Criticism Of Maimonides Argument Against The Nature Of God

Improved Essays
Another group whose criticism seems to receive a criticism as harsh as the Karaites seems to be the Christians, whom Maimonides voices his discontent towards several times through his work. Perhaps even less forgiving with Christians, when speaking of Jesus of Nazareth the Rambam attempts to severe Jesus from the Jewish lineage, claiming that he is a Jew of virtue of his birth, and this alone, and casts him out for his false prophesying. Maimonides states that the coming of Jesus as Moshiach was in fact, not prophesied by Isaiah, but rather was noted by Daniel as a false messiah who would try to lead those of the House of Israel astray. He cites the Daniel verse “The children of the impudent among your people shall make bold to claim prophecy, …show more content…
In The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides holds that the truth of the nature of God is rooted in absolute singularity. This in turn, entails one to accept the fact that because of God’s absoluteness and singularity, one must reject all forms of plurality, corporeality, and the necessity for God to contain any kind of absolute attribute. He argues that within Christian theology, whether God is simultaneously a being numbered as one and three existent entities, one has to accept the notion of a God with attributes which invalidates a perfect God. Even if this is set aside, the predicates of the standard of a perfect and absolute God are again pervaded further when one believes that Jesus of Nazareth as a physical being is a member of the trinity of God, in that God is transformed into an entity that is reflected by matter, and thus made imperfect. This argument seem to echo the case for the unity of God made by Saadya Gaon in his Emunot Ve-Deot. Here, one can find an expanded series of reasonings as to why God could not be manifest in a man, broken into a series of arguments: namely that due to the fact that the body is a finite and limited object, the knowledge it can attain is finite and the sort that is accessible to finite being, thus both of these features

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    An Australian philosopher named John L. Mackie is widely known for his argument against the problem of evil. Mackie’s argument was very similar to the problem of evil. The problem of evil in summary states that a God cannot exist with the existence of evil, but Mackie’s argument was not that God did not exist entirely, but rather that God did not exist as an all-powerful or perfect God. He argued that having an all knowing God, and the present existence of evil were both logically inconsistent. Mackie thought that if you could say one of those statements was false, then you could still believe in God’s existence.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Aquinas Vs Kant

    • 2053 Words
    • 9 Pages

    A Juxtaposition of the Metaphysics of Aquinas and Kant Two key philosophers that one must examine in order to gain a better grasp of metaphysics are Saint Thomas Aquinas and Immanuel Kant. Through a thorough examination of both thinkers’ metaphysical philosophies, one can conclude that they differ in their beliefs regarding the origin and essence of beings and Being. In his examination of metaphysics, Saint Thomas Aquinas believes that in order to understand being and Being, one must start with God and His heaven, and use his God-given intellect to understand the phenomenal world. However, Kant believes the opposite in that he claims that in order to understand being and Being, one must begin with observing and analyzing the phenomenal world,…

    • 2053 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this essay, I outline two similarities of Descartes and Spinoza—belief in apriori knowledge, and God as the infinite substance—as well as two differences—contrasting conceptions of God’s relation to the world, and mind-body relations. Both Spinoza and Descartes subscribe to the rationalist epistemology which claims that knowledge must be self-evident and derived from reasoning, rather than experience. As such, both philosophers believe in apriori knowledge, in which true knowledge is derived prior to experiences as experiences can be deceiving. Descartes claims that knowledge drawn from sensory faculties are mere representations of the true thing, being “obscure and confused” due to our limited sensory faculties (Meditation VI). Only ideas…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thus, Christianity is in Schelling’s perspective the only recipient of the divine revelation that once again discloses God’s spiritual oneness to humanity. However, although he decides to prioritize a particular tradition, the result of Schelling’s exploration of monotheism is God as the unfathomable unity of the three potencies. Moreover, we have to keep in mind God’s absolute freedom as regard having or not a relationship to being, or to any form of presentation of himself. Thus, it is fair to say that in Schelling’s view God is free enough to deny himself as Trinity. Hence, on one hand the Trinity is the best presentation possible of God’s essence as it reflects the three principles in their relationship with one another and with God.…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What steps does Descartes take to prove his existence and that God exists? (one of the proofs). Discuss whether his reasoning is sound and convincing. In this essay, I will discuss how after the first and second meditation, Descartes knows that he exists and that he is a thinking thing.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this paper I will argue that St. Anselm’s ontological argument is not adequate in proving the existence of God. First I will discuss his ambiguous use of the term “God”. Then, I will move on to analyze the term “greatest” made in his premises. Lastly, I will also criticize Anselm's argument by demonstrating that Anselm’s reply to Gaunilo’s objections are unconvincing. Anselm was the first one who developed the ontological argument, an argument for God’s existence based on reason, not on physical evidence.…

    • 1645 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    C. S. Lewis Moral Argument

    • 1809 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Philosophy is the study of knowledge. It helps us understand how we form our ideas and thoughts. Philosophy helps us lay the foundational basis for the acquisition of our knowledge and thoughts. It important to study the many different people that helped lay the foundation of philosophy for us. Some of those people include Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, and C.S. Lewis.…

    • 1809 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The evidential problem of evil determines the degree of how much evil must be a part of the evidence of God’s existence. While on the other hand the logical problem of evil is seen through our own eyes. It bares the question whether God is a perfect because of all wrong taking place in the world. Through these two problems it is hard to even imagine that God is perfect. Through Richard Swinburne’s theodicy (theodicy - an attempt to defend God's omnibenevolence in the face of evil) , one comes to find the case that initially escapes the evidential and logical problems…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Between the last few months from September to the present day I believe I have made many spiritual connections within my life. Until recently I have been analyzing what these connections are and what they mean to me. A few of the books we have read this semester actually triggered the journey I am writing of for me. The books were She Who Is, The Female Face of God in Auschwitz, and Living with a Wild God. As well the movie Of Gods and Men and the readings of Descartes in philosophy.…

    • 1594 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An exact notion of God, then, cannot be reached by the operations, or according to the methods, by which we reach other notions. God is not the object of our various operations of experiencing, nor can He be pointed to ostensively, nor can He be conceived of as a scientific hypothesis. We don't need God in those ordinary experiences which we can tend to…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I will argue that Descartes, using his own criteria for making and avoiding mistakes, cannot be making a mistake when he proves the existence of God in meditation three in his Meditations on First Philosophy. I will develop my argument in two parts. First, I will present Descartes’s argument for how mistakes are made and avoided.…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this paper I will dispute that Anselm’s ontological argument is dependent on Anselm’s personal faith in God. My argument lies within the premises that Anselm offers, it would not be rationally acceptable to create content of a maximally perfect being unless the person already accepted the Christian faith. The premises for Anselm’s argument can only be held if the only conception of non greater (relative to his attributes and worldly design) is God but if one does not follow such religious paths how can it be god. So in a sense god wouldn’t exists since you can’t have a mere conception of god without prior experience or impression of him. I will engage this scope of criticism by touching on Humean concepts and conveying how Anselm faith structured…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In part four of Descartes’ Discourse on Method, the word ‘perfect’ is used numerous times. The excessive use of the word marks its importance in Descartes argument. This part of Descartes work contains Descartes’ thoughts on God and proof of God’s existence. He is exploring the idea of a perfect being, but the word ‘perfect’ seems to take on different meanings throughout the section of Descartes deliberating on what makes a perfect being. Perfect is used in relation to doubt, in relation to God, and in relation to truth.…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Irenaeus

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Irenaeus was born in second century Smyrna and was a student of Polycarp who in turn was a student of St. John the Evangelist. Eventually made bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, Irenaeus is considered by some to be the Church's first systematic theologian. He primary opponents were the Gnostics who claimed a greater spiritual knowledge and believed the material world to be evil. As such, they asserted that Christ could not have been fully man. Rather, he either only appeared to be or else controlled the normal human man Jesus of Nazareth, leaving him at the crucifixion.…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “Nothing comes from nothing; nothing ever could…” --The Sound of Music Thus far into her song, Parmenides would have been in total agreement with Maria. The principle of “ex nihilo nihil” is quite important to his argument about the perfection of the world. It is impossible that the world could be created from nothing, since, according to Parmenides, “what is not” cannot exist. From this premise, he argues that since there is nothing that can be called what-is-not the world cannot have any deficiencies, since deficiency would imply the existence of “what-is-not.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays