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WORSHIPWORTHINESS AND THE MORMON CONCEPT OF GOD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 1997

BLAKE T. OSTLER
Affiliation:
50 South Main Street, No. 1400, P.O. Box 169, Salt Lake City, Utah 84144

Abstract

A. A. Howsepian argued in a recent article in this publication that Mormons are atheists. It is the purpose of this article to respond to Howsepian by showing: (1) Howsepian has oversimplified Mormon thought in general and the views of individual Mormons in particular to the point of distortion and caricature; (2) Howsepian has not accurately assessed the options available to Mormons; (3) a central argument in Howsepian's approach falls victim to the basic logical fallacy of composition; and (4) the Anselmian criterion that any being that can count as God necessarily must be the greatest conceivable being (the ‘GCB criterion’) should either be modified or understood in a sense that allows for potentiality within God; and (5) Mormon beliefs can satisfy the GCB criterion if modified to provide that the GCB must be unsurpassable by any being distinct from God but may be self-surpassable in some respects.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
1997 Cambridge University Press

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