Aenesidemus
From Philosopedia
Aenesidemus (1st Century B.C.E.)
Aenesidemus of Crete taught in Alexandria and overthrew the doctrines on probability advocated by Carneades. Reverting to the earliest of skeptical forms, he wrote “Arguments Against Belief in a God,” in which he stated, “We skeptics follow in practice the way of the world, but without holding any opinion about it. We speak of the gods as existing and offer worship to the gods and say that they exercise providence, but in saying this we express no belief, and avoid the rashness of the dogmatizers.”
Aenesidemus noted that some think of God as corporeal, while others think of God as incorporeal. Since we cannot know His attributes, the existence of God is not self-evident and therefore needs proof.”
He also held, states Bertrand Russell in History of Philosophy, that
- those who affirm positively that God exists cannot avoid falling into an impiety. For if they say that God controls everything, they make Him the author of evil things; if, on the other hand, they say that He controls some things only, or that He controls nothing, they are compelled to make God either grudging or impotent, and to do that is quite obviously an impiety.
The thinking of Aenesidemus influenced Lucian, in the 2nd century of the Christian Era.
