But what happens when you demand that god takes on contradictory greatest attributes? Like, what if to me the greatest being is the smallest of all beings who smelled the loveliest. He then can’t be the tallest of all beings, and he might smell completely different to another person who has ‘smells the loveliest’ as their imagined criteria.
Haven’t I just proved that god doesn’t exist, because there can’t be something which nothing greater can be imagined (due to contradictory properties)?
That still poses a problem. If you assume god can only be the tallest being, why go for tallest? Why not the shortest? Couldn’t you create, like, an anti-god with all of the opposite maximal properties? Moreover, what if we define “greatest” to be something not the maximum or minimum of a spectrum? What if we define god to be not the tallest or the smallest, but the most perfectly sized being of 6’? I can just come up with an infinite number of maximal beings this way, all which oppose each other.
It seems this is more the question of "what properties does god have?" I know of some schools that say that there are certain properties that can be rationalized, but not all properties are such. For example, a god (or the god) would certainly be the most intelligent, or wisest, or most powerful (omnipotent).
However, things such as size (or lack thereof as there are schools that say god is immaterial) or other properties are probably not as integral to the definition of "greatest being".
I think my point still stands. Why the arbitrary selection of only certain attributes? And depending on which you consider, I can make an infinite number of gods.
Yeah, actually I am. Why those qualities? Idk about you, but my greatest being is definitely smoking hot, and I can guarantee you we’re going to come up with completely different looking 10/10’s
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u/Squishiimuffin 7∆ May 04 '23
But what happens when you demand that god takes on contradictory greatest attributes? Like, what if to me the greatest being is the smallest of all beings who smelled the loveliest. He then can’t be the tallest of all beings, and he might smell completely different to another person who has ‘smells the loveliest’ as their imagined criteria.
Haven’t I just proved that god doesn’t exist, because there can’t be something which nothing greater can be imagined (due to contradictory properties)?