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On the plurality of gods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2012

ERIC STEINHART
ERIC STEINHART*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, William Paterson University, Wayne NJ 07470, USA e-mail: steinharte@wpunj.edu
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Abstract

Ordinal polytheism is motivated by the cosmological and design arguments. It is also motivated by Leibnizian–Lewisian modal realism. Just as there are many universes, so there are many gods. Gods are necessary concrete grounds of universes. The god-universe relation is one-to-one. Ordinal polytheism argues for a hierarchy of ranks of ever more perfect gods, one rank for every ordinal number. Since there are no maximally perfect gods, ordinal polytheism avoids many of the familiar problems of monotheism. It links theology with counterpart theory, mathematics and computer science. And it entails that the system of universes has an attractive axiological structure.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 289 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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