Is your God all-knowing and loving, or does he not give a fuck? Good evening everyone in the Steemisphere! As you may know, my current class for school is in Philosophy (also known as a bunch of old dudes trying to find the meaning in everything).
Today I got to learn two completely varying views Neoplatonism and Aristotelian in origin that aim to prove the existence of God—which I found extremely entertaining. Don't be confused by the big words, one is Plato (I believe in an eternal soul guy) versus Aristotle (everything is science dude).
Where We Came Up With "Being Made in His Image"
So there was this guy named Saint Augustine, who was a Bishop from a place called Hippo—who vibed off of Plato's ideas, eventually adopting them because it made sense in what he thought God was like. You see, Plato had this concept called the Theory of Forms that explained a bit about creation.
Plato believed that in order to make anything in the universe, you needed some kind of plan kind of like a blueprint or a recipe. So every physical thing in the world was a reflection of it's source—a perfect truth. Augustine liked what he saw, because that would mean that people are the aftermath of a perfect truth as well, and God would be that master crafter. Fueling Christianity, we are made in Gods image (form/idea) of what he wanted to make. This is where the argument arises that if God is perfect, and he made us—doesn't that also make us perfect?
Plato also thought of time being a property of matter before Einstein thought it was cool. Another aspect of forms accepted that the creator (of whatever was being made) had to exist outside of the time it took to finish the creation. In other words, when an artist draws a picture—they exist before and after the drawing was made. Augustine was like "word!", that means God existed before we existed, while we are existing, and after we (humanity) are done.
Beliefs like these helped with moving religion forward, as God is everywhere and immortal! He cared and made us in perfect design—what a nice guy!
Proving God With Science
Having a different approach based on Aristotle's beliefs, came another guy name Saint Thomas Aquinas (the Catholic Friar not the Apostle) who said if a God exists then science can prove it! Like Aristotle, Aquinas recognized that physical matter didn't just appear from nowhere but had to come from a cause. He made several points now known as the Cosmological Arguments—proving once and for all that God is real.
1) Motion
2) Causation
3) Contingency
4) Regress
When we look at Motion and Causation, we determine that something had to get the metaphysical ball rolling. In order for something to move, it just had to be moved by something else. In the same light where everything caused had to have a causer. God is a being that couldn't be caused or moved, bootstrapped everything that is in motion and existence now. Aquinas didn't believe in infinite regression or the idea that things could go on and on forever, there needed to be the beginning. That beginning was God.
Contingency is where things start to get a little darker. We trace back all of these causes to the one being, the source... and Aquinas discovered that God is the only necessary being as the only thing that absolutely must exist. Everything else, could have existed or not—including humans. God moves a bunch of shit around and BOOM! Here we are, likely by accident as only one of the possible configurations. No design and no reason, the meaning to life? There isn't one. God exists either way, and could be a sentient alien... Or he could be a rock.
The Regress argument is likely the one that stirs up the most emotions in humanity's role in the grand scheme of things. This is the argument that states that we can only be sure of a thing, once we can determine the opposite. We know there is happiness because sadness exists, there is up because there is down. Unfortunately for us, that means that in order to understand what God is, he must be the opposite of other things. This means that God cannot be other things than himself—it also means that if he is perfect than we cannot be.
We are the sinners!
I like school, how about you? Do you believe in a God or Multiple Gods? Or maybe your belief is even stranger than the two I went into today. Flying Spaghetti Monster anyone? This blog only serves as an application of lessons I am taking in Philosophy and is not intended in any way to be an argument on Religion!
References:
"Arguments for the Existence of God". (n.d.). Philosophy of Religion. Retrieved from http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/theistic-proofs/
Crash Course. (2016, April 11). Aquinas and the Cosmological Arguments: Crash Course Philosophy #10 [Video file]. Youtube. Retrieved from
Dumcombe, D. (2011, October 11). Plato and Early Christian Thought. Wordpress. Retrieved from https://daveduncombe.wordpress.com/2011/10/11/plato-and-early-christian-thought-2/
Seattle Pi. (n.d.). Platonic Influence on St. Augustine's Philosophy. Retrieved from http://education.seattlepi.com/platonic-influence-st-augustines-philosophy-5566.html
The School of Life. (2016, March 11). PLATO ON: The Forms [Video file]. Youtube. Retrieved from