Single Idea 22736

[catalogued under 28. God / B. Proving God / 2. Proofs of Reason / b. Ontological Proof critique]

Full Idea

If God has sensation he is altered, …so he is receptive of change, including change for the worse. If so, he is also perishable, but that is absurd; therefore it is absurd also to claim that God exists.

Gist of Idea

God's sensations imply change, and hence perishing, which is absurd, so there is no such God

Source

Sextus Empiricus (Against the Physicists (two books) [c.180], I.146)

Book Reference

Sextus Empiricus: 'Against the Physicists/Against the Ethicists', ed/tr. Bury,R.G. [Harvard Loeb 1997], p.79


A Reaction

[compressed] It is certainly paradoxical to think that God is eternal and unchanging, but also capable of perception and thought, which necessitate change. Some theological ingenuity is needed to explain this.

Related Idea

Idea 22737 An incorporeal God could do nothing, and a bodily god would perish, so there is no God [Sext.Empiricus]