364 ///-42 to ///-43
not provident. 11. But it is counter to the conception of god that he
should be weaker than anything. If he is able to be provident about
everything, but he does not wish to be, he would be regarded as malign.
If he neither wishes nor is able to be provident, he is malign and weak,
and to say this about god is the act of impious men. Therefore, god is
not provident about things in the cosmos.
If god is provident of nothing and has no work nor any effect, one
will not be able to say how one can grasp that god exists, at least if he
neither appears all on his own nor is grasped through some of his effects.
And for these reasons the existence of god is ungraspable. 12. From these
[arguments] we reason that perhaps those who commit themselves to the
claim that god exists are compelled to be impious. For in saying that he
is provident of everything, they will say that he is the cause of bad things,
whereas in saying that he is provident only of certain things or of nothing
either they will be compelled to say that god is malign or that he is weak,
and this is self-evidently the act of impious men.
Sextus M 9.13-191 (selections)
On Gods
[III-43]- The reasoning about gods seems to be most necessary to those
who philosophize dogmatically. Therefore, they say that philosophy is
the cultivation of wisdom and wisdom is the knowledge of divine and
human matters. For this reason, if we show the doubtful nature of the
investigation concerning gods, we will have implicitly established that
wisdom is not the knowledge of divine and human matters and that
philosophy is not the cultivation of wisdom ....
Do Gods Exist?
- Since not everything conceived of partakes of existence, but some-
thing can be conceived of though it does not exist, like the hippocentaur
and Scylla, it will be necessary to investigate the existence of the gods,
after having inquired into the conception of them. For perhaps the sceptic,
in comparison with those who philosophize differently, will be found to
be in a safer position when he states, following traditional customs and
the laws, that the gods exist, and when he does everything pertaining to
religious worship and pious practices, but makes no rash statement in
the way of a philosophical investigation. - Some of these who have investigated the existence of god say that
god exists, some say that he does not, and some say that [the evidence
does not indicate] one more than the other. 51. The majority of the
dogmatists and the basic grasps of ordinary life hold that [gods] exist,