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To: exmarine
Aristotle and Plato were polytheists. At some points Plato comes much closer to monotheism, but having one god bigger than the others is polytheism all the same.

If Aristotle truly believed in a Supreme being, he had no idea who that being was.

That is a curious statement, especially because it sounds most like Socrates. Socrates had no idea who that being was, but sought to find that being because he thought his life depended on it. He blames his contemporaries for thinking they are sufficient without it.

As for Aristotle, we can dispense with my assessment or Schaeffer's or anyone else's and take it from the philosopher himself:

If then God is always in that good state in which we sometimes are, this compels our wonder; and if in a better this compels it yet more. And God is in a better state. And life also belongs to God; for the actuality of thought is life, and God is that actuality; and god's self-dependent actuality is life most good and eternal. We say therefore that God is a living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous and eternal belongs to God; for this is God. --Metaphysics

And having given the attributes, the next question he asks is how many there are:

It is clear, then, why these things are as they are. But we must not ignore the question whether we have to suppose one such substance ore more than one, and if the latter, how many.
True, he was a pagan, but that can also be a good thing.
772 posted on 05/09/2003 7:25:38 AM PDT by cornelis
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To: cornelis
Being a pagan a good thing? Let me put it this way - I prefer not to get my philosophy from an unbeliever. While his statements about God are not bad for a pagan, one cannot know God without revelation from God - it's impossible. And without revelation, there can be no true knowledge. There is only one true philosophy and Aristotle didn't have it. He was wrong on many counts, for example, his ideal of using moderation as a guide to living. Moderation cannot be a universal rule - are we to be kind in moderation, gentle in moderation, love in moderation? The bible contradicts this view. The bible says, "where there is no revelation, the people cast of restraint"

I think Schaeffer is the best Christian philosopher of the 20th century, save Lewis. He was right on about the marriage of Aristotle and Aquinas. Aristotlean ideas led to Galileo's persecution as the RC church had an Aristotlean view of the cosmos. That's what they get for adopting a pagan's philosophy.

774 posted on 05/09/2003 7:48:36 AM PDT by exmarine
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To: cornelis
Also, we know that Aristotle was Alexander's tutor, and one must wonder about the nature of the training and advice given to Alexander, as we know that Alexander sought to be deified as a god himself. I find it interesting and ironic that Alexander was struck dead immediately following his attempt at self-deification. Did Aristotle have anything to do with this divine self-image? Did Aristotle advise Alexander to seek advice from the Oracle at Delphi, or the one in Egypt? He likely did. Aristotle's view of God was mystical and any of his writings about God that ring true are purely coincidental. All philosophers have true elements in their philosophies, but when you get the overall picture, it's almost always revoltingly bad.

I read philosophy mainly to understand the thinking of the enemies of God, and certainly not to form my philosophy. My philosophy comes from the Bible. The ONLY philosophers I like are christian philosophers.

775 posted on 05/09/2003 8:01:01 AM PDT by exmarine
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