A few years ago I wrote and posted the following argument against the
orthodox doctrine of the Trinity (OT) on Facebook. I thought that it would be good to post it on this blog. Note that
by 'perfect being' I mean a being that has all perfections essentially and lacks
all perfections essentially.
- Assume orthodox Trinitarianism (OT) is true. [assp]
- If OT, then possibly, there exists more than one perfect being. [prem]
- So, possibly, there exists more than one perfect being. [1,2 MP]
- If possibly, there exists more than one perfect being, then possibly, there exists a googillion perfect beings. [prem]
- So, possibly, there exists a googillion of perfect beings. [3,4 MP]
- If possibly, there exists a googillion amount of perfect beings, then there exists a googillion amount of perfect beings. [prem]
- So, there exists a googillion of perfect beings. [5,6 MP]
- If (7), then ~(1). [prem]
- So, ~(1). [7,8 MP]
The argument is a logically valid argument. The only
premises that are not assumptions and which do not follow from the logical
rules of inference are (2), (4),(6), and (8).
Premise (2) is clearly true on OT. I will stipulate that OT is the Christianity that is consistent with the first part of the Athanasian Creed—it is widely accepted as teaching Christian "orthodoxy". On orthodox Christianity, the three Persons share one divine nature (ousia), and so have all the same properties that go along with that nature. As the Athanasian Creed says, "the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is; such is the Son; and such is the Holy Ghost." So, the three Persons have all perfections essentially and lack all imperfections essentially.
Premise (4) also seems to be true. Presumably, the only reason that one would deny the existence of a multiplicity of perfect beings is if it is impossible that more than one perfect being exists. However, the orthodox Trinitarian does hold that it is possible for more than one perfect being to exists; on (OT), the Father is perfect, the Son is perfect, and the Holy Spirit is perfect—so you have three perfect beings. Given this, a fortiori, it is possible that there exists three perfect beings. And since the orthodox Trinitarian grants that there can be a multiplicity of such beings, there doesn't seem to be any principled way for the Trinitarian to deny the possibility of there being more than three perfect beings. Why can't there be ten, a billion, or a googiliion of such beings? The burden of proof is certainly on the advocate of OT to argue that (4) is false.
Premise (6) seems to be true. This is because existing necessarily seems to be a perfection. If this is the case, then it follows that if there is a possible world W in which a perfect being P exists, then P has the property of existing necessarily in W. So given that there is a possible world in which P necessarily exists, it follows, by the S5 axiom, that P exists in every possible world—including the actual one.
Premise (2) is clearly true on OT. I will stipulate that OT is the Christianity that is consistent with the first part of the Athanasian Creed—it is widely accepted as teaching Christian "orthodoxy". On orthodox Christianity, the three Persons share one divine nature (ousia), and so have all the same properties that go along with that nature. As the Athanasian Creed says, "the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is; such is the Son; and such is the Holy Ghost." So, the three Persons have all perfections essentially and lack all imperfections essentially.
Premise (4) also seems to be true. Presumably, the only reason that one would deny the existence of a multiplicity of perfect beings is if it is impossible that more than one perfect being exists. However, the orthodox Trinitarian does hold that it is possible for more than one perfect being to exists; on (OT), the Father is perfect, the Son is perfect, and the Holy Spirit is perfect—so you have three perfect beings. Given this, a fortiori, it is possible that there exists three perfect beings. And since the orthodox Trinitarian grants that there can be a multiplicity of such beings, there doesn't seem to be any principled way for the Trinitarian to deny the possibility of there being more than three perfect beings. Why can't there be ten, a billion, or a googiliion of such beings? The burden of proof is certainly on the advocate of OT to argue that (4) is false.
Premise (6) seems to be true. This is because existing necessarily seems to be a perfection. If this is the case, then it follows that if there is a possible world W in which a perfect being P exists, then P has the property of existing necessarily in W. So given that there is a possible world in which P necessarily exists, it follows, by the S5 axiom, that P exists in every possible world—including the actual one.
Premise (8) seems true. Though the Athanasian Creed does not
explicitly say there can't be a billion or more perfect beings, but this is
clearly implied by the creed.
So it seems like we have a decent argument against the
orthodox version of the Trinity. In my opinion, premise (4) is the only controvertible premise. Perhaps one could argue that it is unmotivated; but I don't know – at
the very least the argument seems reasonable to me. It does seem like the property of being greater than any other being is a perfection, but clearly only one being or entity can have this property. So there can only be one perfect being. If one is going to reject this reasoning, then why can there be only three perfect beings, rather than four, five, six, or a googillion of them?
