Subject:
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Re: One of my issues with the god of the old testament
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 15 Nov 2001 20:23:09 GMT
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Viewed:
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982 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Eaton writes:
> Just jumping in for James, my guess is that he'd say that it's akin to
> mathematics. God can't suddenly make 1==2 or 3+9=234. Humans "invented"
> the basic rules mathematics, and the rest is true based on those rules, no
> matter what. To take away the basics would no longer be "math". [L]ikewise he
> says that morality is an inherent function of conscious (and maybe lesser?)
> living beings. To change morality would be to make us not alive and/or not
> conscious. So while God (now I may very well be overstepping my estimation of
> James' point) may be able to change/create morality by shaping the basic rules
> of what we are (insofar as we are "alive" or not), He can't change morality but
> leave our consciousness untouched, because morality is based on it. Make sense?
Sort of, but I'm not sure that I agree with it. Why should an infinite
being be constrained by our notions of impossibility, even if those notions
seem absolute to us? I'm also not sure about the practical equivalence of
math and morality: our understanding of mathematics is undeniably a creation
of man, but I would argue that it describes something demonstrably and
fundamentally external to man; our concept of morality is undeniably a
creation of man, but I would argue that it describes something that can't be
as readily demonstrated to be external to man.
And in any case, we're still left with the ability to conceive a being
greater than God--namely, a being that can perform a logical impossibility.
Dave!
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