a Taoist would ask "Why is God arguing with himself." a Taoist would also find the notion of God creating a universe incredibly bizarre. They would ask something like "did you step outside yourself and construct your thumb?." Also, to a Taoist, God is the Tao. They don't call it God. A closer approximate would be Hindu's Brahman. So the question would sound to a Hindu, a Taoist, a Zen practitioner, and to some sects of Buddhism like you are asking "Is God a Godist?" Your dialog does have the potential, taken in certain chunks, to pose an interesting Koan.
wasn't posing an argument more than just illustrating what a bad essay it was. even famous philosophers can produce tripe. I understand he's taking a poke at the west's notions of free will and sin by having the western notion of god play the role of a sort of Zen master posing a Koan to a student but I can't help but feel he missed the mark. But since you make an appeal to authority (a classic technique in argument) can I assume we are now arguing? May I counter with an appeal to authority on the subject? My illustration of how bad an essay it was and how plainly the author seems to have missed basic Taoist concepts was mainly an act of regurgitating Alan Watts, a famous British philosopher and theologian who specialized in the subject of Taoism and played a huge role in popularizing it as well as Zen (applied Taoism) in the west. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts there. now we both have wiki links to some scruffy old dudes.
Based on your first comment, it seemed that you were inferring that the author wasn't aware of what a Taoist's approach would be: I was pointing out that Smullyan was aware of Taoism. That wasn't an appeal to authority, it was context for the piece. It seems, however, you were aware of that. But I had no way to know from your first comment. So no real argument there. Although it's clear we disagree on the effectiveness of the piece.But since you make an appeal to authority (a classic technique in argument) can I assume we are now arguing?
a Taoist would ask "Why is God arguing with himself." a Taoist would also find the notion of God creating a universe incredibly bizarre. They would ask something like "did you step outside yourself and construct your thumb?."
Ok, cool. well as a Zen practitioner of many years I guess my answer to Smullyan's question would be "wuhh?" If I were a Zen master I'd shout a random sound or possibly smack him upside the head with my staff, as is the tradition of course.