God meets Satan’s Apple: the paradox of creation

Philosophical Studies 175 (12):2987-3004 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

It is now the majority view amongst philosophers and theologians that any world could have been better. This places the choice of which world to create into an especially challenging class of decision problems: those that are discontinuous in the limit. I argue that combining some weak, plausible norms governing this type of problem with a creator who has the attributes of the god of classical theism results in a paradox: no world is possible. After exploring some ways out of the paradox, I conclude that the classical theist should accept Marilyn Adams’s view that no norms apply to gods.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Anti-Theism, Pro-Theism, and Gratuitous Evil.Kirk Lougheed - 2019 - Philosophia Christi 21 (2):355-369.
An open theist critique of Peels’ account of divine repentance.Ferhat Yöney - 2025 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 97 (1):17-31.
Classical theism and the multiverse.Katherin A. Rogers - 2020 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 88 (1):23-39.
Kierkegaard and the refusal of transcendence.Steven Shakespeare - 2015 - New York, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
God and the Good.Patterson Brown - 1967 - Religious Studies 2 (2):269 - 276.
Theism, Possible Worlds, and the Multiverse.Klaas J. Kraay - 2010 - Philosophical Studies 147 (3):355 - 368.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-10-10

Downloads
1,840 (#7,926)

6 months
251 (#11,011)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Daniel Rubio
Toronto Metropolitan University

Citations of this work

Equal Moral Opportunity: A Solution to the Problem of Moral Luck.Philip Swenson - 2022 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 100 (2):386-404.
Skeptical Theism Proved.Perry Hendricks - 2020 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 6 (2):264-274.
God and gratuitous evil: Between the rock and the hard place.Luis R. G. Oliveira - 2023 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 94 (3):317-345.

View all 17 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Risk and Rationality.Lara Buchak - 2013 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
The Existence of God.Richard Swinburne - 1979 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
The Coherence of Theism (revised edition).Richard Swinburne - 1977 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Social Choice and Individual Values.Irving M. Copi - 1952 - Science and Society 16 (2):181-181.
Horrendous evils and the goodness of God.Marilyn McCord Adams - 1989 - Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. Edited by Eleonore Stump & Michael J. Murray.

View all 26 references / Add more references