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does polytheism make any sense at all?

I was reading an interesting religious math article by a christian mathematician from the 15th century; and he made an excellent point:

if multiple gods were to exist it creates too many problems.

A) the gods cannot be infinite (i.e. without beginning or end) and all encompassing because one would have to encompass the other in order to be all encompassing.

B) they could not be omnipotent because they would have to be able to stronger and weaker than each other at the same time. or be able to contradict each other in many ways.

I can't post a link or anything because I only have the article in a book that I own that I currently re-reading.

what do you Christians think about the work of (in my opinion brilliant man)?

Update:

in answer to pascal the infinite part is already explained above.

you be all encompassing and yet be encompassed by another being and also encompass him simultaneously. this is logically impossible. if you don't understand that it is not my fault.

B) if you have only one god than you could argue that anything that uses circular reasoning to destroy the concept of omnipotence is invalid, because it uses circular reasoning.

meaning that you dispute omnipotence is even possible fundamentally; you do not dispute if god could do it; rather you believe it is impossible.

Update 2:

all encompassing in the authors argument is implying that the being is not encompassed themselves. which means it is logically impossible to have more than one god.

this should not be hard to understand.

Update 3:

also just as carl has worded. you cannot share omnipotence as this defies its definition. if you share it the problem is that one of the gods would have to be supreme or stronger than the other.

if you say they are equal than neither would be considered omnipotent, they would just be considered powerful.

but this is irrelevant anyway because you cannot have two infinite beings that are all encompassing and they themselves are not encompassed by anything. because one would have to encompass the other and this is obviously impossible.

Update 4:

J you had an intelligent argument. but it is not entirely an assumption as you are saying. it is obviously beyond the scope of science as you noted. but the initial assumption is based off of the scientific principle that states order states precede disorder. i.e. if you drop a glass plate and it shatters; it will not revert to a more ordered state without external intervention. (i.e. input of energy) so the assumption is based off of the existing principle that is observable. and from their the argument for one god vs several is what the author follows with.

Update 5:

although I must say your one of the few people i have seen on YA who can even seem to understand these arguments and pose legitimate rebuttals to them.

15 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    No because of the whole 'theism' part.

  • J.
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    First there is no proof for God, so any claim made by any Mathematician must make God an assumption. No God or many gods are also assumptions that would equal work as well. See Axiomatic Set Theory about assumption, definition and theorems.

    The assumption that God (specifically one god) is infinite does not imply that all gods are not infinite because the definition of one god means that there are other gods. If there is no other gods, you cannot state any characteristic about them by definition. Moreover the assumption of all gods is infinite implies one god is infinite. Also the assumption of no god is infinite means the one god is not infinite as well. If you substitute the word omnipotent for infinite, you get the same definitions.

    Further more there is no scientific proof for the existence or nonexistence of God: God is assumption, not a claim that can be proved. Here is the proof that God is an assumption.

    Suppose there is claim that God does exist. What this means is that God existed before God created everything that can be observed (Genesis 1:1 in modern terminology). The scientific theory of the Big Bang states that the space-time continuum has a beginning; moreover, the space-time continuum is the bases of all observation. Because God existed before this continuum was created, God exists in the unobservable. To prove the claim that God exists mean that an observation can be made in the unobservable. Contradiction! That means the claim is false.

    Suppose the claim that God does not exist. By the same argument, an observation can be made in the unobservable, makes this claim to be false as well.

    Let A be the first claim and not A be second. You cannot have A and not A both be false in Aristotelian logic, the logic of science. Since the claim cannot be proved either way, the statement about God existence or nonexistence must be an assumption that is beyond the scope of scientific method. Assumptions about God are not necessary for science but science cannot be used to prove or disprove this particular assumption.

    Source(s): Axiomatic Set Theory; Bible for definition of God; Scientific Method; Logical Positivism
  • ?
    Lv 6
    8 years ago

    Well, that is if Gods are defined as omnipotent, which would lead to incoherence as how do two omnipotent beings not be able to thwart each other's will.

    But that is a human view of things, there may be something about that that we can't know with our little limited brains.

    I don't see any value to postulating multiple gods when I don't find any evidence of even one god.

  • 8 years ago

    A) why can't they? IF one god can be infinite, why can't more than one? Most polytheistic religions don't have all the gods be equal.

    B) Can god make a rock that is so large he cannot lift it? - monotheism doesn't make sense either.

    Edit:

    Infinite and all encompassing are different. You are putting your monotheistic view of gods on polytheistic gods. If you define a god as HAVING to be all encompassing, then you can't have more than one, but that is then defining gods as you see fit to make your argument work.

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  • 8 years ago

    Zillions of civilizations had many gods, and those many gods were copied by Christianity in the form of saints. So in effect, at least the original Christian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, had lots of gods to which people could pray to for favors.

    Gods don't necessarily have equal status.... each had it own little section of one's world... goddess of the harvest, goddess of birth, goddess of the hearth, and so on.

    Study some ancient Egyptian religion.... The RCC copied from it... in fact all of Christianity is a copy job of previous religions.... the flood story comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is Samarian and Babylonian.

    In fact, Jesus was born in the spring, but because it was too obvious, and Christians were being rounded up and killed as traitors, in the early days, thus the date was changed to the one for the Festival of Saturnalia.... third week of December sometime.

    Copy job. All of it.

    Polytheism makes no more sense than monotheism.... there is zero evidence that gods a real. All are inventions of the human mind.

  • Ishtar
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    Ah, but the thing with polytheism is that they don't claim that gods are infinite or omnipotent. Each god has his or her own specialty, and they work together to form a pantheon that covers all matters of interest to the culture worshiping them, ignoring those that are not. So you're comparing apples and oranges - polytheistic deities are nothing like a monotheistic one.

    As for your God, if you're assuming both infinite nature and omnipotence, then you are acknowledging the malevolence of God: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" Epicurus

    I prefer not to worship malevolent deities, thank you.

  • 8 years ago

    A) Why can't they be all encompassing/omnipotent and still be many Gods? There could just be a hierarchy of Gods, in which the original God decided to delegate the powers to lesser Gods but they're still Gods in every aspect(Such as Greek mythology).

    Heck, even without a hierarchy you can consider polytheism to make sense (logically), there may be many Gods who all share the same omnipotence (they're all equals), it can be considered one God but they've split their domain into different divisions in which to maintain. They don't have to encompass each other, they work in unison/complimentary to each other. They're different Gods due to the domain they maintain but only be considered One God as they're all equals working in perfect harmony of each other.

    B) A hierarchy, while would make more sense in a polytheism but it is not a requirement for it to work. As stated above, being in equal omnipotence, they simply work in flawless unison of each other.

  • Raatz
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    I'm not aware of any polytheist gods who claim to be infinite or omnipotent. This seems a step up from monotheism, as those things are contradictions/a priori impossible.

  • carl
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    If God is the ultimate answer to our existence then He must be truly one.

    Imagine having multiple kings over the same area. None can be truly king if someone else has authority over them.

    In order for God to be omnipotent he can not have a lack of power in any way. Thus no other one can have power over him. If so then he is not the ultimate answer and we have to look to something else that has omnipotentence.

  • Rocky
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    You have God down to a very weak, twit. You have called God a liar. You have put God on the level of man or less. Do you wish to go for the million dollar question? Best you find this God or suffer for eternity without him. He will not send you to hell for you have condemned yourself to go there already but at judgment he will administer justice. Your choice--you do not have to go there.

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    It's pretty clear that you cannot have more than one omnipotent being. It contradicts the notion of omnipotence.

    May I ask who the author is?

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