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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that There is no contradiction involved in denying that God exists.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Whatever idea of God we are able to frame is an idea of something we can conceive of as either existing or not existing.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Existence is not a further quality or perfection which a being possesses along with its other attributes.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Kant demonstrated in the Critique of Pure Reason that existence is not a real predicate that adds to the concept of a thing.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If existence adds nothing to a concept, then the concept of God as necessarily existing is incoherent, since necessity would be a modal status, not a conceptual feature.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Therefore, denying God's existence removes nothing from the concept of God, entailing no logical contradiction.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Hume argued in the Enquiry that whatever is distinctly conceivable is possible, and we can clearly conceive of a world without God.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.A genuine logical contradiction requires that affirming and denying the same proposition simultaneously be unintelligible, but atheism is historically intelligible and coherently statable.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Necessary existence, as Findlay and later Mackie argued, is a category mistake applied to existential claims, which are always contingent synthetic propositions.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.