Prior to Potentiality?

[Trevor_Stamm]

I say that if God wills things apart from Himself (which I think would contradict His perfectly Good nature) then this is done out of absolute necessity.
I know tha Aquinas claims it is necessary by supposition, but I think that is false.

Ah, you know the argument. I don’t think the argument is going to convince anyone beyond a shaow of a doubt, but the possiblity is there and I accept it. Though it is open to your suggestion in a matter of speaking, necessity by supposition is also open to suggest and defensible. Seems we’re at an impasse.

God creating things that are not part of Himself is, IMO, a contradiction.

They are either apart from God or not.

It would be a contradiction if that wasn’t our end or goal, but the will chooses the end. With will in agents, you have either agents that will be apart of God in their end, or agents that will not.

 

[belorg]

Ah, you know the argument. I don’t think the argument is going to convince anyone beyond a shaow of a doubt, but the possiblity is there and I accept it. Though it is open to your suggestion in a matter of speaking, necessity by supposition is also open to suggest and defensible. Seems we’re at an impasse.

Yes,we probably are.

It would be a contradiction if that wasn’t our end or goal, but the will chooses the end. With will in agents, you have either agents that will be apart of God in their end, or agents that will not.

This brings us back to our original discussion, Trevor. According to Aquinas God is Existence. So everything that exists is by definition not apart from Him.

 

[ivebeenshown]

According to Aquinas God is Existence. So everything that exists is by definition not apart from Him.

By definition, how? It would appear to be so if you define ‘existence’ as ‘everything which exists’, but this is incorrect.

Existence is by nature necessary and eternal. We exist, but we do not possess the nature of that being which is ‘existence’, therefore we are not ‘existence’, we are merely ‘existent.’