A New Discipline
by Fred Seddon
I have been president of the West Virginia Philosophical Society since 1988 and there have been many first during my tenure, but this one may be the most important. It is not everyday that one hears about a new discipline, but at the Spring Meeting held on Mar. 28-29 in Wheeling, WV, Professor Ted Drange, one of my favorite speakers, informed the audience of such a new discipline, to wit: Metatheism. In his talk, “Theological Noncognitivism and Metatheism” he informed us of Metatheism. Metatheism was “invented” or “introduced” by Richard R. LaCroix in his essay “Metatheism” reprinted in WHAT IS GOD” published by, who else, Prometheus Books 1993 (Boy am I out of the loop!!!) Metatheism is defined as the “study of God-definitions in an attempt to answer such questions as which definitions of “God” (1) would be acceptable to some sizable group; (2) would permit the sentence “God exists” to be cognitive; (3) would permit the sentence “God exists” to be conceptually meaningful and (4) would permit one to decide if empirical theism, a priori theism, empirical atheism, a priori atheism or agnosticism would be the correct position to hold.
Drange’s paper reminded me of the “whack-a-God” problem that Objectivists face vis-à-vis the theist. No sooner do we refute one definition of God when the theist says, “Your argument doesn’t touch me because I have a different definition of God.
Ted is the author of NONBELIEF AND EVIL: TWO ARGUMENTS FOR THE NONEXISTENCE OF GOD, also from (who else) Prometheus, 1998.
Fred
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