Not understanding God's infinity according to Aquinas

[ttabor33]

Ok, I have been studying Thomas Aquinas on Divine Infinity and I am having a heck of a time trying to understand how he proves God is infinite.

So we cannot attribute quantitative infinity to God so it has to be qualitative. that is what I keep hearing from theologians. Even thou Aquinas says that God can know an infinite number of things even if it is all at once and not successive. But I guess that would not be God just the extent of his knowledge.

So how do we know that God is infinite qualitative? I know about act and potency and that potency limits act.

How is God infinite in his being? in a qualitative way? To me the definition of infinity means inexhaustible

 

[Vico]

Ok, I have been studying Thomas Aquinas on Divine Infinity and I am having a heck of a time trying to understand how he proves God is infinite.

So we cannot attribute quantitative infinity to God so it has to be qualitative. that is what I keep hearing from theologians. Even thou Aquinas says that God can know an infinite number of things even if it is all at once and not successive. But I guess that would not be God just the extent of his knowledge.

So how do we know that God is infinite qualitative? I know about act and potency and that potency limits act.

How is God infinite in his being? in a qualitative way? To me the definition of infinity means inexhaustible

Catholic Encyclopedia

The infinity of God can also be proved from philosophy. God is the self-existing, uncreated Being whose entire explanation must be in Himself, in Whom there can be no trace of chance; but it would be mere chance if God possessed only a finite degree of perfection, for however high that degree might be, everything in the uncreated Being — His perfections, His individuality, His personality — admit the possibility of His possessing a still higher degree of entirety. From outside Himself, God cannot be limited, because, being uncreated, He is absolutely independent of external causes and conditions. Limitation would be chance; the more so because we can maintain not only that any given finite degree of perfection may be surpassed, but also, in a positive way, that an infinite being is possible. Moreover, if God were finite, the existence of other gods, His equals or even His superiors in perfection would be possible, and it would be mere chance if the y did not exist. Of such gods, no trace can be found, while on the other hand, God’s infinity is suggested by various data of experience, and in particular by our unbounded longing after knowledge and happiness. The more man a man is, and the more he follows his best thoughts and impulses, the less he is satisfied with merely finite cognitions and pleasures. That the essential cravings of our nature are not deceptive, is demonstrated at once by experience and speculation.

Zimmerman, O. (1910). Infinity. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08004a.htm