The Apparent Contradiction of the Trinity Explained
Recently, a co-worker asserted the Christian Doctrine of theTrinity was a logical contradiction. It seems to me those that posit the Trinity is a logical contradiction confuse or misunderstand the assertion Christians make about the Trinity.
Specifically, opponents say Christians assert the Bible teaches that God is one person AND God is three persons at the same time. In other words, 1 = 3. If that were true, then, yes, I would agree the Trinity would indeed be a logical contradiction.
A logical contradiction occurs when the truth of one propositon necessarily means the falshood of another proposition. Symbolically, a contradiction has the form of P &~P. Examples include:
- Socrates is a man. Socrates is not a man.
- Square circles
- 1 = 3
- Married bachelors
- All truth is relative
But, Christians are not asserting that 1=3 or that God is three persons in one person. Rather, they are resolving an apparent contradiction. Apparent contradictions are not equivalent to true logical contradictions - by any definition - because apparent contradictions can be resolved.
True logical contradictions can never be resolved.
The premise of the Trinitarian Doctrine is that God exists as three persons in one nature. Philosophically speaking, the word person, or personhood, refers to the totality of an entity’s non-physical attributes: intelligence, consciousness, creativity, will, self-identity, etc. Obviously, humans have personhood, but, personhood is not restricted to Humans. In fact, some scientists argue that Dolphins should be considered “non-human” persons.
God possesses all the qualities of personhood.
The word nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics that an entity possesses naturally. Human nature, for instance, consists of physical flesh and personhood. God’s nature is composed of spirit and personhood.
Some entities, like God and Angels, possess non-physical natures.
Now here’s the real thrust of my argument. If an entity’s nature could only support one self-identity, or one person, then the Trinitarian concept would be a real contradiction – an absurdity and not embraced. But, there is no reason to believe an entity is restricted to one nature with one self-identity.
The burden of proof lies with opponents of the Trinitian Doctrine to prove an entity’s nature can only support one person.
It may be a mystery to us HOW an entity can possess one nature with three persons, but our ignorance does not a contradiction make.
Thus, the Christian Doctrine of theTrinity is not a real, logical contradiction but an apparent contradiction that is easily resolved.
posted by Roy Clemmons @ 7:51 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
You're right that the Trinity doctrine does not claim that God is 3 and 1 in the same way, thus there is no contradiction there. However, the doctrine is illogical in other ways. For instance, there are a total of 4 definitions of the "one true God".
a) The Trinity = the one true God
b) The Father = the one true God
c) The Son = the one true God
d) The Spirit = the one true God
"a" is obvious. b,c, and d however, are necessary because the doctrine claims that each member is fully God and can be termed the "one true God". But, clearly, the Trinity collectively can not be the one true God if the Father alone is the one true God (and vice versa).
Also, you wrote:
A logical contradiction occurs when the truth of one propositon necessarily means the falshood of another proposition. Symbolically, a contradiction has the form of P &~P. Examples include:
• Socrates is a man. Socrates is not a man.
•Square circles
•1 = 3
•Married bachelors
•All truth is relative
It's funny, the Trinity doctrine involves a contradiction of this very kind. It is claimed that Jesus is 100% man and 100% God at the same time. One of the features of being God is possessing omniscience. One of the features of being man is lacking omniscience. So Jesus would therefore both possess omniscience and lack omniscience at the same time. This is impossible; it is a logical contradiction. Trinitarians try to get around this by arguing that Jesus possessed two natures -- human and divine -- so it is the human side that lacks omniscience while the divine side possesses it. But this doesn't work because the doctrine also emphatically declares that Jesus is 1 person, not two. So this 1 person -- this one center of consciousness -- would be omniscient and not omniscient at the same time. Impossible!
Thanks for your comments. Check out Dr. William Lane Craig's article: A Formulation and Defense of the Doctrine of the Trinity." on his ReasonableFaith web site.
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/PageServer?pagename=scholarly_articles_Christian_Doctrines
You might need to join the site but it's free and there's a wealth of articles and podcasts that specifically address your issues on the Trinity as well as other aspects of Christian doctrine.
And, listen to his podcasts on the Trinity at: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/PageServer?pagename=podcasting_main#defenders2
These resources will more than satisify your intellectual challenges on the Trinity.
Thanks for the referral to the Craig website. I found it insightful.
However, I've never read anything by any Trinitarian that successfully answers the logical contradictions. You and I agree that "Socrates is a man; Socrates is not a man" is contradictory. So is the idea that we have a one-dimensional shape that is both a square and a circle at the same time. How are those any different than the idea that Jesus is both omniscient and not omniscient at the same time? That's a clear logical contradiction of the exact same species as the "square circle."
Nobody knows for sure how Jesus was fully God and fully human, however, I like Dr. Craig's explanation that, perhaps, Jesus was fully divine in his subconscious and fully human in his consciousness. Craig's solution is at least plausible and resolves the apparent contradiction of Jesus' dual nature.
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