Simplicity, divine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Leftow
Keyword(s):  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Abstract Entity ◽  
Divine Simplicity ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Conceptual Core ◽  
Completely Simple ◽  
Do So

To be complex is to have many parts. To be simple is to have few. Theists of all religious traditions have asserted that God is completely simple – that is, has no parts of any sort. A contemporary statement of this doctrine of divine simplicity would add that God is identical with each of his intrinsic attributes. Thus if God is omnipotent and omniscient, for example, then he is identical with omnipotence and omniscience (and so these attributes are also identical). The doctrine’s popularity across traditions may rest on theists’ shared convictions that God is the ultimate reality, perfect, and creator of all that is not himself, and on the fact that many theists have thought that each of these claims entails the doctrine of divine simplicity. It may also rest on strands of mystical experience common to many traditions. The doctrine has played an important part in ontological arguments for the existence of God because of its assertion of the identity of God with God’s nature (if the latter in some sense exists, so must the former). Indeed, divine simplicity is near the conceptual core of classical theism; it is one chief reason classical theists think God immutable, impassible, timeless and wholly distinct from the universe. Many who oppose divine simplicity do so because of these other doctrines it entails. Other recent critics have charged that divine simplicity makes God a mere abstract entity or requires him to have all his attributes necessarily or all contingently.

scholarly journals Scientifically proving God's existence

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John joseph Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Method ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Do So

It is possible to scientifically test/prove the existence of an ultimate form of consciousness. However, it is not possible to scientifically conclude whether this supreme form of consciousness, is indeed God (which is defined as the creator and ruler of the universe). Moreover any contention, which seeks to prove the existence of God scientifically, must do so by modifying arguments which have premises that when added together undoubtedly lead to the conclusion that God exists. The premises themselves must be modified, so that they can be tested by the scientific method. It is also implied at the end of this paper, that the methods suggested in this article, could be applied to other areas of philosophy in order to empirically test various ideas.

Contextualism, Decontextualism, and Perennialism

1998 ◽  
pp. 142-146
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Religious Epistemology ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Perennial Philosophy ◽  
The Common ◽  
Mystical Experiences ◽  
Central Claim

This paper addresses religious epistemology in that it concerns the assessment of the credibility of certain claims arising out of religious experience. Developments this century have made the world’s rich religious heritage accessible to more people than ever. But the conflicting religious claims tend to undermine each religion’s central claim to be a vehicle for opening persons to ultimate reality. One attempt to overcome this problem is provided by "perennial philosophy," which claims that there is a kind of mystical experience common to all religious traditions, an experience which is an immediate contact with an absolute principle. Perennialism has been attacked by "contextualists" such as Steven Katz who argue that particular mystical experiences are so tied to a particular tradition that there are no common mystical experiences across traditions. In turn, Robert Forman and the "decontextualists" have argued that a certain kind of mystical experience and process are found in diverse traditions, thereby supporting one of the key elements of perennialism. I review the contextualist-decontextualist debate and suggest a research project that would pursue the question of whether the common ground of the world’s mystical traditions could be expanded beyond what has been established by the decontextualists. The extension of this common ground would add credibility to the claims arising out of mystical experience.

Theorizing Charismatic Authority in Early Islamic Law*

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-158
Author(s):  
Jonathan E. Brockopp
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Model ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Long Line ◽  
Charismatic Authority ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Do So

In Islamic Studies, charisma has usually been reserved for the study of marginalized individuals. I argue here that charisma may also be applied to leadership among legal scholars. To do so, I join a long line of scholars who have modified Max Weber’s initial insights, and put forth a new, dynamic model of charismatic authority. The purpose of my model is to account for the fact that religious histories emphasize the uniqueness of the originating charismatic event, be that Prophet Muhammad’s revelations, Jesus’ theophany or the Buddha’s enlightenment, while at the same time recognizing that the charismatic cycle never quite ends. In contrast with Weber, I argue that charismatic authority in religious traditions is best understood as a network of influence and interaction through which the routinization of charisma reinterprets and redefines the meaning of the originating charismatic event.

Yaḥyā Ibn ʿAdī on a Kalām Argument for Creation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Adamson ◽  
Robert Wisnovsky
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century ◽  
Arabic Text ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Islamic Theology ◽  
The Universe

This article offers an analysis, translation, and edition of a brief, recently uncovered Arabic text by the tenth-century CE Christian Aristotelian thinker Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī. Ibn ʿAdī here takes issue with an argument for the existence of God, widely used in kalām (Islamic theology). According to this argument, bodies cannot exist without being either in motion or at rest; motion and rest must begin; therefore all bodies and hence the universe as a whole must have begun. Ibn ʿAdī diagnoses various flaws in this reasoning, including a supposed part–whole fallacy. The analysis of the text shows how it fits into Ibn ʿAdī’s intellectual profile and the project of the Baghdad Aristotelian school.

The Nature of Time

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald C. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Dimensional Manifold ◽  
Nature Of Time ◽  
Manifold Theory ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Theoretical Cost ◽  
Do So

This chapter provides a fuller treatment of the pure manifold theory with an expanded discussion of competing doctrines. It is argued that competing doctrines fail to account for the extensive and/or transitory aspect(s) of time, or they do so at great theoretical cost. The pure manifold theory accounts for the extensive aspect of time because it admits a four-dimensional manifold and it accounts for the transitory aspect of time because it hypothesizes that the increase of entropy is the thing that is ‘felt’ in veridical cases of felt passage. A four-dimensionalist theory of time travel is outlined, along with a sketch of large-scale cosmological traits of the universe.

scholarly journals The Meta-Dynamic Nature of Consciousness

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Barnden
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Formulation ◽  
Physical Universe ◽  
Time Flow ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Physical Interactions ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Physical Laws ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Non Locality ◽  
Do So

How, if at all, consciousness can be part of the physical universe remains a baffling problem. This article outlines a new, developing philosophical theory of how it could do so, and offers a preliminary mathematical formulation of a physical grounding for key aspects of the theory. Because the philosophical side has radical elements, so does the physical-theory side. The philosophical side is radical, first, in proposing that the productivity or dynamism in the universe that many believe to be responsible for its systematic regularities is actually itself a physical constituent of the universe, along with more familiar entities. Indeed, it proposes that instances of dynamism can themselves take part in physical interactions with other entities, this interaction then being “meta-dynamism” (a type of meta-causation). Secondly, the theory is radical, and unique, in arguing that consciousness is necessarily partly constituted of meta-dynamic auto-sensitivity, in other words it must react via meta-dynamism to its own dynamism, and also in conjecturing that some specific form of this sensitivity is sufficient for and indeed constitutive of consciousness. The article proposes a way for physical laws to be modified to accommodate meta-dynamism, via the radical step of including elements that explicitly refer to dynamism itself. Additionally, laws become, explicitly, temporally non-local in referring directly to quantity values holding at times prior to a given instant of application of the law. The approach therefore implicitly brings in considerations about what information determines states. Because of the temporal non-locality, and also because of the deep connections between dynamism and time-flow, the approach also implicitly connects to the topic of entropy insofar as this is related to time.

scholarly journals KOMPERASI FILSAFAT KETUHANAN NYAYA DARSANA DENGAN BARUCH SPINOZA

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 501
Author(s):  
I Gusti Ngurah Elga Ptra Sutrawan
Keyword(s):  
Value Theory ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Baruch Spinoza ◽  
Single Substance ◽  
Five Senses ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Living Creature ◽  
Is Value

<p><em>The philosophy of the divine NyayaDarsana and Baruch Spinoza are both a concept of the divine which gives understanding that everything comes from God. As the main cause of everything that exist and seeps into its creation which are called Atman or single substance. It confirm that in the philosophy of the divine NyayaDarsana and Baruch Spinoza contains the concept of divinity, that is Phanteism.</em></p><p><em>Based on the description, then the problem discussed in this research is : (1) How is the philosophy of the divine NyayaDarsana and Baruch Spinoza ? (2) What is the differences and equations NyayaDarsana and Baruch Spinoza ?.theory on this reseach is value theory to dissect the first problem related to the values of the philosophy of the divine which contained NyayaDarsana and the thought of Baruch Spinoza. Hermeneutic theory is used to dissect the second problem to interpret differences and equations NyayaDarsana and Baruch Baruch Spinoza. This research is a type of qualitative research with data collection techniques library study, interviews, online data and descriptive qualitative data analysis techniques, with the technique of presenting the description.</em></p><p><em>The result of this research is (1) the philosophy of the divine NyayaDarsana describe that God is the main source. Final goal all living creature that is moksa and way to reach it with knowledge of truth. The philosophy of the divine Baruch Spinoza describe that all reality comes from a single substance that is God and God immanent with nature. The ultimale goal of life based on the thought of Baruch Spinoza is to achieve happiness or freedom from the emotional shackles emotion the equation of NyayaDarsana and Baruch Spinoza is reqognize the existence of God as the main source, containing the concept of panteism. The difference is viewed from the ontology according NyayaDarsanathat the universe comes from elements of caturbhuta that together with akasa (ether) space and time, while thought of Baruch Spinoza that single substance which thought of Baruch Spinoza that single substance which called Modi, God as creator of universe, epistemology on NyayaDarsana contained about knowledge of truth to avoid from false knowledge while thought of Baruch Spinoza contain three knowledge that is the knowledge of the five senses, common sense intuitive to happiness and freedom.</em></p>

Ghazâlî's Argument from Creation (II)

1971 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lenn E. Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Existence Of God ◽  
The World ◽  
The Universe

If, as Ghazâlî presumes, the fact of creation can serve as evidence of the existence of God, and if, as he attempts to show, creation is the only binding, reasoned proof of God's existence, Ghazâlî must, to fulfill his program of reconstructing the intellectual basis of Islam, somehow find arguments adequate to prove that creation did in fact take place. He must disprove what was in his time the still vital claim that the Universe had not come to be but had existed forever differing in no essential way from the world we know today.

Tennant's Struggle with a “Desperate Task”

1942 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-208
Author(s):  
Graham Frisbee
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Do So

In his essay, “On God and the Absolute,” F. H. Bradley declares that the “assertor of an imperfect God is, whether he knows it or not, face to face with a desperate task or a forlorn alternative. He must try to show (how I cannot tell) that the entire rest of the Universe, outside his limited God, is known to be still weaker and more limited. Or he must appeal to us to follow our Leader blindly and, for all we know, to a common and overwhelming defeat.” The appeal of the second course, even when it is set forth in the spirited and heroic manner of William James, cannot survive a full realization of what is involved in such a prospect. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that most of the more sober-minded theologians who hold the idea of a limited God attempt to do so in the first form suggested by Bradley. F. R. Tennant belongs to this group. And it is his attempt to accomplish the “desperate task” that we propose to examine.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD AND THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

Zygon® ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-185
Author(s):  
Jack C. Carloye
Keyword(s):  
Existence Of God ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Universe
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