Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Material Beings', 'Prisoner's Dilemma' and 'A Short History of Decay'

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2 ideas

28. God / B. Proving God / 2. Proofs of Reason / b. Ontological Proof critique
There is no reason to think that mere existence is a valuable thing [Inwagen]
     Full Idea: There is no reason to suppose - whatever Saint Anselm and Descartes may have thought - that mere existence is a valuable thing.
     From: Peter van Inwagen (Material Beings [1990], 12)
     A reaction: This is one of the simplest and most powerful objections to the Ontological Argument. God's existence may be of great value, but the existence of Hitler wasn't.
28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 4. God Reflects Humanity
Why is God so boring, and why does God resemble humanity so little? [Cioran]
     Full Idea: Why is God so dull, so feeble, so inadequately picturesque? Why does He lack interest, vigor, actuality and resemble us so little? Is there any image less anthropomorphic and more gratuitously remote?
     From: E.M. Cioran (A Short History of Decay [1949], 1 'The Devil')
     A reaction: This seems to be directed at those like Feuerbach who said that we had merely created God as a glorified image of humanity.