The ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes, thinking about God, observed, “The Ethiopians say their gods are black; the Thracians say their gods have blue eyes and red hair. If cattle or horses or lions had hands to draw and sculpt, they would make gods in their own likenesses.”
Socrates heard a divine voice that lead him to choose death over falsehood, the Pythagoreans thought that numbers were sacred, and Aristotle’s God was the Prime Mover, the one who got the whole show going.
Ever since the Greeks, philosophy has been struggling with God. St. Augustine of Hippo came to God’s Truth by way of the pagan philosopher Plato. St. Thomas Aquinas laboured to show that there was no conflict between Aristotelian rationality and Christian Truth. The Enlightenment, and most famously Nietzsche declared God dead. But Philosophy keeps finding it necessary to re-invent him.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Hilary Putnam, Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University
Alvin Plantinga, Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame University.