Q&A: The Unity of God
The Unity of God
Question
With God's help,
Hello and blessings,
I saw that you wrote in the notebook on the physico-theological proof that this proof does not necessarily require us to say that the intelligent designer is specifically one.
It is well known that the sages of Israel dealt with proofs of the unity of God, such as Maimonides and the author of Duties of the Heart. In their view, as I understand it, there is a commandment to investigate and attain this with our intellect, beyond simply accepting this principle as true on the basis of tradition and received teaching.
What, in your opinion, are the up-to-date proofs for this principle of faith nowadays? Have you dealt with this? (Maybe it would be worth devoting an article / notebook to this, just as you wrote a proof of the existence of the Blessed God using arguments updated for our times.) I would be glad to hear a few contemporary philosophical-logical proofs / lines of thought that establish this.
Answer
I don't know of a very good argument on this issue, other than Ockham's razor (why assume there are several if one is enough?). We have our tradition that says this, and if one accepts it then everything is fine.
Still, the question is how one would even define one or many here. What are its boundaries? A collection of cells that makes up a person—is that one or many? It's hard to discuss the properties of something so undefined and that we have not experienced.
There are arguments about infinity—namely, that if there were several such beings, then each of them would be limited and therefore not infinite. But in my opinion these are questionable arguments.