What did Socrates say about God?

Socrates, it seems, holds that god and men are both to be agents of goodness. God is not exempt from goodness; rather he is the ultimate agent of it. Thus, for Socrates, as Vlastos says, “Virtue by wisdom binds gods no less than men” (164). In fact, god is perhaps more bound by it.


Did Socrates believe in gods or God?

Although he never outright rejected the standard Athenian view of religion, Socrates' beliefs were nonconformist. He often referred to God rather than the gods, and reported being guided by an inner divine voice.

Who is the God Socrates refers to?

The general response to this from the scholars who believe that Socrates is monotheistic is that it is clearly different when Socrates refers to one specific God who is Apollo and one specific God who is the one deity that exists.


Did Socrates believe in a single God?

The short answer for this question is: Yes, Socrates was definitely a monotheist. He believed in one God. To be more specific, Socrates claimed that he had contact with the Divine.

How does Socrates compare Jesus?

Unlike Socrates, Jesus' death was humiliating, not dignified. Unlike Socrates Jesus did not consider death a friend but an enemy. Unlike Socrates, Jesus did not consider death a sweet release as his soul floated free of his body. Far from it, the Jewish belief system was gritty, earthy, bodily.


Does God Exist? An Argument Based on Aristotle



Who lived first Jesus or Socrates?

Socrates lived eight hundred miles apart from, four centuries earlier than and twice as long as Jesus. At his death in a prison cell in Athens in 399 BC, Socrates was seventy years old. At his death on a cross on a hill on the outskirts of Jerusalem in 30 AD, Jesus was thirty-three years old.

Who is the philosopher who believed in God?

Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) founded what are currently known as the "cosmological arguments" for a God (or "first cause").

Did Socrates believe many gods?

Socrates does not explicitly answer whether or not he believed in the many gods of Athens, but he definitely believed in at least one divinity: his inner voice. Although this may still be considered a form of impiety by an Athenian jury, it is erroneous to describe Socrates as an atheist.


Who is the philosopher that believes in God?

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) offers a pragmatic reason for believing in God: even under the assumption that God's existence is unlikely, the potential benefits of believing are so vast as to make betting on theism rational.

How did Socrates disrespect the gods?

Socrates is guilty of refusing to recognise the Gods recognised by the state, and of introducing new divinities. He is also guilty of corrupting the youth. The penalty demanded is death. In Athens, religion was a matter of public participation under law.

What philosopher did not believe in God?

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980): French existentialist philosopher, dramatist and novelist who declared that he had been an atheist from age twelve. Although he regarded God as a self-contradictory concept, he still thought of it as an ideal toward which people strive.


Why was Socrates accused of atheism?

Socrates was accused of atheism, but he was not an atheist. The above statement by Dr. Saka has two clauses, both of which are true—Socrates was indeed accused of not believing in the city's gods, but he himself claimed to believe in them.

Who created the idea of God?

The idea that God is a self-existent being was developed and explained by St. Anselm in the eleventh century. By various arguments Anselm had satisfied him- self that among those beings that exist there is one that is supremely great and good-nothing that exists or ever did exist is its equal.

What did Socrates believe in?

Socrates himself believed in the universality of the inner rational being. He believed that: The unexamined life is not worth living! The best manner to examinee that life is through reasoning which employs the dialectical method of inquiry.


What did Descartes said about God?

Descartes' ontological argument goes as follows: (1) Our idea of God is of a perfect being, (2) it is more perfect to exist than not to exist, (3) therefore, God must exist.

Did Socrates try to prove the gods wrong?

In making his defense, Socrates did not attempt to prove that he was innocent of the charge of disbelief in the Athenian gods. Instead, he addressed himself to the larger implications involved in the so-called crimes of which he had been accused.

Did Plato worship God?

Did Plato believe in religion and God? He did believe in a religion — Ancient Greek Paganism — and gods — the Olympians and other Greek gods. His concept of “the Good” might provide us soft polytheists with an ancient source to point to, but it is not monotheism.


Who was the oldest person God called?

In the Bible

According to the Bible, Methuselah died the year of the flood but the Bible does not record whether he died during or prior to the flood. He was also the oldest of all the figures mentioned in the Bible.

Who was the God before Jesus?

Jehovah was the premortal name-title given to the Firstborn Son of God. He is now referred to as Jesus Christ. The meaning of the name Jehovah was explained by Elder Talmage: “Jehovah is the Anglicized rendering of the Hebrew, Yahveh or Jahveh, signifying the Self-existent One, or The Eternal.

What was God doing before creation?

Nothing. Since the world was created out of nothing (ex nihilo), nothingness prevailed. Therefore God was idling, just existing, perhaps contemplating creation.


When did humans start believing in God?

Prehistoric evidence of religion. The exact time when humans first became religious remains unknown, however research in evolutionary archaeology shows credible evidence of religious-cum-ritualistic behavior from around the Middle Paleolithic era (45–200 thousand years ago).

What is the origin of God?

The English word god comes from the Old English god, which itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic *ǥuđán. Its cognates in other Germanic languages include guþ, gudis (both Gothic), guð (Old Norse), god (Old Saxon, Old Frisian, and Old Dutch), and got (Old High German).

In what sense does Socrates think he is a gift of God?

At 31b, Socrates attempts to convince the jury that he really is a gift from God to Athens by asking them whether it seems natural for someone to neglect his own affairs, endure the humiliation of allowing his family to be neglected while he busied himself on behalf of Athens' citizens.


Who founded atheism?

In early modern times, the first explicit atheist known by name was the German-languaged Danish critic of religion Matthias Knutzen (1646–after 1674), who published three atheist writings in 1674.