God and infinity...how does it work?

[LotusCarsLtd]

I want to emphasize first and foremost that I am a practicing Catholic and I am asking this to further my understanding of the Faith and God, not to question the Church.

We understand God, as Catholics, as being infinite and capable of doing anything. But I am reminded that God cannot ultimately do anything that violates His nature or it will compromise His Being. But I wonder how He can be infinite and capable of anything and yet not be capable of violating His own nature given His infinite power?

The short answer is obviously “that he cannot violate His own nature but remains infinite in His being and power”, I am just having trouble trying to understand the philosophy behind this.

Pax Tecum.

 

[James_S_Saint]

It just means that He can’t do what He, Himself, doesn’t want to do. If He doesn’t want to do something, then He has no impetus for doing it and thus it can’t be done. He doesn’t want to be irrational, therefore He “can’t do it”.

 

[centurionguard]

I want to emphasize first and foremost that I am a practicing Catholic and I am asking this to further my understanding of the Faith and God, not to question the Church.

We understand God, as Catholics, as being infinite and capable of doing anything. But I am reminded that God cannot ultimately do anything that violates His nature or it will compromise His Being. But I wonder how He can be infinite and capable of anything and yet not be capable of violating His own nature given His infinite power?

The short answer is obviously “that he cannot violate His own nature but remains infinite in His being and power”, I am just having trouble trying to understand the philosophy behind this.

Pax Tecum.

Just my two cents in this to your query: But I am reminded that God cannot ultimately do anything that violates His nature or it will compromise His Being.

Why would God ultimately desire to change that essence of unfathomable “perfection and wisdom” that resides within Himself? There is no logic in God changing that Infinite quality of essence of Whom God Is. We hear God when He reveals himself to Moses saying…I AM WHO AM. Nothing in God’s creation even the highest of angels could ever describe in finality who God is in His Infinite Being. That part of nature of God that we humans perceive is only what God permits us to see.

Indeed; if you remember in Exodus God hiding Moses behind the crevice of a rock face when Moses asked God if he could look at His face.

 

[JimG]

God’s nature is identical with his existence.
God’s nature is identical with any and all of his attributes.
To “violate God’s nature” would be to make it ineffective, thereby God would cease to exist.
And non-existence is impossible to God.
For non-existence is nothing.
And nothing IS impossible to God.

 

[Quid_estVeritas]

But I am reminded that God cannot ultimately do anything that violates His nature or it will compromise His Being.

Where have you heard this? Not saying it isn’t true, just that I’ve never heard it before

 

[surritter]

I want to emphasize first and foremost that I am a practicing Catholic and I am asking this to further my understanding of the Faith and God, not to question the Church.

We understand God, as Catholics, as being infinite and capable of doing anything. But I am reminded that God cannot ultimately do anything that violates His nature or it will compromise His Being. But I wonder how He can be infinite and capable of anything and yet not be capable of violating His own nature given His infinite power?

The short answer is obviously “that he cannot violate His own nature but remains infinite in His being and power”, I am just having trouble trying to understand the philosophy behind this.

Pax Tecum.

The whole question is somewhat circular because you correctly assert that “God cannot ultimately do anything that violates His nature or it will compromise His Being,” but in the next sentence you ask how He can “be infinite and capable of anything and yet not be capable of violating His own nature given His infinite power.”

That second part is the problem, because God is not “capable of anything.” This is because you already established that God can’t do anything that violates His being. Since God is not capable of everything, the question resolves itself.

 

[soglory1]

Pray to the Holy Family to make your family holy! Pray to Our Lady of Good Success to restore to the See of St. Peter a true and a holy pope, to restore the Catholic Church to its former holiness, beauty, and glory throughout the world, to convert or drive out of the Catholic Church the modernists, atheists, communists, heretics, freethinkers, masons, and all who are bent on destroying the Catholic faith in the hearts and minds of her children, and assist all the bishops, priests, religious, and laity who are preserving and promoting the true Catholic faith.

dianabol
Villa Pineda de Mar

 

[Aaron_I]

God has the capacity to do whatever he chooses, with the exception of things that are inherently illogical (making a round square, etc.). Having the capacity to perform an action, however, does not mean that one would ever even consider such an action. I am much inferior to God, but it is not possible that I would ever cheat on my wife. I don’t mean that I physically couldn’t do it. I just mean that I would never put myself in a situation where it would be remotely possible. How much easier must it be for God not to sin.

A more philosophical answer comes from Aristotle. Aristotle believed in four types of persons. In increasing order of excellence: the evil person who wants the bad and does it, the weak-willed man who wants the good but does the bad, the strong-willed man who wants the bad but does the good, and the excellent man who wants the good and does it. I think the validity of these rankings are fairly obvious. God is obviously excellent. He wills the good and He does it. Anything less would violate his dignity. Furthermore, sin never has ultimately good consequences (and I’m not just talking about judgment). God has no reason to sin, except perhaps to prove his omnipotence, but that would be petty and childish.

 

[Magnanimity]

Whenever you consider an attribute of God, it will often lead in confusing directions if done in isolation from God’s other attributes, especially one so basic as “infinity.” I think reading St Thomas Aquinas on this would be very helpful to you. You could start with the first part of the *summa theologiae. *

First, when considering a being like the God of classical theism, in humility you must admit to yourself that there is so much more that you don’t know about God than you do know, and even what you do know, you probably know only by analogy and through the via negativa. iow, to say that God is infinite is to say that He is “not finite,” in the way that you know finitude through your own experience.

It is also helpful to look a little more into one of those lesser-thought-about attributes of God–His “pure actuality.” As you become a little more familiar with this, perhaps by reading St Thomas, I think infinity will be a little more understandable, but only a little.

 

[JimG]

It is also helpful to look a little more into one of those lesser-thought-about attributes of God–His “pure actuality.” As you become a little more familiar with this, perhaps by reading St Thomas, I think infinity will be a little more understandable, but only a little.

This is a good point. Each of God’s attributes is identified with his essence, which is pure actuality and no potency. God’s essence is his existence. Consequently, were God somehow to “act against his nature” he would cease to exist, having contradicted his essence, which is existence. That is a contradiction in terms, a “no thing,” which is impossible to God.