PHIL 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Evil Demon, Omnibenevolence, Omniscience
15 Sep 2020
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For every activity (such as thinking), there must exist a doer of thinking. Even in the evil demon scenario, i know there is thinking going on. Even in the e. d. scenario, there exists a thinker - me! Not the claims, but rather why the philosopher believes what he believes. I have an idea of a perfect being in me. I myself only have finite reality, because i am a finite substance. Due to the causal argument, i, a finite being, cannot create an idea of an infinite being. So, a perfect beign must have implanted the idea of a perfect being inside my imperfect mind. This argument proves that a perfect being exists, and since god is by definition a perfect being, god exists. However, this should not encourage worship; people arent obligated to worship this perfect being. God cannot be a deceiver, since deceving is an imperfect action, and god is perfect in all ways.
