Posted by alexandra_k on September 13, 2005, at 20:00:13
In reply to Re: Adam Eve gained knowledge, but it turned, posted by alexandra_k on September 12, 2005, at 22:26:39
i hope it didn't sound too blasphemous to say logic = god. identity claims are transitive to it is one and the same thing as saying god = logic. it implies nothing more, though perhaps the connotations are a little different.
i was thinking last night. that one conception of god is that god is the greatest possible being. there is no being that could possibly exist that would be greater than god. if god is the greatest possible being then learning about the limits of what is and is not possible helps us to understand the nature of god.
god can't have infinite power. because the very notion of that is contradictory (it is not possible that a being could have infinite power). but thats okay there is no problem god is just the greatest possible being and so god must have as much power as it is possible for one being to have.
and gabbi sent me a babblemail which got me thinking too. there is a another problem that goes a little something like this:
is torturing an innocent child for fun morally wrong because god says it is, or does god say it is morally wrong because it is morally wrong?
another way of putting the point is to ask 'is it possible that god could have decided that torturing an innocent child for fun be a morally acceptable thing to do?'
if the answer is 'sure he can do that' then ethics is at the arbitrary whim of god. god is good because god says he is good.
if the answer is that no, he couldn't do that then it seems that ethical truths may transcend god the way that logical truths may transcend god.
but perhaps...
these aren't so much things that limit gods power...
instead we can view these things as showing us something about the nature of god.because...
the conception of god as having INFINITE powers is deeply incoherant.
but god is the greatest possible being.
and so what are the limits of possibility / impossibility?
what is the nature of god?maybe god gave us this tool
so we could better contemplate him...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:553832
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20050909/msgs/554804.html