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104-401: Some Cartesian scholars opine that the malevolent God or evil demon is also omnipotent , and thus capable of altering mathematics and the fundamentals of logic, though omnipotence of the malevolent God or evil demon would be contrary to Descartes' hypothesis, as he rebuked accusations of the evil demon having omnipotence. It is one of several methods of systematic doubt that Descartes employs in

208-560: A Nihang Singh killed a man for beadbi of the Sarbloh Granth . In December, 2021, a man was beaten to death at the Golden Temple for committing blasphemy. Such punishments are justified with orthodox Sikhs saying, “instant justice” is deserving for beadbi which is the “ultimate act of crime”. Multilateral global institutes, such as the Council of Europe and UN, have rejected

312-418: A deus deceptor with his concept of an evil demon, stating that only an omnipotent God is "summe potens" and that describing the evil demon as such thus demonstrated the identity. Descartes' response to the accusations was that in that passage he had been expressly distinguishing between "the supremely good God, the source of truth, on the one hand, and the malicious demon on the other". He did not directly rebut

416-589: A synod , but this was prevented by the intercession of the Prince of Orange (at the request of the French Ambassador Servien ). The accusations referenced a passage in the First Meditation where Descartes stated that he supposed not an optimal God but rather an evil demon " summe potens & callidus " (translated as "most highly powerful and cunning"). The accusers identified Descartes' concept of

520-448: A Cartesian sense, would mean the omnipotent being is above logic, a view supported by René Descartes . He issues this idea in his Meditations on First Philosophy . This view is called universal possibilism. According to Hindu philosophy the essence of Brahman can never be understood or known since Brahman is beyond both existence and non-existence, transcending and including time, causation and space, and thus can never be known in

624-549: A calm, decent and serious way" (in the words of Bishop Gibson ) but mockery and scoffing, they said, were appeals to sentiment, not to reason. It was a common law crime according to William Blackstone 's Commentaries on the Laws of England : Blasphemy against the Almighty is denying his being or providence, or uttering conteumelious reproaches on our Savior Christ. It is punished, at common law by fine and imprisonment, for Christianity

728-535: A deity is or could be omnipotent, or take the view that, by choosing to create creatures with free will , a deity has chosen to limit divine omnipotence. In Conservative and Reform Judaism , and some movements within Protestant Christianity , including open theism , deities are said to act in the world through persuasion, and not by coercion (this is a matter of choice—a deity could act miraculously, and perhaps on occasion does so—while for process theism it

832-434: A doubt may not properly be raised". It is only after arriving at this conclusion that Descartes introduces the evil demon. Although Descartes has provided arguments for doubting all his former beliefs he notes that "my habitual opinions keep coming back". It is to deal with this problem that Descartes decides he must do more than just acknowledge that the beliefs are open to doubt and must deceive himself, "by pretending for

936-421: A dream." When Kenny says that the evil genius is simply a substitute for the deceitful God, he is not trying to establish that, therefore, the evil genius was omnipotent, instead he is challenging the view that the evil genius somehow progressed on from God and is rejecting the view that "the evil genius is to serve a more radically skeptical purpose than the hypothesis of the deceitful God." According to Janowski,

1040-520: A line between punishable blasphemy and protected religious speech." The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were repealed in England & Wales the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 . In the 18th and 19th centuries, this meant that promoting atheism could be a crime and was vigorously prosecuted. The last successfully prosecuted case was Whitehouse v. Lemon (1976) where

1144-505: A modified view of omnipotence was also articulated by Alfred North Whitehead in the early 20th century and expanded upon by Charles Hartshorne. Hartshorne proceeded within the context of the theological system known as process theology. Thomas Jay Oord argues that omnipotence dies a death of a thousand philosophical qualifications. To make any sense, the word must undergo various logical, ontological, mathematical, theological, and existential qualifications so that it loses specificity. In

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1248-493: A number of guidelines for member states of the Council of Europe in view of Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights . After OIC's ( Organisation of Islamic Cooperation ) campaign at UN (United Nations) seeking impose of punishment for "defamation of religions" was withdrawn due to consistently dwindling support for their campaign,

1352-399: A part of normal development. D. W. Winnicott took a more positive view of a belief in early omnipotence, seeing it as essential to the child's well-being; and "good-enough" mothering as essential to enable the child to "cope with the immense shock of loss of omnipotence" —as opposed to whatever "prematurely forces it out of its narcissistic universe". Some monotheists reject the view that

1456-416: A playful brain surgeon might be giving you these experiences by stimulating your cortex in a special way. You might really be stretched out on a table in his laboratory with wires running into your head from a large computer. Perhaps you have always been on that table. Perhaps you are quite a different person from what you seem..." Such scenarios had been used many times in science fiction but in philosophy it

1560-414: A program for training the will to keep the old beliefs at bay" adding, "It seems likely that he chose to call his hypothetical deceiver a "malicious demon" in order to avoid having the meditator concentrate extensively on the thought that God could be a deceiver, a proposition he considered false and one he intended to refute later." Among the accusations of blasphemy made against Descartes by Protestants

1664-418: A psychological device: following Loyola's advice age contra! (go against!), it provides a counterweight to our inordinate inclination to trust the senses." He adds, "the 'demon-argument' is not an argument at all. Descartes does not need another argument at this stage: the dream argument has already shown the unreliability of the senses and the deceiver-God argument the uncertainty of mathematics. For one thing,

1768-945: A religion or other belief system, including blasphemy laws, are incompatible with the Covenant, except in the specific circumstances envisaged in article 20, paragraph 2, of the Covenant. Such prohibitions must also comply with the strict requirements of article 19, paragraph 3, as well as such articles as 2, 5, 17, 18 and 26. Thus, for instance, it would be impermissible for any such laws to discriminate in favor of or against one or certain religions or belief systems, or their adherents over another, or religious believers over non-believers. Nor would it be permissible for such prohibitions to be used to prevent or punish criticism of religious leaders or commentary on religious doctrine and tenets of faith. International Blasphemy Day , observed annually on September 30, encourages individuals and groups to openly express criticism of religion and blasphemy laws . It

1872-466: A time that these former opinions are utterly false and imaginary" and that he shall do this "until the weight of preconceived opinion is counter-balanced and the distorting influence of habit no longer prevents my judgement from perceiving things correctly". It is to achieve this state of denial that Descartes says he will suppose that "some malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me". The evil demon

1976-506: A world so constituted rather than by another. Indeed, the production of secondary causes, capable of accomplishing certain effects, requires greater power than the direct accomplishment of these same effects. On the other hand, even though no creature existed, God's power would not be barren, for "creatures are not an end to God." Regarding the deity's power, medieval theologians contended that there are certain things that even an omnipotent deity cannot do. The statement "a deity can do anything"

2080-497: Is necessarily true is one whose negation is self-contradictory. It is sometimes objected that this aspect of omnipotence involves the contradiction that God cannot do all that He can do; but the argument is sophistical; it is no contradiction to assert that God can realize whatever is possible, but that no number of actualized possibilities exhausts His power. Omnipotence is perfect power, free from all mere potentiality. Hence, although God does not bring into external being all that He

2184-429: Is a 'thinking thing'. Harman's version of the story does, however, add the final thought that having a brain "might be just part of the myth you are being given". Omnipotence Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power . Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions , omnipotence

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2288-420: Is a frank acknowledgement of a relic of the old megalomania of infancy". Similarly Freud concluded that "we can detect an element of megalomania in most other forms of paranoic disorder. We are justified in assuming that this megalomania is essentially of an infantile nature and that, as development proceeds, it is sacrificed to social considerations". Freud saw megalomania as an obstacle to psychoanalysis . In

2392-424: Is a matter of necessity—creatures have inherent powers that a deity cannot, even in principle, override). Deities are manifested in the world through inspiration and the creation of possibility, not necessarily by miracles or violations of the laws of nature. Process theology rejects unlimited omnipotence on a philosophical basis, arguing that omnipotence as classically understood would be less than perfect, and

2496-403: Is a punishable offence in some Buddhist majority counties like Sri Lanka and Myanmar. In 2015 a man from New Zealand was sentenced to prison for depicting a picture of Buddha with headphones. Similarly, in 2020 Shakthika Sathkumara, a Sri Lankan author was sentenced 10 years in prison for insulting Buddhism. Blasphemy is taken harshly by Sikhs. It is called “ beadbi ” by Sikhs. In October, 2021,

2600-459: Is able to accomplish, His power must not be understood as passing through successive stages before its effect is accomplished. The activity of God is simple and eternal, without evolution or change. The transition from possibility to actuality or from act to potentiality, occurs only in creatures. When it is said that God can or could do a thing, the terms are not to be understood in the sense in which they are applied to created causes, but as conveying

2704-408: Is also mentioned at the beginning of Meditation Two. Descartes says that if there is "a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who is deliberately and constantly deceiving me" then he himself must undoubtedly exist for the deceiver can "never bring it about that I am nothing so long as I think that I am something". A little later he says, "But what shall I now say that I am, when I am supposing that there

2808-566: Is as to the manner in which the doctrines are advocated and not as to the substance of the doctrines themselves. Christian theology condemns blasphemy. " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ", one of the Ten Commandments , forbids blasphemy, which Christians regard as "an affront to God's holiness". Leviticus 24:16 states that "anyone who blasphemes the name of Yahweh will be put to death". In Mark 3:29 , blaspheming

2912-527: Is cursing him; or if we do not speak it with our Mouths, yet if we do it in our Hearts, by thinking any unworthy Thing of him, it is look'd on by God, who sees the Heart, as the vilest Dishonour." In the Catholic Church, there are specific prayers and devotions as Acts of Reparation for blasphemy. For instance, The Golden Arrow Holy Face Devotion (Prayer) first introduced by Sister Marie of St Peter in 1844

3016-410: Is essentially accurate, and useful in understanding the rhetoric and organization of the first three Meditations. It may also have some deeper significance, because of the association ... of the possibility of deception in mathematics with the doctrine of the creation of the eternal truths." Similarly, Kenny who does say that the evil genius is substituted for that of the deceitful God "simply because it

3120-412: Is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to his power. If you choose to say 'God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it,' you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them

3224-424: Is itself partly active, then there must be some resistance, however slight, to the "absolute" power, and how can power which is resisted be absolute? The argument can be stated as follows: For example, although someone might control a lump of jelly-pudding almost completely, the inability of that pudding to stage any resistance renders that person's power rather unimpressive. Power can only be said to be great if it

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3328-638: Is legal in France, this event has been criticized for singling out one particular religion and being divisive . Blasphemy in Islam is impious utterance or action concerning God , Muhammad or anything considered sacred in Islam. The Quran admonishes blasphemy, but does not specify any worldly punishment for blasphemy. The hadiths , which are another source of Sharia , suggest various punishments for blasphemy, which may include death . However, it has been argued that

3432-403: Is less offensive and less patently incoherent", for "The content of the two hypotheses is the same, namely that an omnipotent deceiver is trying to deceive", goes on to note that, "If the two hypotheses differ at all, it is the first that is more skeptical than the second. God ... may have made him go wrong in mathematics ... the evil genius merely reinforces the doubt that the external world may be

3536-414: Is not a power but a defect or infirmity. In response to questions of a deity performing impossibilities, e.g. making square circles, Aquinas says that "everything that does not imply a contradiction in terms, is numbered amongst those possible things, in respect of which God is called omnipotent: whereas whatever implies contradiction does not come within the scope of divine omnipotence, because it cannot have

3640-438: Is now routine to refer to being like a 'brain in a vat' after Hilary Putnam produced an argument which, ironically, purported to show that "the supposition that we are actually brains in a vat, although it violates no physical law, and is perfectly consistent with everything we have experienced, cannot possibly be true. It cannot possibly be true , because it is, in a certain way, self-refuting." Putnam's argument notwithstanding,

3744-476: Is often listed as one of God 's characteristics, along with omniscience , omnipresence , and omnibenevolence . The presence of all these properties in a single entity has given rise to considerable theological debate, prominently including the problem of evil , the question of why such a deity would permit the existence of evil. It is accepted in philosophy and science that omnipotence can never be effectively understood. The word omnipotence derives from

3848-604: Is one of the Hate speech laws in India . This law prohibits blasphemy against all religions in India. This law originated due to Hindu-Muslim conflict Buddhism have no concept of blasphemy. In contrast, in West Asia , the birthplace of Abrahamic religions (namely Islam , Judaism , and Christianity ), there was no room for such tolerance and respect for dissent where heretics and blasphemers had to pay with their lives. Insulting Buddhism

3952-402: Is only sensible with an assumed suppressed clause, "that implies the perfection of true power". This standard scholastic answer allows that acts of creatures such as walking can be performed by humans but not by a deity. Rather than an advantage in power, human acts such as walking, sitting, or giving birth were possible only because of a defect in human power. The capacity to sin , for example,

4056-527: Is over something that has defenses and its own agenda. If a deity's power is to be great, it must therefore be over beings that have at least some of their own defenses and agenda. Thus, if a deity does not have absolute power, it must therefore embody some of the characteristics of power, and some of the characteristics of persuasion. This view is known as dipolar theism . The most popular works espousing this point are from Harold Kushner (in Judaism). The need for

4160-621: Is part of the laws of the land". In 1636, the Puritan controlled Massachusetts Bay Colony made blasphemy – defined as "a cursing of God by atheism, or the like" – punishable by death. The last person hanged for blasphemy in Great Britain was Thomas Aikenhead aged 20, in Scotland in 1697. He was prosecuted for denying the veracity of the Old Testament and the legitimacy of Christ's miracles. In

4264-606: Is recited " in a spirit of reparation for blasphemy ". This devotion (started by Sister Marie and then promoted by the Venerable Leo Dupont ) was approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1885. The Raccoltabook includes a number of such prayers. The Five First Saturdays devotions are done with the intention in the heart of making reparation to the Blessed Mother for blasphemies against her, her name and her holy initiatives. The Holy See has specific "Pontifical organizations" for

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4368-405: Is simply power. From this premise, Charles Hartshorne argues further that: Power is influence, and perfect power is perfect influence ... power must be exercised upon something, at least if by power we mean influence, control; but the something controlled cannot be absolutely inert, since the merely passive, that which has no active tendency of its own, is nothing; yet if the something acted upon

4472-600: Is some supremely powerful and, if it is permissible to say so, malicious deceiver, who is deliberately trying to trick me in every way he can?" Some writers, e.g. Williams and Musgrave, make no distinction between the deceiving God and evil demon arguments and regard anything said about the deceiving God as being equivalent to saying something about the evil demon. Other writers acknowledge that Descartes makes mention of both but then claim they are 'epistemologically equivalent'. Kenny says, "the two hypotheses do not differ in any respect of epistemological importance... The content of

4576-423: Is supremely good and the source of truth, but rather some malicious demon..." he is not rejecting the notion of a deceitful God on the grounds that God is not a deceiver for this is something he is not entitled to rely on, because, as he says at the beginning of Meditation three, he doesn't "yet even know for sure whether there is a God at all". Instead, he is introducing an aid to the meditator who finds that, despite

4680-453: Is therefore incompatible with the idea of a perfect deity. The idea is grounded in Plato's oft-overlooked statement that "being is power". My notion would be, that anything which possesses any sort of power to affect another, or to be affected by another, if only for a single moment, however trifling the cause and however slight the effect, has real existence; and I hold that the definition of being

4784-445: Is to Descartes offers some standard reasons for doubting the reliability of the senses culminating in the dream argument and then extends this with the deceiving God argument. Descartes refers to "the long-standing opinion that there is an omnipotent God who made me the kind of creature that I am" and suggests that this God may have "brought it about that there is no earth, no sky, no extended thing, no shape, no size, no place, while at

4888-743: The Authorized King James Version of the Bible , as well as several other versions, in Revelation 19:6 it is stated "the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" ( Ancient Greek : παντοκράτωρ , romanized :  pantokrator , "all-mighty"). Thomas Jay Oord argues that omnipotence is not found in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures. The Hebrew words Shaddai (breasts) and Sabaoth (hosts) are wrongly translated as "God almighty" or "divine omnipotence". Pantokrator,

4992-521: The Holy Spirit is spoken of as unforgivable—an eternal sin . In the early history of the Church, blasphemy "was considered to show active disrespect to God and to involve the use of profane cursing or mockery of his powers". In The Whole Duty of Man , sometimes attributed to Richard Allestree or John Fell , blasphemy is described as "speaking any evil Thing of God", and as "the highest Degree whereof

5096-569: The Je Suis Charlie protestors the sentiment of the protest was simply: it is not ok to kill someone because they have offended you. In Leviticus 24:16 the punishment for blasphemy is death. In Jewish law the only form of blasphemy which is punishable by death is blaspheming the name of the Lord . Leviticus 24:16 states that "anyone who blasphemes the name of Yahweh will be put to death". The Seven Laws of Noah , which Judaism sees as applicable to all people, prohibit blasphemy. In one of

5200-547: The Meditations. Prior to the Meditations proper, Descartes gives a synopsis of each Meditation and says of Meditation One that "reasons are provided which give us possible grounds for doubt about all things, especially material things" and that whilst the usefulness of such extensive doubt may not be immediately apparent, "its greatest benefit lies in The eventual result of this doubt

5304-595: The Middle Ages because it was considered a more serious threat to Orthodoxy , while blasphemy was mostly seen as irreverent remarks made by persons who may have been drunk or diverged from good standards of conduct in what was treated as isolated incidents of misbehavior. When iconoclasm and the fundamental understanding of the sacred became more contentious matters during the Reformation , blasphemy started to be regarded as similar to heresy. The intellectual culture of

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5408-762: The Netherlands , Iceland , Norway and New Zealand . As of 2019 , 40 percent of the world's countries still had blasphemy laws on the books, including 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa , or 90% of countries in that region. Indian religions , such as Hinduism and Buddhism have no concept of blasphemy and hence prescribe no punishment. The word blasphemy came via Middle English blasfemen and Old French blasfemer and Late Latin blasphemare from Greek βλασφημέω , from βλασ, "injure" and φήμη, "utterance, talk, speech". From blasphemare also came Old French blasmer , from which

5512-628: The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), in July 2011, released a 52-paragraph statement which affirmed the freedom of speech and rejected the laws banning "display of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system'. UNHRC's "General Comment 34 - Paragraph 48" on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 1976, concerning freedoms of opinion and expression states: Prohibitions of displays of lack of respect for

5616-504: The sacred name in Judaism, and blasphemy of God's Holy Spirit is an eternal sin in Christianity. It was also a crime under English common law , and it is still a crime under Italian law (Art. 724 del Codice Penale). In the early history of the Church, blasphemy "was considered to show active disrespect to God and to involve the use of profane cursing or mockery of his powers". In

5720-683: The "defamation of religions" had been spearheaded by Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on behalf of the United Nations' large Muslim bloc. The campaign ended in 2011 when the proposal was withdrawn in Geneva, in the Human Rights Council because of lack of support, marking an end to the effort to establish worldwide blasphemy strictures along the lines of those in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. This resolution had passed every year since 1999, in

5824-535: The English word blame came. Blasphemy: 'from Gk. blasphemia "a speaking ill, impious speech, slander," from blasphemein "to speak evil of." "In the sense of speaking evil of God this word is found in Ps. 74:18; Isa. 52:5; Rom. 2:24; Rev. 13:1, 6; 16:9, 11, 21. It denotes also any kind of calumny, or evil-speaking, or abuse (1 Kings 21:10 LXX ; Acts 13:45; 18:6, etc.)." Heresy received more attention than blasphemy throughout

5928-525: The Greek word in the New Testament and Septuagint often translated in English as "almighty", actually means "all-holding" rather than almighty or omnipotent. Oord offers an alternative view of divine power he calls "amipotence," which is the maximal power of God's uncontrolling love. Trying to develop a theory to explain, assign or reject omnipotence on grounds of logic has little merit, since being omnipotent, in

6032-547: The Latin prefix omni -, meaning "all", and the word potens , meaning "potent" or "powerful". Thus the term means "all-powerful". The term omnipotent has been used to connote a number of different positions. These positions include, but are not limited to, the following: Thomas Aquinas acknowledged difficulty in comprehending the deity's power: "All confess that God is omnipotent; but it seems difficult to explain in what His omnipotence precisely consists: for there may be doubt as to

6136-568: The Roman Catholic Church at various times either forced the censoring of parts of the Talmud that it considered theologically problematic or the destruction of copies of the Talmud. During the inquisition, sects deemed heretical such as the Waldensians were also charged with blasphemy. Some Christians described parts of the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony as blasphemy. While blasphemy

6240-437: The Talmud against Donin's accusations. A commission of Christian theologians condemned the Talmud to be burned and on 17 June 1244, twenty-four carriage loads of Jewish religious manuscripts were set on fire in the streets of Paris. The translation of the Talmud from Hebrew to non-Jewish languages stripped Jewish discourse from its covering, something that was resented by Jews as a profound violation. Between 1239 and 1775,

6344-583: The Talmud contained insulting references to Jesus. The Disputation of Paris , also known as the Trial of the Talmud, took place in 1240 at the court of the reigning king of France, Louis IX (St. Louis). It followed the work of Nicholas Donin , a Jewish convert to Christianity , who translated the Talmud and pressed 35 charges against it to Pope Gregory IX by quoting a series of alleged blasphemous passages about Jesus , Mary or Christianity. Four rabbis defended

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6448-464: The United Nations, with declining number of "yes" votes with each successive year. In the early 21st century, blasphemy became an issue in the United Nations (UN). The United Nations passed several resolutions which called upon the world to take action against the "defamation of religions". However, in July 2011, the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) released a 52-paragraph statement which affirmed

6552-654: The United States, blasphemy was recognized as proscribed speech well into the 20th century. The Constitution entailed a right to articulate views on religion, but not to commit blasphemy, with the Harvard Law Review stating, "The English common law had punished blasphemy as a crime, while excluding "disputes between learned men upon particular controverted points" from the scope of criminal blasphemy. Looking to this precedent, nineteenth-century American appellate courts consistently upheld proscriptions on blasphemy, drawing

6656-441: The arguments presented, "habitual opinions keep coming back". Kenny says, "The purpose of taking seriously the hypothesis of the evil genius is to counterbalance natural credulity and keep in mind the doubts raised by the supposition of the deceitful God." When the role of the demon is understood this way the issue of the demon's omnipotence becomes unimportant. In 1968, James Cornman and Keith Lehrer suggested something they called

6760-516: The aspect of possibility. Hence it is better to say that such things cannot be done, than that God cannot do them. Nor is this contrary to the word of the angel, saying: 'No word shall be impossible with God.' For whatever implies a contradiction cannot be a word, because no intellect can possibly conceive such a thing." C. S. Lewis has adopted a scholastic position in the course of his work The Problem of Pain . Lewis follows Aquinas' view on contradiction: His Omnipotence means power to do all that

6864-433: The attention of a host of distinguished Cartesian scholars ( Alquié , Beck, Brehier , Chevalier, Frankfurt, Gilson , Kenny , Laporte, Kemp-Smith, Wilson), who, only seldom interested in interpreting Descartes' philosophy through the prism of doctrinal orthodoxy, also insist on the omnipotence of the evil genius." He further claims that the reason for this is that there is progression through the First Meditation , leading to

6968-447: The brain in a vat scenario is usually presented as a sceptical argument and in many ways equivalent to Descartes' deceiving God and evil demon. One crucial difference that prevents such scenarios being a direct substitute for the deceiving God and evil demon is that they generally presuppose that we have heads or bodies whereas it is important for Descartes to argue that he can doubt the existence of his body and that he can only be sure he

7072-425: The braino machine that "operates by influencing the brain of a subject who wears a special cap, called a "braino cap." When the braino cap is placed on a subject's head, the operator of the braino can affect his brain so as to produce any hallucination in the subject that the operator wishes. The braino is a hallucination-producing machine. The hallucinations produced by it may be as complete, systematic, and coherent as

7176-412: The charge of implying that the evil demon was omnipotent, but asserted that simply describing something with "some attribute that in reality belongs only to God" does not mean that that something is being held to actually be a supreme God. According to Janowski, "The alleged distinction between the respective powers of God and the evil genius that escaped the attention of the two theologians also escaped

7280-409: The charges of blasphemy were well placed, and Descartes was supposing an omnipotent evil demon. However, this is only a problem if one assumes that Descartes was withdrawing the notion of a deceitful God and replacing it with the evil demon. More recent commentators take the argument to have reached its conclusion with the deceitful God. When Descartes says, "I will suppose therefore that not God, who

7384-474: The child lives in a sort of megalomania for a long period; he knows only one yardstick, and that is his own over-inflated ego ... megalomania, it must be understood, is normal in the very young child". Bergler was of the opinion that in later life "the activity of gambling in itself unconsciously activates the megalomania and grandiosity of childhood, reverting to the "fiction of omnipotence"". Heinz Kohut regarded "the narcissistic patient's "megalomania" as

7488-632: The court repeated what had by then become a textbook standard for blasphemy law cases in the UK : The common law offense of blasphemy was abolished in Scotland via the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 . It is not blasphemous to speak or publish opinions hostile to the Christian religion, or to deny the existence of God, if the publication is couched in decent and temperate language. The test to be applied

7592-461: The culture of militant secularism celebrates blasphemy but permits viewpoint based restrictions and prior restraint of speech. Emmanuel Todd was very skeptical and critical of the "right to blasphemy" narrative. Skeptics thought it amounted to little more than ridicule of a marginalized group. Scholars rebutting Todd's study have found that many of the protestors were liberal, tolerant people who did not have Islamophobic or xenophobic views. For many of

7696-651: The death penalty applies only to cases where there is treason involved that may seriously harm the Muslim community, especially during times of war. Different traditional schools of jurisprudence prescribe different punishment for blasphemy, depending on whether the blasphemer is Muslim or non-Muslim, a man or a woman. In the modern Muslim world , the laws pertaining to blasphemy vary by country , and some countries prescribe punishments consisting of fines, imprisonment, flogging , hanging , or beheading . Blasphemy laws were rarely enforced in pre-modern Islamic societies, but in

7800-489: The deceiving God to the evil demon. It is tempting to think it is because there is a relevant theological difference. In Meditation Three, Descartes is going to establish not only that there is a God but that God is not a deceiver. When Descartes first introduces the evil demon he says, "I will suppose therefore that not God, who is supremely good and the source of truth, but rather some malicious demon, had employed his whole energies in deceiving me." Kenny says, "The hypothesis of

7904-400: The demon does not even touch mathematics or geometry. Why should he? He is evoked by Descartes to cure his inordinate attachment to the senses; he does not complain (and would not) of a similar attachment to mathematics or geometry." Hatfield takes a similar line saying, "Descartes adopts a common practice from the spiritual exercises upon which his metaphysical meditations are modelled, devising

8008-575: The early English Enlightenment had embraced ironic or scoffing tones in contradistinction to the idea of sacredness in revealed religion. The characterization of "scoffing" as blasphemy was defined as profaning the Scripture by irreverent "Buffoonery and Banter". From at least the 18th century on, the clergy of the Church of England justified blasphemy prosecutions by distinguishing "sober reasoning" from mockery and scoffing. Religious doctrine could be discussed "in

8112-478: The evil genius is substituted for that of the deceitful God simply because it is less offensive and less patently incoherent." However, at least in Meditation One, Descartes doesn't have a problem in postulating a deceiving God and he rejects the objection that such deception is inconsistent with God's supreme goodness. He says, "if it were inconsistent with his goodness to have created me such that I am deceived all

8216-482: The fact that the demon is not said to challenge mathematics, implies either that the evil demon is not omnipotent or that Descartes retracted Universal Doubt. Janowski notes that in the Principles of Philosophy (I, 15) Descartes states that Universal Doubt applies even to "the demonstration of mathematics", and so concludes that either Descartes' Meditation is flawed, lacking a reason for doubting mathematics, or that

8320-582: The freedom of speech and rejected the laws banning "display of lack of respect for a religion or other belief system'. When the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten decided to publish cartoons of Muhammad , its editor-in-chief wrote an editorial that the newspaper was publishing the cartoons because Muslims had to get over their "sickly oversensitivity". Another editor looked upon it as a cultural initiation: "By making fun of people we're also including them in our society. It's not always easy for those concerned, but that

8424-470: The idea of a Being, the range of Whose activity is limited only by His sovereign Will. Aquinas says that: Power is predicated of God not as something really distinct from His knowledge and will, but as differing from them logically; inasmuch as power implies a notion of a principle putting into execution what the will commands, and what knowledge directs, which three things in God are identified. Or we may say, that

8528-513: The imposition of "anti-blasphemy laws" (ABL) and have affirmed the freedom of speech . The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe , after deliberating on the issue of blasphemy law passed the resolution that blasphemy should not be a criminal offence, which was adopted on 29 June 2007 in the "Recommendation 1805 (2007) on blasphemy, religious insults and hate speech against persons on grounds of their religion" . This Recommendation set

8632-683: The introduction of the concept of the evil genius "which crowns the process begun at the outset of the Meditations." However, it is not quite so straightforward. For example, Wilson notes that "Gouhier has shown, the hypothesis of the malign spirit takes over from that of the Deceiving God from the end of the First Meditation to the beginning of the Third—where the latter figure is resubstituted without comment or explanation. As Gouhier has also noted,

8736-460: The knowledge or will of God, according as it is the effective principle, has the notion of power contained in it. Hence the consideration of the knowledge and will of God precedes the consideration of His power, as the cause precedes the operation and effect. The adaptation of means to ends in the universe does not argue, as John Stuart Mill would have it, that the power of the designer is limited, but only that God has willed to manifest his glory by

8840-670: The laws they have fled" to be enforced in Denmark. The editors stood their ground: "Everyone had to accept being subject to satire." Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a car bombing at the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan in June 2008 which they said was revenge for the "insulting drawings". After the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015 Je Suis Charlie became a rallying cry for secular, free speech advocates. The attacks took place in France where

8944-570: The medieval world, those who committed blasphemy were seen as needing discipline. By the 17th century, several historically Christian countries had legislation against blasphemy . Blasphemy was proscribed speech in the U.S. until well into the 20th century. Blasphemy laws were abolished in England and Wales in 2008, and in Ireland in 2020 . Scotland repealed its blasphemy laws in 2021. Many other countries have abolished blasphemy laws including Denmark ,

9048-465: The modern era some states and radical groups have used charges of blasphemy in an effort to burnish their religious credentials and gain popular support at the expense of liberal Muslim intellectuals and religious minorities. In recent years, accusations of blasphemy against Islam have sparked international controversies and played part in incidents of mob violence and assassinations of prominent figures. The campaign for worldwide criminal penalties for

9152-426: The ones of the supposed real world. If that were the case, then the experiences thus created would not constitute knowledge, for the source of those experiences would be the machine and not the world. However, since the fake and the real would be hypothetically indistinguishable, it follows that the current supposed experiences of the real world are also insufficient to generate knowledge. This proof by contradiction that

9256-418: The operator of the braino desires to make them." The braino argument was intended to show that, even if it is sometimes possible for a person to tell if they are hallucinating, it is not possible for them to know that they are not hallucinating. If the braino is operated by an evil being, whom Cornman and Lehrer call Dr. O, then it would be possible for Dr. O to create in a person experiences that are identical to

9360-473: The precise meaning of the word 'all' when we say that God can do all things. If, however, we consider the matter aright, since power is said in reference to possible things, this phrase, 'God can do all things,' is rightly understood to mean that God can do all things that are possible; and for this reason He is said to be omnipotent." In Scholasticism , omnipotence is generally understood to be compatible with certain limitations or restrictions. A proposition that

9464-450: The price they're got to pay". Editors expressed concern that Danish comedians, artists and so on were self-censoring because they were afraid of a violent response from Muslims. The global protests that erupted in February 2006 shocked the artists who submitted cartoons. After receiving a bomb threat one cartoonist was angry that Muslims fleeing persecution in their own countries would "want

9568-481: The purpose nor the content of the two hypotheses allow us to regard the one as a variant of the other." Vendler argues that literary form of the Meditations is heavily influenced by St. Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises to which Descartes will have been exposed during his training at the Jesuit college of La Fleche. As such, "The demon in the First Meditation is not evoked to serve as an epistomological menace, but as

9672-998: The purpose of the reparation of blasphemy through Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ , e.g. the Pontifical Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face . During the Middle Ages a series of debates on Judaism were staged by the Catholic Church , including the Disputation of Paris (1240), the Disputation of Barcelona (1263), and Disputation of Tortosa (1413–14), and during those disputations, Jewish converts to Christianity, such as Nicholas Donin (in Paris) and Pablo Christiani (in Barcelona) claimed

9776-535: The real world cannot generate knowledge, and thus that the fake imitation world cannot generate knowledge either, is one proposed way of disproving the Brain in a Vat argument. In 1973, in the introduction to his book Thought , Gilbert Harman said, "it might be suggested that you have not the slightest reason to believe that you are in the surroundings you suppose you are in ... various hypotheses could explain how things look and feel. You might be sound asleep and dreaming or

9880-483: The same material sense as one traditionally "understands" a given concept or object. Blasphemy Blasphemy refers to an insult that shows contempt, disrespect or lack of reverence concerning a deity , an object considered sacred , or something considered inviolable . Some religions, especially Abrahamic ones, regard blasphemy as a crime, including insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, speaking

9984-417: The same time ensuring that all these things appear to me to exist just as they do now". Furthermore, this God may have "brought it about that I too go wrong every time I add two and three or count the sides of a square, or in some even simpler matter, if that is imaginable". After the deceiving God argument Descartes concludes that he is "compelled to admit that there is not one of my former beliefs about which

10088-476: The second half of the 20th century object relations theory , both in the States and among British Kleinians , set about "rethinking megalomania... intent on transforming an obstacle... into a complex organization that linked object relations and defence mechanisms " in such a way as to offer new "prospects for therapy". Edmund Bergler , one of his early followers, considered that "as Freud and Ferenczi have shown,

10192-492: The summary of 'doubts' in the concluding passage ... does not include mention of mathematical propositions—which are not again brought into discussion until the Third Meditation." She adds in the accompanying footnote that, even if one has to concede that the text doesn't reveal any sharp distinction between the power hypothetically ascribed to the 'malignant spirit' and that genuinely attributable to God, "Gouhier's observation

10296-637: The texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls , called the Damascus Document , violence against non-Jews (also called Gentiles ) is prohibited, except in cases where it is sanctioned by a Jewish governing authority "so that they will not blaspheme". Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code lays down the punishment for the deliberate and malicious acts, that are intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. It

10400-456: The things that we think ourselves to know best." Other writers insist that it is important to maintain the distinction between the deceiving God and the evil demon. Gouhier (quoted by Kenny) argues that the deceiving God is an intellectual scruple that will disappear when metaphysics demonstrates its falsity whilst the evil demon is a methodological procedure designed to make a certain experiment and it ceases with that experiment. He says, "Neither

10504-461: The time, it would seem equally foreign to his goodness to allow me to be deceived even occasionally; yet this last assertion cannot be made." This is consistent with what he writes in the Principles where he says, "we have been told that God who created us can do all that he desires, and we do not yet know whether he may not have willed to create us in such a way that we shall always be deceived even in

10608-513: The two hypotheses is the same..." Newman says, "Descartes' official position is that the Evil Genius Doubt is merely one among multiple hypotheses that can motivate the more general hyperbolic doubt... Even so, I regularly speak in terms of the evil genius... as a kind of mnemonic for the more general doubt about our cognitive nature." If they are epistemologically equivalent, then the question arises as to why Descartes temporarily shifted from

10712-484: The two other words 'God can.'... It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of his creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because his power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God. Sigmund Freud freely used the same term in a comparable way. Referring with respect to an adult neurotic to "the omnipotence which he ascribed to his thoughts and feelings", Freud reckoned that "this belief

10816-402: Was that he was positing an omnipotent malevolent God . Voetius accused Descartes of blasphemy in 1643. Jacques Triglandius and Jacobus Revius , theologians at Leiden University , made similar accusations in 1647, accusing Descartes of "hold[ing] God to be a deceiver", a position that they stated to be "contrary to the glory of God". Descartes was threatened with having his views condemned by

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