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    We cannot attribute perfection to God — Carmelics
    Home/Natural Theology
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    We cannot attribute perfection to God

    Against an attribute of GodNatural Theology
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Any concept of 'perfection' meaningful to finite human minds is necessarily derived from and limited by finite human experience.
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    • 2.Attributing a humanly-conceived perfection to an infinite being commits the anthropomorphic fallacy Xenophanes identified when mocking gods shaped like their worshippers.
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    • 3.A predicate that cannot be coherently applied without distortion from its source domain fails to genuinely characterize its alleged subject.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Kant demonstrated in the Critique of Pure Reason that predicates like 'perfect' carry schematic content tied to possible experience and cannot be legitimately extended beyond it.
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    • 2.To attribute perfection to God is to employ a predicate whose conditions of application are systematically absent in the theological context where it is deployed.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.We are justified in attributing perfection to God only if we observe perfection in God's creation
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    • 2.There are many inexplicable difficulties in the works of nature
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    • 3.The works of nature are not observably perfect
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    Topics

    Natural TheologyAgainst an attribute of God

    Connections

    1 topic

    Problem of Evil1 linked

    Related

    A predicate that cannot be coherently applied without distortion from its source...Any concept of 'perfection' meaningful to finite human minds is necessarily deri...Attributing a humanly-conceived perfection to an infinite being commits the anth...Kant demonstrated in the Critique of Pure Reason that predicates like 'perfect' ...
    +4 moreShow less
    The works of nature are not observably perfectThere are many inexplicable difficulties in the works of natureTo attribute perfection to God is to employ a predicate whose conditions of appl...We are justified in attributing perfection to God only if we observe perfection ...

    Similar

    We are justified in attributing perfection to God only if we observe p...86%God is maximally perfect and cannot possess imperfections.84%A being with all perfections (God) is really possible83%Therefore, Descartes can only legitimately claim 'According to the ide...82%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: hume-religion
    View source passageHide passage
    Any experimental reasoning of the kind that the argument from design employs must ensure that the cause is proportioned to the effect. That is to say, we cannot “ascribe to the cause any qualities, but what are exactly sufficient to produce them” (EU, 11.12–3/136; D, 5.8/168). If we follow this principle, however, we are no longer in a position to assign several fundamental attributes to God. We cannot, for example, attribute any thing infinite to God based on our observation and experience of f
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit