Still, if God created the world, he has to be external. In this case, one might say that there is no necessity for a God. Laplace has said: “If God is out of the world of human experience, then he might as well not exist at all.” We have no reason to believe in God when we will never have any evidence to support that claim. This kind of reasoning brings about another question - How did God become to existence? It seems as if Plato’s and Aristotle’s concept of God doesn’t answer the question “What is the final cause?” very well. We might as well accept that we don’t know how the universe came to existence.
On the other hand, Plato’s theory about the world of forms and the world of copies finds a reasonable explanation for this. Since everything in the world of copies has an equivalent perfect being in the world of forms, it is possible that God has an imperfect copy in our world. Thus, God is omnipotent – he is present in the world but as well outside of the world. Christianity also has the same idea about God.
If God does exist in our world as well, it is reasonable that he intervenes with the world. If God is perfect, he must be entirely good and just. Why do unjust and bad things still happen in this world?
This is one point where reason has difficulty answering. One might say that it is impossible to always know what is best in a long time period. For example, the situation where Mother Theresa and Bin Laden would both be in a plane crash and the latter would survive might be more just. Bin Laden might change and do more good to the world while Mother Theresa might change and use her power for world domination. Also, reason might say that good and bad have to be balanced and it is impossible for us to see the balance because we can’t judge the world objectively through our own perspective.
Still, it is also reasonable to conclude that perhaps an eternal perfect being doesn’t exist at all and just accept that we don’t know the cause of the world.
Christianity is based on faith. They believe in miracles and they trust God to always make better decisions than they could make. This concept is different from Plato’s concept because the God which exists outside of the world of copies doesn’t intervene with the world anymore and his copy in our world is imperfect and therefore unable to make good and just decisions for all.
If God is almighty, he wouldn’t let people change his word that was written down. Still, there are so many different ideas of the character of God. Why should one choose one over the other? One might have a very strong inner belief for the Christian God, but when it doesn’t stand on rational grounds, the belief might make the person live their lives without ever making a decision for themselves or ever behaving in a way they think is right. For example, many people who are Christian believe that homosexuality is wrong and live their lives suppressing their own inner feelings.
Both Plato and Christianity argue that homosexuality is just a physical need. In order to become freer, one should suppress his physical needs because that way they become closer to their soul’s needs and find real perfection.
The problem today is that we know the soul isn’t completely separate from the body, or at least the soul that we acknowledge. Hunger is a physical need as well as something to make the soul feel good. People can’t be hungry and happy at the same time.
Although at first, Plato’s concept of God doesn’t seem to have many common characteristics with the Christian concept of God, there actually are many similarities. Both of the theories believe that god exists in our world as well as outside of our world, both believe that God is the final cause and both believe that God is perfect. However, neither of the theories is certain because the premises Plato used for his ideas are different from the ones we use today and the Christian concept is based on faith more than reason. On the other hand, atheism is just as much based on faith as Christianity. Atheists believe that scientists are telling the truth while Christians believe that the Bible is the word of the God. In my opinion, the concept a person has of God shouldn’t influence the way he sees life and the way he treats people because we are unable to find the truth out for ourselves anyway. Also, believing in God doesn’t make better people because God’s word may be interpreted in many different ways.
