theistic philosophy Quotes

It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.

Even if God exists, he's done such a terrible job, it's a wonder people don't get together and file a class action suit against him.

Thus God alone is the primary Unity, or original simple substance, from which all monads, created and derived, are produced.

Thus, though I dislike to differ with such a great man, Voltaire was simply ludicrous when he said that if god did not exist it would be necessary to invent him. The human invention of god is the problem to begin with.

When I was twelve years old I thought up an odd trinity: namely, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Devil. My inference wasthat God, in contemplating himself, created the second person of the godhead; but that, in order to be able to contemplate himself, he had to contemplate, and thus to create, his opposite.--With this I began to do philosophy.

The problem of vindicating an omnipotent and omniscient God in the face of evil is insurmountable. Those who claim to have surmounted it, by recourse to notions of free will and other incoherencies, have merely heaped bad philosophy onto bad ethics.

God is known by nature in his works, and by doctrine in his revealed word.

I don't know why it is that the religious never ascribe common sense to God.

I cannot persuade myself that a beneficient and omnipotent God would have designedly created...that a cat should play with mice.

If god is truly god, he is perfect, lacking nothing.

We are compelled by the theory of God's already achieved perfection to make Him a devil as well as a god, because of the existenceof evil. The god of love, if omnipotent and omniscient, must be the god of cancer and epilepsy as well.... Whoever admits that anything living is evil must either believe that God is malignantly capable of creating evil, or else believe that God has made many mistakes in His attempts to make a perfect being.

Management [ Providence ], knowledge, and intention are not the same when ascribed to us and when ascribed to God.

No one knows the nature of God, or even if God exists. In a sense, all of our religions are literary works of the imagination.

Most theists are deists most of the time, in practice if not in theory. They practice the absence of God instead of the presence of God.

The philosopher says that God's knowledge is the measure of things, and that things are the measure of man's knowledge.

Systematic theology - be careful how you tie down the Word to fit your set and final creeds, systems, dogmas, and organized theistic philosophies! The Word of God is not bound! It's free to say what it will to the individual, and no one can outline it into dispensations which cannot be broken.

The trouble with a lot of modern theology and a lot of modern thinking about God, is that we think of God a sort of being like ourselves, but bigger and better with likes and dislikes similar to our own.

God is a thing that thinks.

God is not good, or wise, or intelligent anyway that we know. So, people like Maimonides in the Jewish tradition, Eboncina in the Muslim tradition, Thomas Aquinas in the Christian tradition, insisted that we couldn't even say that God existed because our concept of existence is far too limited and they would have been horrified by the ease with which we talk about God today.

To admit the existence of a need in God is to admit incompleteness in the divine Being. Need is a creature-word and cannot be spoken of the Creator. God has a voluntary relationg to everything He has made, but He has no Necessary relation to anything outside of Himself. His interest in His creatures arises from His sovereign good pleasure, not from any need those creatures can supply nor from any completeness they can dring to Him who is complete in himself.

It's easier for me to say what God is not, and then what God is.

If God were not a necessary Being of Himself, He might almost seem to be made for the use and benefit of men.

The question, "What is the purpose thereof?" cannot be asked about anything which is not the product of an agent; therefore we cannot ask what is the purpose of the existence of God.

It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted.