Teleological Proof
]
Full Idea
They say that the substance of existing things being of itself motionless and shapeless must be put in motion and shape by some cause.
Gist of Idea
The original substance lacked motion or shape, and was given these by a cause
Source
Sextus Empiricus (Against the Physicists (two books) [c.180], I.075)
Book Ref
Sextus Empiricus: 'Against the Physicists/Against the Ethicists', ed/tr. Bury,R.G. [Harvard Loeb 1997], p.43
A Reaction
Interestingly, Sextus doesn't seem to think that the existence of the original substance also needs a cause. This substance sounds like a relative of Aristotle's Prime Matter. The source of motion isn't really a 'design' argument.
The
20 ideas
from 'Against the Physicists (two books)'
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22728
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Gods were invented as watchers of people's secret actions
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22730
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All men agree that God is blessed, imperishable, happy and good
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22731
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It is mad to think that what is useful to us, like lakes and rivers, are gods
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22732
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The perfections of God were extrapolations from mankind
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22734
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God is defended by agreement, order, absurdity of denying God, and refutations
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22735
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The original substance lacked motion or shape, and was given these by a cause
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22736
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God's sensations imply change, and hence perishing, which is absurd, so there is no such God
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22738
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The Divine must lack the virtues of continence and fortitude, because they are not needed
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22737
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An incorporeal God could do nothing, and a bodily god would perish, so there is no God
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22739
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God must suffer to understand suffering
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22740
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God without virtue is absurd, but God's virtues will be better than God
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22741
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The incorporeal is not in the nature of body, and so could not emerge from it
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22742
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Socrates either dies when he exists (before his death) or when he doesn't (after his death)
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22744
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Parts are not parts if their whole is nothing more than the parts
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22746
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If we try to conceive of a line with no breadth, it ceases to exist, and so has no length
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22747
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A man walking backwards on a forwards-moving ship is moving in a fixed place
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22748
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Some say motion is perceived by sense, but others say it is by intellect
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22749
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Time doesn't end with the Universe, because tensed statements about destruction remain true
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22750
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Time is divisible, into past, present and future
[Sext.Empiricus]
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22751
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If the present is just the limit of the past or the future, it can't exist because they don't exist
[Sext.Empiricus]
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