The problem of invoking infinite polytheisms: a response to Raphael Lataster and Herman Philipse

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 82 (3):289-298 (2017)
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Abstract

Raphael Lataster and Herman Philipse present an argument which they think decisively demonstrates polytheism over monotheism, if theism is assumed. Far from being decisive, the argument depends on very controversial and likely false assumptions about how to treat infinities in probability. Moreover, these problems are well known. Here, we focus on three objections. First, the authors rely on both countable additivity and the Principle of Indifference, which contradict each other. Second, the authors rely on a particular way of dividing up the possibility space, when there are equally as reasonable alternative divisions which give different answers to the one the authors arrived at. Third, the authors’ argument proves too much, giving us an argument against many positions we should not be able to argue against so easily.

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Mark Douglas Saward
Monash University

Citations of this work

The intrinsic probability of theism.Calum Miller - 2018 - Philosophy Compass 13 (10):e12523.

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References found in this work

Laws and symmetry.Bas C. van Fraassen - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Laws and Symmetry.Bas C. Van Fraassen - 1989 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 182 (3):327-329.
The Teleological Argument: An Exploration of the Fine‐Tuning of the Universe.Robin Collins - 2009 - In William Lane Craig & J. P. Moreland (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Oxford, UK: Wiley‐Blackwell. pp. 202–281.
The problem of polytheisms: a serious challenge to theism.Raphael Lataster & Herman Philipse - 2017 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 81 (3):233-246.

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