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Ben_Sinner
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What does “absolutely simple” mean in the context of God’s attributes?
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Tantum_ergo
Guest
AFAIK, that God is not made up of parts (temporal or spatial), and that He is without the sort of metaphysical complexity where God would have different parts which are distinct from himself. Divine simplicity, IOW.What does “absolutely simple” mean in the context of God’s attributes?
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Ben_Shipman
Guest
The way that I think about it is that all of the apparent complexity in God comes from His interaction with complex concepts (personhood, resulting in the Trinity) or creatures (humanity, resulting in Jesus’ human nature and life). You might think of God as a sort of Mirror that shows the infinite reflections of things.
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littlestsouls2
Guest
What God possesses, He is.
Mercy, for example, is not merely an attribute of God; God is mercy. Similarly, God is Truth, Love etc.
Mercy, for example, is not merely an attribute of God; God is mercy. Similarly, God is Truth, Love etc.
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Tomdstone
Guest
That description does not seem to me to be all that simple.The way that I think about it is that all of the apparent complexity in God comes from His interaction with complex concepts (personhood, resulting in the Trinity) or creatures (humanity, resulting in Jesus’ human nature and life). You might think of God as a sort of Mirror that shows the infinite reflections of things.
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Eric_Hyom
Guest
God could create the universe with just one greatest purpose, he would love each and everyone of us as he loves himself.
We are asked to pray to God our Father, and we are given the greatest commandments, are they greatest because they have a greatest meaning for God?
We are asked to pray to God our Father, and we are given the greatest commandments, are they greatest because they have a greatest meaning for God?
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Tantum_ergo
Guest
Well, that’s because the word simple as used in describing God is not the same as the popular contemporary definition of ‘simple’ as “‘easy to grasp intellectually’ or 'just one attribution/word/sound byte explains it all”.That description does not seem to me to be all that simple.
After all, the Church also teaches that God is mystery.
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fisherman_carl
Guest
Anything that is composed of parts requires an explanation for how those parts came together. Anything composed of matter is composed of parts and requires an explanation for how its parts came together. If you were to get down on the most basic element or particle to something that does not need an explanation because it just by necessity then you are close to the concept of divine simplicity. God is not composed of parts that require an explanation for how those parts came together. He is necessarily existing being and thus his essence requires no explanation. It just is. He is existence itself. His essence is pure Spirit.
Dr Edward Feser has an interesting article on this subject on his blog.
edwardfeser.blogspot.ca/2009/11/william-lane-craig-on-divine-simplicity.html?m=1
Dr Edward Feser has an interesting article on this subject on his blog.
edwardfeser.blogspot.ca/2009/11/william-lane-craig-on-divine-simplicity.html?m=1
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Tomdstone
Guest
Jesus is God and He is composed of flesh and blood.Anything that is composed of parts requires an explanation for how those parts came together. Anything composed of matter is composed of parts and requires an explanation for how its parts came together. If you were to get down on the most basic element or particle to something that does not need an explanation because it just by necessity then you are close to the concept of divine simplicity. God is not composed of parts that require an explanation for how those parts came together. He is necessarily existing being and thus his essence requires no explanation. It just is. He is existence itself. His essence is pure Spirit.
Dr Edward Feser has an interesting article on this subject on his blog.
edwardfeser.blogspot.ca/2009/11/william-lane-craig-on-divine-simplicity.html?m=1
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Della
Guest
The Church teaches that Jesus gained nothing and lost nothing of his divine nature when he took on his human nature. IOW, it didn’t change him into anything other than who he already was.Jesus is God and He is composed of flesh and blood.
When Moses asked God for his name, he was thinking in terms of other religious objects of worhsip at his time in which the name of the god indicated his/her function among the gods. God’s answer disabused Moses of this idea when He said, “I am who I am.” He isn’t defined by job descriptions or his place in the universe, etc. He is above all that and yet essential to all existence which comes from him.
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Ben_Shipman
Guest
The complexity comes from the need to build a road from here to There, to put the Infinite in a human context.That description does not seem to me to be all that simple.
Nothing is simple, and Everything is also simple.
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Tomdstone
Guest
I don’t see why everything is simple. For example, writing a computer program to play games is not simple. There is a lot of rewriting and error proofing that is required.The complexity comes from the need to build a road from here to There, to put the Infinite in a human context.
Nothing is simple, and Everything is also simple.
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Ben_Shipman
Guest
That’s Everything with a capital “E”, meaning God. God is Everything in the sense that all things borrow their existence from Him, and are different from Him insofar as they are less than Him.
Subtracting from a complete whole can make it more complicated. Consider the Library of Babel, which contains every possible book. Consequently, the only way to specify one book out of all the books in the Library of Babel is to give the complete text of the book. The Library can therefore be simulated by a simple word processor.
Now imagine the Library of Babel missing “A Tale of Two Cities”. To simulate that, you need a word processor that goes blank only when you type the exact text of Dickens’ masterwork, which is considerably more complicated.
I don’t mean to say that God’s Everything adds up to Nothing, but rather that It is a sort of clean base from which everything springs. It is difficult to imagine in Its simplicity because in this life we always experience It filtered through complexity. In the Beatific Vision we will see God’s simplicity as it truly is, I expect.
Subtracting from a complete whole can make it more complicated. Consider the Library of Babel, which contains every possible book. Consequently, the only way to specify one book out of all the books in the Library of Babel is to give the complete text of the book. The Library can therefore be simulated by a simple word processor.
Now imagine the Library of Babel missing “A Tale of Two Cities”. To simulate that, you need a word processor that goes blank only when you type the exact text of Dickens’ masterwork, which is considerably more complicated.
I don’t mean to say that God’s Everything adds up to Nothing, but rather that It is a sort of clean base from which everything springs. It is difficult to imagine in Its simplicity because in this life we always experience It filtered through complexity. In the Beatific Vision we will see God’s simplicity as it truly is, I expect.
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Nael
Guest
It also means that He is “compatible” with everything, as He must be; compatibility increases with simplicity. God is available for everyone to “understand”. All you need is humility.What does “absolutely simple” mean in the context of God’s attributes?
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Eric_Hyom
Guest
The workings of the universe and life are highly complex.
But, can there be one simple and greatest purpose for it’s creation?
God loves each and everyone of his children as he loves himself, are these commandments greatest, because they have a greatest meaning for God?
But, can there be one simple and greatest purpose for it’s creation?
God loves each and everyone of his children as he loves himself, are these commandments greatest, because they have a greatest meaning for God?
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