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When philosophers speak of God being perfect they intend to signify the idea of God possessing the greatest array of compossible great-making properties. The term “great-making properties” is generally used in the literature to signify those properties that it is intrisically better to have than to not have.Then what do you mean when you say that God is perfect?
My position on theistic claims is irrelevant here.
What is relevant is what the words mean.
Mercy = suspension of justice.
Justice and mercy cannot coexist.
Either justice prevails or mercy is shown.
You can't have your pie and eat it too...
And the first question? Why do you think it is acceptable to do so?
For one thing, you don't get to be a Doctor of Philosophy period.
It's "Doctor of Philosophy in _______"
Let's just recognize that the way it works is that PhD's are awarded in many different fields and you don't get to be a credentialed philosopher just because you have been awarded one in some other field--just as you don't get to be a Doctor of Medicine because you earned a PhD in Sociology.
This is the highest level of accomplishment. It's also possible to earn a degree of "Doctor" in some field itself that's not up to the level of a PhD. The PhD is supposed to represent an unusually high level of competence in learning all round and with the recipient having done unique research.
What negative character traits that you have would you like to change?
My temper is a negative character trait that I desire to be amended. My tendency to become puffed up by the knowledge I have is another. My tendency to be proud to such a degree and in such a way as to prevent me from giving honor to God where it is due and when it is due is also another.
I'm not insisting that anyone have a Ph.D. to call themselves a philosopher. Socrates never had one, and yet he is arguably a philosopher.
I do want to know what someone means when they call themselves a philosopher. Do they have a Ph.D, and where? Or, if not, just what are they claiming about themselves?
eudaimonia,
Mark
Who made that definition?
Ok. Where I come from we call that a premise.
OK. Defining words is ok. But that´s not the problem here.
The problem is: Who or what determined that Summum Bonum includes "cannot lie"?
After all, we learned in the other thread that Summum Bonum doesn´t mean "cannot commit genocide" and means "can do anything, if it serves a greater purpose (which may be beyond our understanding). I´m not seeing how interpreting "Summum Bonum" as "can not lie" is consistent with this line of reasoning.
Except that "three sides" is a factual, concrete, easily veri- or falsifiable trait (a proper definition), whereas "Bonum" is an unspecific (and, as we hear, defined by God) value judgement. So what you have so far are two terms defining each other - which doesn´t allow for the epistemological progress of excluding anything that isn´t provided by that definition.
I think you need to decide whether you want to accept the "Bonum" in "Summum Bonum" to be whatever God does (in which case you can´t exclude anything), or whether you want to apply an exteriour standard in order to conclude what "Bonum" means, practically, concretely.
How did you determine that lieing is incompatible with being perfect (i.e. something that God cannot do), while drowning millions of people is (i.e. something God can do quite fine)?
There´s something else I find confusing:
When asked "If God would command you to lie...?" you said "I would do it."
You did not say "God, by virtue of being the Summum Bonum (perfect) can´t tell others to lie. So this couldn´t have been God".
So being perfect - by whatever standard you arrive at these judgements - includes "Cannot lie" but not "Cannot command lies".
The question remains the same: How did you determine what a perfect being can and can not do?
What makes you a Christian philosopher?
A common passage I see a lot of facebook is "every tongue shall confess." What is confessed and by who? And why does it include all tongues?
Good question.
First I must answer the question, what makes me a Christian?
To this I reply that I have entrusted myself to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and have been justified by faith through grace in the atoning work of Christ on the Cross for the remission of my sins and have been regenerated by His Spirit and follow Christ.
What makes me a philosopher? This is much more simple. I am one who philosophizes.
In what ways does "christian philosphy" actually contribute to the advancement of knowledge of human kind? What is the purpose / usefullness of this "profession"?
Anyone can then be a Christian philosopher, if they are a Christian and they claim to philosophize.
That's not deliberate cheating. It's said to indicate that the person has earned that very prestigious degree. On the other hand, using it as, for example, calling oneself "Dr. Smith," is something that would be done in certain instances but not others. And the terminology varies somewhat with the university and with the passing of time. The reason for the word where it doesn't seem to you to belong is because "philosophy" meant something less specific to one discipline than it does today when we think of the person as having studied philosophers and their theories. Here's Vocabulary.com's definition of this: "The original meaning of the word philosophy comes from the Greek roots philo- meaning "love" and -sophos, or "wisdom." When someone studies philosophy they want to understand how and why people do certain things and how to live a good life. In other words, they want to know the meaning of life."If so, then why bother to put the word philosophy in the degree title?
Why not just say: Doctor in Chemistry?
There are many titles of Doctor that do not have the word philosophy in it. For example: MD for Medical Doctor.
If so, why do we need the redundant title: Doctor (of Philosophy) in Chemistry?
Not only that, when the person show his title, he would omit the Chemistry, but only say: Ph.D. Is that a deliberate cheating?
I was more like interested in a description how, using these various methods, you arrived at your conclusions. But that´s probably a very personal methodology of yours.Several methods...
Intuition, reason, revelation...
Just to name a few.
Ah, self-evident.It is self-evident by virtue of the deliverances of intuition that lying is not an act that an essentially axiologically perfect being can perform in the same way that the three fundamental laws of logic are self-evident by virtue of the deliverances of intuition.
And if a prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet. Ezekiel 14:9
For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. 2 Thessalonians 2:11
eudaimonia,
Mark
Nice.Hi Eu,
To your examples above, you may want to add 1 Kings 22:20-22, and 2 Kings 19:6-7. In fact, it probably isn't too much to say that it is these two passages, and any other that might be like them, that influenced Paul in writing 2 Thessalonian 2:11.
2PhiloVoid
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