The topic jogged a memory. A long time ago, I had a mathematics/philosophy class about points, lines and planes. Generalizing the instructor’s argument, a single Entity in a Universe would have no concept of its own Entityhood, since It encompasses everything. For an Entity to be conscious of It’s own distinct nature, there would need to be two Entities. If there are two Entities, there is an interaction between the two, which would be a third Entity. So if you have One, you have to have Three.
The original argument had nothing to do with religion (it was to justify that planes are the ultimate building blocks, not points or lines). But the contradiction of the Trinity and Monotheism is a problem that seems to be solved only by definition or assertion.
If I postulate a Supreme Being, the above argument produces a Trinity with the attibutes that classic Christianity requires. Can I get the 2001 Descartes Prize for proving the existence of God?
Poly, a tip of the old bishop’s miter to you. You certainly know your stuff. Which Saint Anselmo was that? I would have no problem sharing the prize with him.
If I understand this aright, you have 1) an Entity, 2) the Entity’s Consciousness of itself, and 3) the Interaction between the Entity and the Entity’s Consciousness.
Since when is consciousness or interaction a “person”?
Three persons, anyway, implies plural status. I note, however, that where God (or Elohím, if you prefer) speaks in the Bible, the verb used is in the third person singular conjugation. Granted Elohím is technically a plural noun, but it always appears with a singular verb. Elohím means “Gods,” anyway, not “persons.” Elohím is not, of course, the only Hebrew word used in the “Old Testament” translated as “God” in English.
I also noted that in Isaiah 6:3, in the KJV, it quotes the cherubs who say, “Holy, holy, holy is God…” and supposedly this indicates a Trinity. The verse is quoted at Revelation 4:8, where it also says “holy, holy, holy.” But the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest Greek manuscript containing the book of Revelation, repeats the word “holy”* (hágios)* in Greek eight times, not three times, at Revelation 4:8; and it would be foolish to argue that this means that God Almighty is composed of eight Persons.
