Crude Variant of the Ontological Argument

  • Thread starter Thread starter Qoeleth
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Qoeleth said:
Well, if the best thing that exists really is a bowl of ice-cream, surely it would deserve to be called ‘God.’
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No, not really. You don’t use a name for an object because it deserves to have that name. You use it when the object fits the meaning of the name. And a bowl of ice cream does not fit the meaning of the word “God,” because there are other properties definitive of God beyond just being the best existent thing.
 
Eleve said:
No, not really. You don’t use a name for an object because it deserves to have that name. You use it when the object fits the meaning of the name. And a bowl of ice cream does not fit the meaning of the word “God,” because there are other properties definitive of God beyond just being the best existent thing.
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OK, say I wanted to find “the Strongest Man in the World”- and the strongest man in the world turns out to be a 100 pound featherweight. He still deserves the title “The Strongest Man in the World”…

Now, if a Theist found out that the Omnipotent, Omniscient ,etc. Being, didn’t exist, would they, remaining a theist, content themselves with the Best Thing that did exist? What if God revealed that in some way He was imperfect or limited, would we still accept Him as God?
 
Qoeleth said:
Now, if a Theist found out that the Omnipotent, Omniscient ,etc. Being, didn’t exist, would they, remaining a theist, content themselves with the Best Thing that did exist?
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If you replace “found out” with “decided,” this isn’t really a hypothetical. Plenty of theists decide that God doesn’t exist and become atheists. Such a person might believe that the best thing in the world is ice cream, or human happiness, or whatever. And, if she’s an atheist, then by definition she doesn’t call that thing God.
 
Eleve said:
If you replace “found out” with “decided,” this isn’t really a hypothetical. Plenty of theists decide that God doesn’t exist and become atheists. Such a person might believe that the best thing in the world is ice cream, or human happiness, or whatever. And, if she’s an atheist, then by definition she doesn’t call that thing God.
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Yes. This is true. It doesn’t work simply to define God as “the best thing there is”, and then to call something “God” if it has no God-like characteristics, e.g. ice-cream.

Oh, well, back to the drawing board…
 
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