Is the Doctrine of Trinity a Logical Contradiction?

[McCulloch]

He [God] is not capable of instantiating logical contradictions. Why did you think He could? What did you take omnipotence to mean?

And yet Trinitarian Christians insist that God is a logical contradiction. There is one God. The Son of God is God. God the Father is God. But the Son is not the Father.

For one, Christians do not insist God is a logical contradiction. You might believe that the Trinity is a logical contradiction, but that is apart from it being the Christian's stated belief that God is a logical contradiction. Your objection here is completely irrelevant.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons (Greek: ὑποστάσεις): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial (Greek: �μοο�σιοι). Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being (Greek: ο�σία). The Trinity is considered to be a mystery of Christian faith.

According to this doctrine, there is only one God in three persons. Each person is God, whole and entire. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: as the Fourth Lateran Council declared, "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds". While distinct in their relations with one another, they are one in all else. The whole work of creation and grace is a single operation common to all three divine persons, who at the same time operate according to their unique properties, so that all things are from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. The Nicene Creed describes Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father".

Question for debate: Is the Doctrine of Trinity a Logical Contradiction?

[ThatGirlAgain]

The Shield of the Trinity (Ref) states that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all equal to God but are not equal to each other.



The first of Euclid’s Common Notions states that “Things equal to the same thing are also equal to one another.� (Ref)

If the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all equal to God, that is, equal to the same thing, then they should be equal to one another. But they are not. Sounds like a logical contradiction to me.

Of course according to mathematician Georg Cantor, God IS beyond logic. (Ref) There may be a logical problem but apparently not a theological one.

[Flail]

He [God] is not capable of instantiating logical contradictions. Why did you think He could? What did you take omnipotence to mean?

And yet Trinitarian Christians insist that God is a logical contradiction. There is one God. The Son of God is God. God the Father is God. But the Son is not the Father.

For one, Christians do not insist God is a logical contradiction. You might believe that the Trinity is a logical contradiction, but that is apart from it being the Christian's stated belief that God is a logical contradiction. Your objection here is completely irrelevant.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons (Greek: ὑποστάσεις): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial (Greek: �μοο�σιοι). Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being (Greek: ο�σία). The Trinity is considered to be a mystery of Christian faith.

According to this doctrine, there is only one God in three persons. Each person is God, whole and entire. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: as the Fourth Lateran Council declared, "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds". While distinct in their relations with one another, they are one in all else. The whole work of creation and grace is a single operation common to all three divine persons, who at the same time operate according to their unique properties, so that all things are from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. The Nicene Creed describes Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father".

Question for debate: Is the Doctrine of Trinity a Logical Contradiction?

To my mind the Trinity is an incoherent contrivance by Christianity to get around violations of the First Commandment. In order for the Christian requirement that one believe in Jesus to gain salvation not to be a First Commandment violation the notion that Jesus is not a separate entity was concocted.

I think the Holy Ghost was invented to supernaturally assist with Bible authorship in an attempt to remove doubts as to it's apparent lack of authenticity or veracity.

The diagram offered by ThatGirlAgain aptly demonstrates the incoherence of the Trinity.

[Moses Yoder]

Just wondering, but but I think there is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. It can be liquid where we call it water, or gas where we call it steam, or solid where we call it ice. Is this a logical contradiction?

Then there is the fact that God is probably not made up of atoms and exists in another dimension, where the laws of physics may be completely different. If someone proves to me that the single entity we call an egg does not exist as three separate entities, I will cease to believe in the Holy Trinity.

[Rkrause]

He [God] is not capable of instantiating logical contradictions. Why did you think He could? What did you take omnipotence to mean?

And yet Trinitarian Christians insist that God is a logical contradiction. There is one God. The Son of God is God. God the Father is God. But the Son is not the Father.

For one, Christians do not insist God is a logical contradiction. You might believe that the Trinity is a logical contradiction, but that is apart from it being the Christian's stated belief that God is a logical contradiction. Your objection here is completely irrelevant.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons (Greek: ὑποστάσεις): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial (Greek: �μοο�σιοι). Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being (Greek: ο�σία). The Trinity is considered to be a mystery of Christian faith.

According to this doctrine, there is only one God in three persons. Each person is God, whole and entire. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: as the Fourth Lateran Council declared, "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds". While distinct in their relations with one another, they are one in all else. The whole work of creation and grace is a single operation common to all three divine persons, who at the same time operate according to their unique properties, so that all things are from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. The Nicene Creed describes Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father".

Question for debate: Is the Doctrine of Trinity a Logical Contradiction?

I don't think so. Atoms have 3 seperate parts all different but make up one atom.

God has three persons, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit all different but make up one God, yet can act independently from each other.

[Fides et Veritas]

He [God] is not capable of instantiating logical contradictions. Why did you think He could? What did you take omnipotence to mean?

And yet Trinitarian Christians insist that God is a logical contradiction. There is one God. The Son of God is God. God the Father is God. But the Son is not the Father.

For one, Christians do not insist God is a logical contradiction. You might believe that the Trinity is a logical contradiction, but that is apart from it being the Christian's stated belief that God is a logical contradiction. Your objection here is completely irrelevant.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons (Greek: ὑποστάσεις): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial (Greek: �μοο�σιοι). Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being (Greek: ο�σία). The Trinity is considered to be a mystery of Christian faith.

According to this doctrine, there is only one God in three persons. Each person is God, whole and entire. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: as the Fourth Lateran Council declared, "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds". While distinct in their relations with one another, they are one in all else. The whole work of creation and grace is a single operation common to all three divine persons, who at the same time operate according to their unique properties, so that all things are from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. The Nicene Creed describes Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father".

Question for debate: Is the Doctrine of Trinity a Logical Contradiction?

Yes? Of Course?

Will that have any effect on those that swear by its mysterious absoluteness? Nope. They will continue down the path with eyes closed and ears covered.

[McCulloch]

Is the Doctrine of Trinity a Logical Contradiction?

I don't think so. Atoms have 3 seperate parts all different but make up one atom.

God has three persons, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit all different but make up one God, yet can act independently from each other.

There is more to the doctrine of Trinity than merely that the god is a composite entity like an atom. An electron is not described as being of one substance with the proton. Nor is an electron described as being an atom. Yet God the Son is described as being one substance with God the Father and God the Son is described as being fully and completely God. Your atom analogy falls short of answering the paradox.

[Bust Nak]

Just wondering, but but I think there is a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. It can be liquid where we call it water, or gas where we call it steam, or solid where we call it ice. Is this a logical contradiction?

I don't think so. Atoms have 3 seperate parts all different but make up one atom.

God has three persons, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit all different but make up one God, yet can act independently from each other.

If only it was that simple. The three persons don't make up one God, each person is God.

That's like saying the atom has three (kinds of) particles, the neutrons, the protons and the electrons, the neutrons is an atom, the protons is an atom and electrons is an atom; Water molecule has two parts hydrogen and oxygen, hydrogen is a water molecule, oxygon is a water molecule.

Trinitarian don't call it a divine mystery for nothing. What I don't get is why they insist on it when God being made up of three parts like you two think makes so much more sense.

[Rkrause]

He [God] is not capable of instantiating logical contradictions. Why did you think He could? What did you take omnipotence to mean?

And yet Trinitarian Christians insist that God is a logical contradiction. There is one God. The Son of God is God. God the Father is God. But the Son is not the Father.

For one, Christians do not insist God is a logical contradiction. You might believe that the Trinity is a logical contradiction, but that is apart from it being the Christian's stated belief that God is a logical contradiction. Your objection here is completely irrelevant.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons (Greek: ὑποστάσεις): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial (Greek: �μοο�σιοι). Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being (Greek: ο�σία). The Trinity is considered to be a mystery of Christian faith.

According to this doctrine, there is only one God in three persons. Each person is God, whole and entire. They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: as the Fourth Lateran Council declared, "it is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds". While distinct in their relations with one another, they are one in all else. The whole work of creation and grace is a single operation common to all three divine persons, who at the same time operate according to their unique properties, so that all things are from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. The Nicene Creed describes Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father".

Question for debate: Is the Doctrine of Trinity a Logical Contradiction?

Yes? Of Course?

Will that have any effect on those that swear by its mysterious absoluteness? Nope. They will continue down the path with eyes closed and ears covered.

Explain why it is a logical contradiction please.

[Rkrause]

Is the Doctrine of Trinity a Logical Contradiction?

I don't think so. Atoms have 3 seperate parts all different but make up one atom.

God has three persons, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit all different but make up one God, yet can act independently from each other.

There is more to the doctrine of Trinity than merely that the god is a composite entity like an atom. An electron is not described as being of one substance with the proton. Nor is an electron described as being an atom. Yet God the Son is described as being one substance with God the Father and God the Son is described as being fully and completely God. Your atom analogy falls short of answering the paradox.

Are you a science fiction fan at all?

All analogies break down but here is another one that may help.

Think of a baseball team named God. The Father is the manager, Jesus is the star player and the Holy Spirit is the 3rd base coach. Humans are all on third base waiting to go to home plate (Heaven). The Father tells Jesus to sacrifice to get everyone home. Jesus does and the Holy Spirit tells everyone to run to home. Some people start to run and turn back, some don't believe and they stay on third, some run home.

The three are all one team. They can combine into one being if they wish. They can act independently as well.

The main problem with something like this is that language is symbolic and very limited but I hope that helps.