"Wotan. Zeus. Thor. Poseidon. Apollo.Atheists do not do logical deduction; they use bumper sticker quotes as their reasoning. They even fill books with such reasoning, rarely or never attempting to approach actual arguments.
"I reply: All of whom are mythical anthropomorphic super beings. God however in the Classic Sense is the Uncaused Cause, Pure Actuality, etc...whose existence can be known by reason alone. Sorry but it is impossible for any Classic Theistic philosophical argument for the existence of the Classic Theistic God to be used to argue for the existence of any of the above mythical beings."
Friday, December 26, 2014
One Less God vs Thomist Deduction
From another commenter at Feser's blog, replying to a drive-by interloper trying to use the (useless) "one less god" argument that "we are all atheists, and atheists believe in one less god than you do" childish argument:
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5 comments:
Given the philosophies of Plato, Plotinus, Iamblichus, and Proclus, there is a place for the gods as metaphysical principles separate from their anthropomorphic imagery in the myths. The idea that the gods are just "super-human" anthropomorphic beings comes from a too-literal reading of mythology.
If as you say the myths are useful as metaphysical principles, that would make the myths analogies, and still not be deductions of actual existences. In other words, they are stories with morals attached.
Modern superhero stories can also be said to be stories with morals attached. So I don't see the difference.
Maybe you could elaborate?
Given the mention of philosophers like Iamblichus or Proclus, I hoped it would be clear that the existence of gods can be deduced from reason rather than myth and story telling. Myth might point to certain functions of the gods, but it doesn't encapsulate all that they are. You can check out some of the work done by Edward Butler on the polytheistic philosophy and theology of Proclus. He has written two books, "Essays on a Polytheistic Philosophy of Religion", and "Essays on the Metaphysics of Polytheism in Proclus". He also writes the column Noeseis at Polytheist.com
If you don't have time for the books, he also writes at henadology.wordpress.com
Perhaps you could save us all some time and tell us what you are talking about, e.g., give us the deduction straight out.
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