Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:51:28.531Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the plurality of gods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2012

ERIC STEINHART
ERIC STEINHART*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, William Paterson University, Wayne NJ 07470, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ordinal polytheism is motivated by the cosmological and design arguments. It is also motivated by Leibnizian–Lewisian modal realism. Just as there are many universes, so there are many gods. Gods are necessary concrete grounds of universes. The god-universe relation is one-to-one. Ordinal polytheism argues for a hierarchy of ranks of ever more perfect gods, one rank for every ordinal number. Since there are no maximally perfect gods, ordinal polytheism avoids many of the familiar problems of monotheism. It links theology with counterpart theory, mathematics and computer science. And it entails that the system of universes has an attractive axiological structure.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 289 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adami, C., Ofria, C. & Collier, T. (2000) ‘Evolution of biological complexity’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97, 4463–4468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alston, W. (1985) ‘Functionalism and theological language’, American Philosophical Quarterly, 22, 221–230.Google Scholar
Antunes, L., Fortnow, L., Melkebeek, D., & Vinodch, N. (2006) ‘Computational depth: concept and applications’, Theoretical Computer Science, 354, 391–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antunes, L., Matos, A., Souto, A., & Vitanyi, P. (2009) ‘Depth as randomness deficiency’, Theory of Computing Systems, 45, 724–739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, C. (1988) ‘Logical depth and physical complexity’, in Herken, R. (ed.) The Universal Turing Machine: A Half-Century Survey (New York: Oxford University Press), 227–257.Google Scholar
Bennett, C. (1990) ‘How to define complexity in physics, and why’, in Zurek, W. (ed.) Complexity, Entropy, and the Physics of Information (Reading MA: Addison-Wesley), 137–148.Google Scholar
Bennett, J. (1984) A Study of Spinoza's Ethics (New York: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Blum, L., Cucker, F., Shub, M., & Smale, S. (1998) Complexity and Real Computation (New York: Springer-Verlag).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenfeld, D. (1982) ‘Superessentialism, counterparts, and freedom’, in Hooker, M. (ed.) Leibniz: Critical and Interpretive Essays (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 103–123.Google Scholar
Bower, J. (1988) The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection (Princeton: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Cameron, R. (2009) ‘God exists at every (modal realist) world: response to Sheehy’, Religious Studies, 45, 95–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaisson, E. (2001) Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaisson, E. (2006) The Epic of Evolution: The Seven Ages of the Cosmos (New York: Columbia University Press).Google Scholar
Chalmers, D. (2010) ‘The singularity: a philosophical analysis’, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17, 7–65.Google Scholar
Copeland, B. J. (1998) ‘Super-Turing machines’, Complexity, 4, 30–32.3.0.CO;2-8>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, J. (1965) ‘The paradox of omniscience’, Analysis, 25 (Supplement), 102–108. Reprinted in Martin & Monnier (2003), ch. 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, W. L. (2008) Reasonable Faith (Wheaton IL: Crossway Books).Google Scholar
Davis, S. (1992) ‘Hierarchical causes in the cosmological argument’, International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, 31, 13–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, R. (1996) The Blind Watchmaker (New York: W. W. Norton).Google Scholar
Dawkins, R. (2008) The God Delusion (New York: Houghton-Mifflin).Google Scholar
Dennett, D. (1981) Brainstorms (Cambridge MA: MIT Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, D. (1991) ‘Real patterns’, The Journal of Philosophy, 88, 27–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, D. (1995) Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (New York: Simon & Schuster).Google Scholar
De Sousa, R. (1974) ‘Kripke on naming and necessity’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 3, 447–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doore, G. (1980) ‘The argument from design: some better reasons for agreeing with Hume’, Religious Studies, 16, 145–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drake, F. (1974) Set Theory: An Introduction to Large Cardinals (New York: American Elsevier).Google Scholar
Geach, P. (1967) ‘Commentary on Aquinas’, in Burrill, D. (ed.) The Cosmological Arguments (Garden City NY: Anchor Books), 57–82.Google Scholar
Grim, P. (1988) ‘Logic and limits of knowledge and truth’, Nous, 22, 341–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamkins, J. (2002) ‘Infinite time Turing machines’, Minds and Machines, 12, 521–539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, C. (1974) ‘Totalities and the logic of first cause arguments’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 35, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henle, P. (1961) ‘Uses of the ontological argument’, The Philosophical Review, 70, 102–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hick, J. (1976) Death and Eternal Life (New York: Harper & Row).Google Scholar
Hume, D. (1779/1990) Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (New York: Penguin).Google Scholar
Kane, R. (1984) ‘The modal ontological argument’, Mind, 43, 336–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koepke, P. (2006) ‘Computing a model of set theory’, in Cooper, S. B. et al. (eds) New Computational Paradigms, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3988 (New York: Springer), 223–232.Google Scholar
Koepke, P. & Siders, R. (2008) ‘Register computations on ordinals’, Archive for Mathematical Logic, 47, 529–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kortum, R. (2004) ‘The very idea of design: what God couldn't do’, Religious Studies, 40, 81–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krynicki, M. & Szczerba, L. (1990) ‘On simplicity of formulas’, Studia Logica: An International Journal for Symbolic Logic, 49, 401–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurzweil, R. (2005) The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (New York: Viking).Google Scholar
Kyburg, H. (1961) ‘A modest proposal concerning simplicity’, The Philosophical Review, 70, 390–395.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Poidevin, R. (1996) Arguing for Atheism: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (New York: Routledge).Google Scholar
Leftow, B. (1988) ‘Anselmian polytheism’, International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, 23, 77–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leibniz, G. W. (1697/1988) ‘On the ultimate origination of the universe’, in Schrecker, P. & Schrecker, A. (eds) Leibniz: Monadology and Other Essays (New York: Macmillan Publishing), 84–94.Google Scholar
Leibniz, G. W. (1710/1996) Theodicy, Huggard, E. M. (tr.) (Peru IL: Open Court).Google Scholar
Leslie, J. (1989) Universes (New York: Routledge).Google Scholar
Leslie, J. (2001) Infinite Minds: A Philosophical Cosmology (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Leslie, J. (2007) Immortality Defended (Malden MA: Blackwell).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. (1968) ‘Counterpart theory and quantified modal logic’, Journal of Philosophy, 65, 113–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. (1983) Philosophical Papers I (New York: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Lewis, D. (1986) On the Plurality of Worlds (Cambridge MA: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Lloyd, S. (2002) ‘Computational capacity of the universe’, Physical Review Letters, 88, 237901–237905.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lloyd, S. & Pagels, H. (1988) ‘Complexity as thermodynamic depth’, Annals of Physics, 188, 186–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lodzinski, D. (1998) ‘The eternal act’, Religious Studies, 34, 325–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lycan, W. (1987) Consciousness (Cambridge MA: MIT Press).Google Scholar
Martin, M. & Monnier, R. (eds) (2003) The Impossibility of God (Amherst NY: Prometheus Books).Google Scholar
Meyer, R. (1987) ‘God exists!’, Nous, 21, 345–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, C. (1996) ‘Recursion theory on the reals and continuous-time computation’, Theoretical Computer Science, 162, 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nehaniv, C. & Rhodes, J. (2000) ‘The evolution and understanding of hierarchical complexity in biology from an algebraic perspective’, Artificial Life, 6, 45–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paley, W. (1830) Natural Theology: Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Collected from the Appearances of Nature (Cambridge: Hilliard & Brown).Google Scholar
Quine, W. (1969) Ontological Relativity and Other Essays (New York: Columbia University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rescher, N. (1991) G. W. Leibniz's Monadology: An Edition for Students (Pittsburgh PA: University of Pittsburgh Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Royce, J. (1899/1927) The World and the Individual, First Series, Supplementary Essay (New York: Macmillan).Google Scholar
Royce, J. (1901/1976) The World and the Individual, Second Series (Gloucester MA: Peter Smith).Google Scholar
Schmidhuber, J. (2007) ‘Godel machines: fully self-referential optimal universal self-improvers’, in Goertzel, B. & Pennachin, C. (eds) Artificial General Intelligence (Berlin: Springer-Verlag), 199–226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheehy, P. (2006) ‘Theism and modal realism’, Religious Studies, 42, 315–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sider, T. (2001) Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time (New York: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinhart, E. (2003) ‘Supermachines and superminds’, Minds and Machines, 13, 155–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinhart, E. (2008) ‘The revision theory of resurrection’, Religious Studies, 44, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinhart, E. (2012) ‘On the number of gods’, International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion. Online first at DOI: <10.1007/s11153-011-9325-2>.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viljanen, V. (2007) ‘Field metaphysic, power, and individuation in Spinoza’, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 37, 393–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wengert, R. (1971) ‘The logic of essentially ordered causes’, Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 12, 406–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkins, J. (2012) ‘Could God create Darwinian accidents?’, Zygon, 47, 30–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, M. (1979) ‘Possible gods’, The Review of Metaphysics, 32, 717–733.Google Scholar