The final chapter discusses necessity as the hallmark of the Divine. Starting with an analysis of St. Anselm’s “Ontological Proof” in light of the proposed notion of strict necessity, two points are concluded. First, that asserting or denying God’s existence is entirely vacuous. It is simply the wrong debate to be having. Second, the point of asserting God’s necessity is precisely to render His “ontological status” as being “outside the realm of all possibilities, that is outside the scope of the possible. It is to render God’s “logical status” as being impossible. Many religions, including the Abrahamic ones, speak of God in paradoxes. Logical contradictions play the central role in God-talk. Contradictions are impossible, and that is precisely what these conceptions of God wish to say. God is not a possibility. Miracles, like contradictions, are not possible. That’s their point.

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Necessity and God

  • David Graves

摘要

The final chapter discusses necessity as the hallmark of the Divine. Starting with an analysis of St. Anselm’s “Ontological Proof” in light of the proposed notion of strict necessity, two points are concluded. First, that asserting or denying God’s existence is entirely vacuous. It is simply the wrong debate to be having. Second, the point of asserting God’s necessity is precisely to render His “ontological status” as being “outside the realm of all possibilities, that is outside the scope of the possible. It is to render God’s “logical status” as being impossible. Many religions, including the Abrahamic ones, speak of God in paradoxes. Logical contradictions play the central role in God-talk. Contradictions are impossible, and that is precisely what these conceptions of God wish to say. God is not a possibility. Miracles, like contradictions, are not possible. That’s their point.