Anthropic Argument Against God?

[BenSinner]

This is an argument proposed that is similar to the ‘Problem of Evil’ argument, but there is a difference.

The ‘Anthropic Argument’ asserts this:

If God is an absolutely perfect being, it would be impossible for him to make imperfect beings since all his actions are absolutely perfect. The only thing he could create is other absolutely perfect beings if he was truly absolutely perfect

God always makes the most morally perfect decisions. Creating humans (imperfect) instead of other Gods (perfect) is NOT the most morally perfect decision…thus God is not morally perfect.

https://philos.nmsu.edu/files/2014/07/anthropic-argument-walker-sophia.pdf

What are the holes in this argument?

 

[fhansen]

Whatever God creates is necessarily inferior to Him, i.e. He cannot create another God. This implies that everything created will be less perfect than Him, any wisdom of any created being less perfect than His

 

[Prodigal_Son]

Is an absolutely perfect being omnipotent? If so, then God could not create AT ALL, on the argument you propose – since He would have to create only omnipotent beings, and there can only be one of those. Thus God is impotent.

But then how is an IMPOTENT being perfect?

 

[Dan_Defender]

The ‘how’ is impossible for us to know. God is infinite and our human finite minds cannot fully know him.

 

[BenSinner]

there cannot be more than one God. The Christian God is infinite. He is being itself. So there cannot be any more Gods. The reason God can only create lesser beings is because there cannot be another God.

He cannot create another God

there can only be one of those.

I tend to agree with these.

The source brings up a “rebuttal” against this, but I’m not sure how good it is:

If God is all powerful and there is another all-powerful God. One would assume this would be impossible since there is at least one thing that God is equal to and not more powerful than. This doesn’t mean God is any less powerful because he can’t overpower another all-powerful being. It just means he can’t do the logically impossible such as the famous example of making a rock so heavy he can’t lift.

Having multiples Gods wouldn’t make either of the God’s inferior. It would just mean they wouldn’t be able to do the logically impossible, which has no effect on their status of omnipotence.

I find this argument a stretch, but I’m not a philosopher. So want to know what holes you guys can find in this.

 

[Entwhistler]

One rebuttal to this is that if God is an individual. There cannot be two identical individuals. There cannot be two Platos. There cannot be two Julius Caesars. Thus, there cannot be two Gods (in the sense that God is an individual).

God X and God Y cannot be the same person. However, if they are not, they are different people. Thus, one (X) must have something the other does not have to be a different individual. This means that the other one (Y) lacks something.

The God who lacks something is less perfect than the God who does not lack anything and is therefore not God by definition.

 

[fhansen]

I guess I didn’t follow where the other God came from. Is there some reason to insist on one other, all powerful, uncreated God?

 

[IWantGod]

Having multiples Gods wouldn’t make either of the God’s inferior. It would just mean they wouldn’t be able to do the logically impossible, which has no effect on their status of omnipotence.

I find this argument a stretch, but I’m not a philosopher. So want to know what holes you guys can find in this.

God is the origin of existence. That is to say he is the being by which all things exist. If there is another God, it would not be true that he is the being by which all things exist. God is not a being among other beings. God is existence. Thus if there was another God, that God would have something that our God does not have, which would mean that both God’s are limited in their act of reality.

To put it another way, there can only be one absolutely perfect reality. If there were two absolutely perfect realities, then one reality would have a perfection that the other reality does not have, which is a contradiction.

 

[Prodigal_Son]

If God is all powerful and there is another all-powerful God. One would assume this would be impossible since there is at least one thing that God is equal to and not more powerful than. This doesn’t mean God is any less powerful because he can’t overpower another all-powerful being. It just means he can’t do the logically impossible such as the famous example of making a rock so heavy he can’t lift.

First of all, this source needs a grammar lesson.

Secondly, there simply cannot be two all-powerful things. You say “He can’t overpower another all-powerful being”, but don’t you see that that makes Him fail to be all-powerful?

 

[Shakuhachi]

Secondly, there simply cannot be two all-powerful things. You say “He can’t overpower another all-powerful being”, but don’t you see that that makes Him fail to be all-powerful?

Why would such a God need or want to overpower another. Divine beings would most likely have the same will.

 

[IWantGod]

God is the source of all power, so what sense is there to be made of the idea that God’s nature has an equal? God is not a being among other beings God is the being in which we live and move and have our reality.

 

[Prodigal_Son]

Why would such a God need or want to overpower another. Divine beings would most likely have the same will.

Capacity is not relative to desire. I would never want to break my newborn baby’s toes, but I certainly have the power to do so. There simply cannot be two individuals capable of all things, at the same time, no matter what their desires are.