Today, I was a guest on John Petersen’s YouTube channel to talk about God as a necessary being. I parachuted into the conversation about 20 minutes in (I had another meeting before then) and then I had to leave early. But I had a great time while it lasted!
perfect being
Does God’s perfection undermine petitionary prayer?
In the comment thread to my latest podcast, “Travis Dumsday on the atheist’s duty to pray,” philosopher Robert Gressis offered an objection to the practice of prayer. The objection is based on the assumption that God is a maximally perfect being (i.e. the Anselmian conception), and thus perfectly good and all knowing. Gressis explains: assuming that we’re […]
Perfect Divine Being, Perfect Divine Commands
Yesterday one of my readers, Mark, raised the following objection to divine command theories of ethics: “It’s certainly conceivable that there is an omnipotent, omniscient creator of the universe who orders us to kill each other for fun. Correct me if I’m wrong, but philosophers generally take such things as pretty good evidence for possibility. […]
Why biblical theologians need philosophical theology
I have enjoyed having a discussion with my colleague Jerry Shepherd. I think that the fact that we can have an irenic discussion of this type is very important and illustrates the need for more dialogue without enmity. As interesting as the convesation has been, even more interesting is discovering what the conversation is really […]
Could God be other than maximally loving? Yet another response to Jerry
Jerry asks: “You say that God is “maximally loving” and that God maximizes his glory. My question for you is, if God wasn’t maximally loving, how could you tell? In other words, what would it take for you to declare that God is not maximally loving, and therefore, not worthy of your worship. If God […]
God is maximally great, God is perfectly good, so we can thank him in every possible world
There has been much ado about the ontological argument, most of it skeptical. In response to the chorus of incredulity, it may help to put this into a more formalized type of argument. However, doing so is risky given the sharp minds out there waiting to trip me up. But I care more about corporate illumination […]
