Plato and God the Creator

A Tract Book Essay

By

Anthony J. Fejfar, B.A., J.D., Esq., Coif

© Copyright 2008 by Anthony J. Fejfar

It is typically understood that the Philosopher Plato was a Pagan philosopher who

supported The Good. While this is true, it is equally true that Plato was a Pagan Theist.

Plato believed in God the Creator whom he denominated The Demiurge, or Divine

Artisan. Plato’s God was the God who creatively took the susbstance or chaos of the

universe, and added form to it, to create the material universe. Plato’s God did not

create the universe ex nihilo, form nothing, but rather from chaos. This idea of God

creating the Earth or Universe from chaos is also found in the Christian Biblical account

of the Book of Genesis. In Genesis, God creates or forms the world out of a pre-

existing chaos of described as a “formless wasteland.”

Once again, God the Creator is not primarily a God of authority, but instead is a

God who is ordered towards the Individual Good. God the Creator supports the

Individual Good of each person, by supporting that person’s autonomy, rational self

interest, self-acualization, and sefl-transcendence. The Individual Good is not the

conventional good and is not conventional morality. God the Creator supports and

enforces a Liberal Order.