God of the gaps: a neglected reply to God’s stone problem

Beall, Jc; Cotnoir, Aaron J.

doi:10.1093/analys/anx069

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…It isn't clear how, given that Beall's theological consequence relation will also validate the De Morgan laws. On a purely gappy approach to theology (Beall and Cotnoir 2017), one never asserts sentences of either form, since they will never be true, and so there is no pressure to distinguish them. On a purely glutty approach (Cotnoir 2018), we deny that there are any gaps, and thus we can interpret sentences like (2) as asserting the falsity of a disjunction of gluts (which is also glutty).…”

Section: De Morgan 1: ‫∨ܣ¬‬ ‫⇔ܤ¬‬ ‫∧ܣ(¬‬ ‫)ܤ‬ De Morgan 2: ‫∧ܣ¬‬ ‫⇔ܤ¬mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Role of Logic in Analytic Theology: Exploring the Wider Context of Beall’s Philosophy of Logic

Cotnoir

2019

JAT

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What is the proper role of logic in analytic theology? This question is thrown into sharp relief when a basic logical principle is questioned, as in Beall’s ‘Christ – A Contradiction.’ Analytic philosophers of logic have debated between exceptionalism and anti-exceptionalism, with the tide shifting towards anti-exceptionalism in recent years. By contrast, analytic theologians have largely been exceptionalists. The aim of this paper is to argue for an anti-exceptionalist view, specifically treating logic as a modelling tool. Along the way I critically engage with Beall on the role of logic in theology, maintaining that theological inquiry is in some ways disanalogous with other theoretical enterprises.

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Section: De Morgan 1: ‫∨ܣ¬‬ ‫⇔ܤ¬‬ ‫∧ܣ(¬‬ ‫)ܤ‬ De Morgan 2: ‫∧ܣ¬‬ ‫⇔ܤ¬mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Role of Logic in Analytic Theology: Exploring the Wider Context of Beall’s Philosophy of Logic

Cotnoir

2019

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“…Logic, as above, doesn't demand as much; but systematic theorizing motivates the methodological goal. And with that goal, one is quickly motivated to the view that the ticked sentence is false and also true -a contradiction (see Beall 2017).…”

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Christ – A Contradiction: A Defense of Contradictory Christology

Beall

2019

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The fundamental problem of Christology (as Richard Cross famously coined it) is the apparent contradiction of Christ as recorded at Chalcedon. Christ is human (with everything entailed thereby) and Christ is divine (with everything entailed thereby). Being divine entails (among many other of God’s properties) being immutable. Being human entails (among many other of our essential properties) being mutable. Were Christ two different persons (viz., a human person, a divine person) there’d be no apparent contradiction. But Chalcedon rules as much out. Were Christ only partly human or only partly divine there’d be no apparent contradiction. But Chalcedon rules as much out. Were the very meaning of ‘mutable’ and/or ‘immutable’ (or other such predicates) other than what they are, there’d be no apparent contradiction. But the meaning is what it is, and changing the meaning of our terms to avoid the apparent contradiction of Christ is an apparent flight from reality.What, in the end, is the explanation of the apparent contradiction of Christ? Theologians and philosophers have long advanced many consistency-seeking answers, all of which increase the metaphysical or semantical complexity of the otherwise strikingly simple but radical core of Christianity’s GodMan. In this paper, I put the simplest explanation on the theological table: namely, Christ appears to be contradictory because Christ is contradictory (i.e., some predicate is both true and false of Christ, and hence some logical contradiction is true of Christ). This explanation may sound complicated to the many who are steeped in the mainstream account of logic according to which logic precludes the possibility of true contradictions. But the mainstream account of logic can and should be rejected. Ridding theology of the dogma of mainstream logic illuminates the simple though striking explanation of the apparent contradiction of Christ — namely, that Christ is a contradictory being. Just as the simplest explanation to the apparent roundness of the earth has earned due acceptance, so too should the simplest explanation of the apparent contradiction of Christ.

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“…But certainly God can make it that M activates, so by contraction and modus ponens again, triviality follows. 4 The upshot is the Beall and Cotnoir (2017) do not present a satisfactory solution to the Stone problem for unrestricted omnipotence; they provide at best a satisfactory solution to one version of the Stone problem but fail to resolve the (arguably more serious) Curry Stone problem. Moreover, once the Curry Stone problem is resolved (e.g., by rejecting one of the properties of the conditional we have discussed), then Beall and Cotnoir's rejection of the excluded middle may not be motivated.…”

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Currying Omnipotence

Tedder

Badía

2018

Thought: A Journal of Philosophy

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Beall and Cotnoir (2017) argue that theists may accept the claim that God's omnipotence is fully unrestricted if they also adopt a suitable nonclassical logic. Their primary focus is on the infamous Stone problem (i.e., whether God can create a stone too heavy for God to lift). We show how unrestricted omnipotence generates Curry‐like paradoxes. The upshot is that Beall and Cotnoir only provide a solution to one version of the Stone problem, but that unrestricted omnipotence generates other problems which they do not adequately address.

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God of the gaps: a neglected reply to God’s stone problem

Cited by 11 publications

References 13 publications

On the Role of Logic in Analytic Theology: Exploring the Wider Context of Beall’s Philosophy of Logic

On the Role of Logic in Analytic Theology: Exploring the Wider Context of Beall’s Philosophy of Logic

Christ – A Contradiction: A Defense of Contradictory Christology

Currying Omnipotence

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