Topics Religion

Question During a discussion with a friend about God, a thought I found puzzling but provocative came to mind. I have discussed it with friends, and most seem to think it is contradictory. The thought was more of an argument, and it goes soemthing like this: if it is true that God in some sense is the greatest being that can be conceived, it seems to follow that God is somehow the maximum of all things (e.g. if goodness exists, God is maximum goodness). If this is true then God possesses all qualities; and if God possesses all qualities, it also seems to follow that all beliefs about God, even if they are contradictory, are true (e.g. God is a aupernatural being, God is a natural being). Put perhaps in simpler terms: if God is in some sense all things, then all beliefs about God, even those that contradict each other, are true. Is this even remotely anything that theologians/philosophers have ever discussed?

Accepted:
March 21, 2013

Comments

I can't speak for the theologians, but it does seem to me that we don't need to go down this path.

Suppose that God, if there is one, is the greatest conceivable being. That might mean that God possesses the maximum of all kinds of goodness (though even that is tricker than it seems), but it doesn't mean that God possesses the maximum of all characteristics whatever. After all, the greatest conceivable being presumably wouldn't be a sadist, let alone the greatest possible sadist. The slide in the argument seems to be from "God is maximum goodness" to "God possesses all qualities." However, many qualities have nothing to do with goodness.

There's a somewhat different argument hinted at in your suggestion: that God is all things, hence must embody all qualities. Apart from wondering about the relationship to perfection, one obvious question is what would it mean to say that God is all things. If it means that God is literally identical to each thing, then the doctrine would have nothing to recommend it. For example, if there's a God, God is not my left big toe. That seems safe to say even though on some views might left big toe might be included in or part of or an aspect of or an emanation of... God. Closer to your own suggestion, there might be a natural aspect of God and a supernatural aspect, but once again, no contradiction.

The phrase "greatest conceivable being" is short for a subtle idea. People who want to say that God is the greatest conceivable being don't mean that anything one says about God is true. Reading the phrase as though it had that implication would pretty clearly be a misreading. Just how best to interpret the phrase is not a simple question, but if an answer leads almost immediately to incoherent consequences, that's a pretty good clue that the answer needs some rethinking.