Two arguments for an infinite number of Gods

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A
  1. The supreme reality is infinite.
  2. The supreme reality is infinite in every way that is metaphysically positive (so it is not infinite in evil since evil is not a metaphysically positive thing, being merely the lack of something, namely the lack of a good that ought to be there).
  3. Therefore the supreme reality is infinite in number.
  4. Therefore there are an infinite number of Gods, of supreme beings.
B.
  1. The supreme reality is awesome.
  2. The supreme reality is as awesome as can be.
  3. Do this thought experiment: a) Imagine a finite number like 3 or 123 b) Then imagine an infinite number c) Note how imagining an infinite number instills more awe than imagining a finite number does.
  4. Therefore, being infinite in number is more awesome than being finite in number.
  5. Therefore the supreme reality is infinite in number.
  6. Therefore there are an infinite number of Gods, of supreme beings.
 
A
  1. The supreme reality is infinite.
  2. The supreme reality is infinite in every way that is metaphysically positive (so it is not infinite in evil since evil is not a metaphysically positive thing, being merely the lack of something, namely the lack of a good that ought to be there).
  3. Therefore the supreme reality is infinite in number.
  4. Therefore there are an infinite number of Gods, of supreme beings.
B.
  1. The supreme reality is awesome.
  2. The supreme reality is as awesome as can be.
  3. Do this thought experiment: a) Imagine a finite number like 3 or 123 b) Then imagine an infinite number c) Note how imagining an infinite number instills more awe than imagining a finite number does.
  4. Therefore, being infinite in number is more awesome than being finite in number.
  5. Therefore the supreme reality is infinite in number.
  6. Therefore there are an infinite number of Gods, of supreme beings.
Logically, you can’t have two separate beings that are infinite because the existence of one limits the other. What is limited is not infinite.
 
You have a basic misapprehension here. Boundlessness of essense is not compatible with ennumeration.

Besides, if a hypothetical God 45 and God 99 are each boundless in their perfect essense, they are thus one and the same in essense. Identical in every way.

As a limited analogy, would 2 blocks really be 2 distinct entities if they had they same molecules in the same coordinates, with all features the same? No.

From Theology and Sanity:

The word INFINITY is built from the Latin words FINIS, a limit or boundary,
and the prefix IN which negatives the main word.
Thus it means without limits or boundaries, limitless, boundless.
But this must not be taken as meaning only the absence of any external boundaries.
To say that a being is infinite does not mean only that it spreads in all directions without any limit, that whether you are considering its being or its power you never reach a point where you must say “thus far and no farther.”
It means the absence of ALL limitations,
not only external BUT INTERNAL AS WELL.
At first sight, this may seem needlessly subtilizing and even meaningless.

Actually it is quite vital to our knowledge of infinity.
When we say that a being is infinite,
we mean not only that there is no limit to what it can do,
but no divisions within itself, no parts.
An infinite being MUST be spirit.

Consider how the fact of having parts is a limitation.
Our own bodies will serve to illustrate.
My body has parts—arms, legs, kidneys, liver, vast numbers of parts.
No part is the whole of me.
Thus my very being is divided up.
No one element in me is me, and no one element in my body is my body.
How limiting this is to my being should be obvious enough:
among other things, it means that parts can be broken off me—fingers and such like;
it means the possibility of that decisive break we call death;
even while I live it means that I take a good deal of holding together.
Its limiting effect upon my power is more obvious still.
The things my body can do are distributed over the various parts of which my body consists. My foot can do one sort of thing, my liver another, my nose another.
Thus my power to act is not concentrated but dispersed.
This means that I cannot perform any particular action without a preliminary bringing together of the various parts of me whose cooperation that particular action requires.
Further, this dispersal of my power means that I cannot do all the things I am capable of doing at any one time;
I cannot at once be playing the violin, writing a letter and building a fire.

There is no need to labour the point.
To have one’s being in parts
is an immense limitation,
and under this limitation
the whole material universe lies.

…
 
You have a basic misapprehension here. Boundlessness of essense is not compatible with ennumeration.

Besides, if a hypothetical God 45 and God 99 are each boundless in their perfect essense, they are thus one and the same in essense. Identical in every way.

As a limited analogy, would 2 blocks really be 2 distinct entities if they had they same molecules in the same coordinates, with all features the same? No.
Then how do you explain your Trinity? In your Trinity, the three persons are not identical to each other. If they were identical, then they wouldn’t be distinct as you say above.

Also, while I say that the divine reality as a whole is infinite in every way, I do not say that each member of the divine reality is infinite in every way. One God may be infinite beauty and another infinite goodness and another infinite courage and so on. Beauty, goodness, and courage, etc are all distinct things.

Do you agree that truth itself exists? If so, then that’s one God. Do you agree that love itself exists? If so, then that’s two Gods since truth and love are not one and the same thing. Do you agree that goodness itself exists? If so then that’s three Gods since truth, love and goodness are not one and the same thing, but three distinct things. Applying the same reasoning to beauty and courage and loveliness and patience and so forth yields a vast multitude of Gods.
 
To start with love, courage, goodness are not things. They must adhere in some thing, but outside a thing they do not have seperate existence. You need a course in basic logic. Hie your bod to the nearest university and partake instead of trying to jerk peoples chains. You must be a sophomore.
 
Then how do you explain your Trinity? In your Trinity, the three persons are not identical to each other. If they were identical, then they wouldn’t be distinct as you say above.

Also, while I say that the divine reality as a whole is infinite in every way, I do not say that each member of the divine reality is infinite in every way. One God may be infinite beauty and another infinite goodness and another infinite courage and so on. Beauty, goodness, and courage, etc are all distinct things.

Do you agree that truth itself exists? If so, then that’s one God. Do you agree that love itself exists? If so, then that’s two Gods since truth and love are not one and the same thing. Do you agree that goodness itself exists? If so then that’s three Gods since truth, love and goodness are not one and the same thing, but three distinct things. Applying the same reasoning to beauty and courage and loveliness and patience and so forth yields a vast multitude of Gods.
The Trinity is three persons but one being or essense or nature. God’s nature answers the question “What is God?”, but God’s persons answer the question “Who is God?”. The book I quoted from goes into what the Trinity is and what it is not. The Trinity shows the inner life and relations in God, and the Relations in God are really identical with the Divine Nature.

The object of God’s love cannot be merely finite creation, but it can communicated fully within the persons of the Trinity.

Secondly, the Divine Attributes are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence. God’s boundless goodness is identical to His boundless mercy, and justice, etc. God is His goodness, mercy, justice, etc.
 
To start with love, courage, goodness are not things. They must adhere in some thing, but outside a thing they do not have seperate existence. You need a course in basic logic. Hie your bod to the nearest university and partake instead of trying to jerk peoples chains. You must be a sophomore.
That’s contradicted by your Bible where it says “God is love.” It doesn’t say God is loving, but that God is love itself. So love itself exists according to your own Bible.
 
To start with love, courage, goodness are not things. They must adhere in some thing, but outside a thing they do not have seperate existence. You need a course in basic logic. Hie your bod to the nearest university and partake instead of trying to jerk peoples chains. You must be a sophomore.
In addition to the Bible, if you google the Vatican website, you find many phrases like “goodness itself” “truth itself” “love itself” and “beauty itself.” For example:

google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22beauty+itself%22+site%3Avatican.va
 
The object of God’s love cannot be merely finite creation, but it can communicated fully within the persons of the Trinity.
Likewise the Gods love each other, in my view.
Secondly, the Divine Attributes are really identical among themselves and with the Divine Essence. God’s boundless goodness is identical to His boundless mercy, and justice, etc. God is His goodness, mercy, justice, etc.
Mercy and justice obviously mean different things, as does goodness. So how can they be one and the same thing, if they as concepts mean different things.

One problem with your statement and the Catholic faith is that according to Catholicism, God need not have created the world. The creation of the world was, according to Catholic dogma, a free act of God. Then it seems that God is not by His very nature merciful since if there had been no creation, there would have been no creatures for God to be merciful towards. (The three divine persons are surely not merciful towards each other). So then while your God may be goodness itself and may be justice itself, your God cannot be mercy itself since that is not what he is by his nature, apart from creating the world.
 
Likewise the Gods love each other, in my view.
But contradictions in terms have already been pointed out in your theory. You even tried to use it against the relations of the Trinity.

If your infinite Gods each have only a partial attribute, they are not infinite, and they are not God.
Mercy and justice obviously mean different things, as does goodness. So how can they be one and the same thing, if they as concepts mean different things.
When perfected, they are one. Perfect love is perfectly just and perfectly merciful and perfectly good. Perfection is not partial perfection.
One problem with your statement and the Catholic faith is that according to Catholicism, God need not have created the world. The creation of the world was, according to Catholic dogma, a free act of God. Then it seems that God is not by His very nature merciful since if there had been no creation, there would have been no creatures for God to be merciful towards. (The three divine persons are surely not merciful towards each other). So then while your God may be goodness itself and may be justice itself, your God cannot be mercy itself since that is not what he is by his nature, apart from creating the world.
You are correct that created beings are not of themselves necessary. Since perfect mercy (and goodness in general) is contained in perfection, God is good to Himself, so to speak, but not in terms of needing to deal with fallenness properly, as God is not fallen. Goodness described as mercy takes meaning only in relation to created persons.
 
In addition to the Bible, if you google the Vatican website, you find many phrases like “goodness itself” “truth itself” “love itself” and “beauty itself.” For example:

google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22beauty+itself%22+site%3Avatican.va
Well ok my sophomoric friend, why don’t just pack me up a small box of each and send them my way? Just because they are real and exist does not make them things that can stand alone no matter how much the language used to refer to them limps. I am gaining a much better comprehension of what people mean when they say,“A little learning learning is a dangerous thing.” You don’t by any chance have chip on your shoulder for monotheists?
 
a.) there are an infinite number of gods

b.) i am not a god.

how is there room left over in the universe for me?

all the gods + chrismyster = infinity + 1.

not logical.
 
A
  1. The supreme reality is infinite.
  2. The supreme reality is infinite in every way that is metaphysically positive (so it is not infinite in evil since evil is not a metaphysically positive thing, being merely the lack of something, namely the lack of a good that ought to be there).
  3. Therefore the supreme reality is infinite in number.
  4. Therefore there are an infinite number of Gods, of supreme beings.
B.
  1. The supreme reality is awesome.
  2. The supreme reality is as awesome as can be.
  3. Do this thought experiment: a) Imagine a finite number like 3 or 123 b) Then imagine an infinite number c) Note how imagining an infinite number instills more awe than imagining a finite number does.
  4. Therefore, being infinite in number is more awesome than being finite in number.
  5. Therefore the supreme reality is infinite in number.
  6. Therefore there are an infinite number of Gods, of supreme beings.
It looks like you are thinking.🙂

“Supreme” by definition is singular: nothing is greater than the supreme one.

“Infinite” simply means “without limit”, which is more of a negative statement, the positive of which is “with limit.”

Your “therefores” do not follow logically from each other - in fact, you refer to the supreme reality rather than to supreme realities. Number is an accident, a quality. You seem to argue that since there are blue cars, and there is an infinite number of shades of blue, therefore there is an infinite number of blue cars.

I think you would enjoy reading Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, Part One. He discusses these issues. In fact, his question #7 discusses the infinity of God. See

newadvent.org/summa/1007.htm

I hope to hear from you again.
 
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