Possible worlds and the beauty of God

Abstract

In this paper I explore the relationship between the idea of possible worlds and the notion of the beauty of God. I argue that there is a clear contradiction between the idea that God is utterly and completely beautiful on the one hand and the notion that He contains within himself all possible worlds on the other. Since some of the possible worlds residing in the mind of the deity are ugly, their presence seems to compromise God's complete and utter beauty.

Omni-beauty as a divine attribute

“…2.Something which has already been noted in e.g. Robson (2011, 489). It is true that there has recently been a resurgence of interest with respect to aesthetic issues within the philosophy of religion.…”

“…To begin to see the possible tension between omni-beauty and omniscience it will be useful to consider one of the few contemporary discussions of divine beauty by Mark Ian Thomas Robson (2011). Robson argues that God's being perfectly beautiful is incompatible with a certain kind of ersatz realism concerning possible worlds: one according to which possible worlds exist as something like ideas in the divine mind 25 .…”

“…26.In his original paper Robson (2011, 487–488) argues against attempts to expand the scope of his claims in this way. However, I argue (Robson (2012), 525–529) that his arguments to this effect are unsuccessful.…”

Do possible worlds compromise God's beauty? A reply to Mark Ian Thomas Robson

“…50.I disagree with Robson's suggestion that while God has belief-like states attributing beliefs, as such, to God is anthropomorphic (Robson (2011), 487). I am, however, sympathetic to his claim that God's knowledge is in many ways unlike our own, for instance it is not ‘parcelled up into units’ ( ibid.…”

“…14.Robson (2011), 480, quoting Sherry (2002), 56 (Sherry himself is quoting, with slight adaptations, from Pseudo-Dionysius (1978), 76–77).…”