Does God ever ponder His own existance?

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clarkgamble1

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God is great, powerful, etc. Do you suppose He ever thinks about Himself? Does He understand why He exists? I suppose He can think. But then a series of thoughts takes time and He is not supposed to be in time. Yet, it seems at some point in time, He decided to make man in His image. That implies He is in time like the rest of us and that there was a before He decided to do it and an after…?
 
I would say God’s thought is not really in the same sense as ours. I don’t think it would be right to say that He “ponders His own existence.” Not the way we think of it anyway.

This is what the Catechism has to say on God:
(213) God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is.
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It would seem that He would have no need to do such a thing, as the “fullness of Being.”
clarkgamble1 said:
Yet, it seems at some point in time, He decided to make man in His image. That implies He is in time like the rest of us and that there was a before He decided to do it and an after…?
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I don’t think so. Man was created at a certain point in time, but I think it was always (i.e. eternally, outside time) a part of God’s will; He didn’t just decide one day to do things a certain way. From God’s perspective I don’t think it works like that.

The changes we see or know about which are dependent on God aren’t the results of God changing.
 
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One popular explanation for the Trinity describes the Son as the Father’s perfect self-image. So yes, God contemplates Himself eternally and the result is also God.
 
Yes…from the beginning he has loved Himself greatly, theologically arguably, above everything.
 
To be perfectly honest, what greater thing can God ponder than his own existence?
 
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clarkgamble1 said:
God is great, powerful, etc. Do you suppose He ever thinks about Himself? Does He understand why He exists? I suppose He can think. But then a series of thoughts takes time and He is not supposed to be in time. Yet, it seems at some point in time, He decided to make man in His image. That implies He is in time like the rest of us and that there was a before He decided to do it and an after…?
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To ponder his own existence would imply that there is something about himself that he doesn’t know.
 
But can’t you ponder something you already know? Like, knowing that 2+2=4 yet still pondering it?
 
If you perfectly understand what 2 + 2 = 4 is and why it equals 4, what is there to ponder? There is no mystery to ponder. What does it mean to ponder if not for the goal of understanding?. Pondering implies some potentiality for knowledge, otherwise what is the point? God perfectly knows.
 
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Hmmmm. Would there be a difference between pondering and merely thinking about something? Because doesn’t God think about things? God keeps us in existence through willing us and thinking about us.
 
Well i would say that God perfectly knows himself. Perhaps you could describe that as thinking of ones self.
 
No I don’t think anthropomorphic self reflection applies to God. If God is love, then love pours himself out perfectly without self absorption.
 
I suppose it depends on what you mean by ponder.
If the Son is God’s Perfect self-Image eternally begotten…
 
Lisaandlena thinks she’s God. Just in case anybody was wondering.
 
Are pondering and reflecting the same thing? He may not ponder on his existence, because that is already known. He may reflect on the beauty of his existence and his creation.

Is reflection actually pondering? Is reflection too insignificant for such greatness.

I wish I had the background to think this through.
 
Yes, the thought of God the Father about Himself is the Word, the Son, so perfect and complete that it is a Divine Person, Jesus.

And the love that the Father has for His Word, Jesus, and in turn the Son for the Father is so perfect and so complete that it is also a Divine Person, the Holy Spirit.

Knowledge of Himself is the Word, Divine Intellect.
Love of Himself is the Holy Spirit, Divine Will.

Will and Intellect.
 
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