How to explain that there can only be one God

How to explain that there can only be one God

How to explain that there can only be one God

How to explain that there can only be one God
Fresco of God the Father in Santa Maria delle Vigne basilica in Genoa, Italy. Shutterstock

Question: Not long ago, my sister and I lost a mutual friend, and there wasn’t any funeral held. My sister reassured me not to worry, stating that Buddha is a god as well, so our friend is in the paradise where Buddhists reside with their god. I find it hard to grasp how a Catholic can believe in multiple gods and various heavens.

Name, location withheld

Answer: Your sister’s reasoning contradicts the fundamental ontological argument and the Christian belief that God is the ultimate being “than which none greater can be conceived.” Although this concept originates from Greek philosophy, it is central to Christian philosophy and theology as well. Since God holds the highest position, and no being can even be imagined that matches his greatness, it follows that there exists only one God. Thus, the idea that Buddha is “also a god” undermines the definition of the term “God” as understood by the Church. There cannot be anyone akin to him or equal to him. He is unparalleled, incomparable, unmatched. There cannot be two “gods” who are both dominant; one or the other competitor is supreme, and the remaining one is inferior and thus not “God.” Therefore, your inquiry is justified.

It appears that two core issues stand out prominently in the claim of numerous individuals that there exist or could exist multiple deities.

Two core shortcomings

Initially, we find ourselves in a sort of post-rational society where comprehension of essential philosophical concepts is absent for most individuals. As this example highlights, even the principle of noncontradiction is overlooked by many. The claim that multiple supreme beings can exist is a logical fallacy and self-contradictory. The principle of noncontradiction asserts that contradictory statements cannot simultaneously be true in the same context; they are mutually exclusive. For instance, if a creature is a cat, that same creature cannot also be something else, such as a dog or a door or a sledgehammer. Thus, applying the earlier example: If God is the singular supreme being, then Buddha (or any other entity or individual) cannot hold that title. The concepts are mutually exclusive. There simply cannot exist two supreme beings. However, this contradiction appears to be ignored by many. Unfortunately, today, numerous individuals believe that there can be an unlimited number of contenders for the title of the supreme being we refer to as God. Among Christians (as your sister identifies), such a viewpoint is untenable since it presents a logical contradiction.

Another significant issue of our era is that terms that previously held distinct meanings are being reshaped or distorted to such an extent that it becomes challenging to grasp what someone intends while speaking. Engaging in conversations with any substance is difficult when we cannot even come to a consensus on what is implied by words like “God” or “woman” or “marriage” and so on. The idea that words have a singular meaning instead of multiple interpretations is rapidly fading in this era of overwhelming subjectivity and personal eccentricities that seek to alter fundamental terms and ideas. If God is not the ultimate entity beyond which nothing else can be conceived, then who or what is God? The response appears to be, “God is whoever or whatever I assert he (she or it) to be.” In the past, we referred to the act of crafting or envisioning your own personalized deity as “idolatry.” However, this notion has been forgotten in our current age of detaching from language and reason. Rather, we are increasingly inhabiting a landscape of extreme subjectivism where a significant number of individuals assert the authority to forge their own reality in increasingly expansive manners.

If your sister practices Catholicism, she should reflect on how her way of speaking and reasoning diverges from Christian philosophy and theology and is mistaken. You could think about prompting her to clarify what she understands by the term “God.”

There cannot be multiple heavens, for the essence of heaven lies in being with the one, genuine God. If your common friend is in heaven, it has to be the sole one. heaven there is with the sole God that exists. There is insufficient time to detail how non-Christians may reach heaven, other than to highlight that God will assess us based on what we could justifiably know. If anyone reaches heaven, it is solely due to the redemptive grace and suffering of Jesus Christ. Even those who did not grasp this in life come to comprehend it in heaven and, having been cleansed of falsehood and sin, are honoring the one, true God and our savior, Jesus Christ.

Similar Posts