Why Can't There be Two Gods?

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Ok - I know there is only 1 God.

But my question is this: I know God is Unique (one of His traits.) If there were another neccessary being, there would have to be some form of distinction between them; one would have a potency the other didn’t have, and therefore wouldn’t be a neccesarry being.

So I started thinking - probably where I went wrong 😃 - and I was thinking about the eternal existence of God - He always has and always will be and how He has no beginning. So I thought, if there were two Gods, then one would have had to “started” before the other, so the other one wouldn’t be eternal.

But then, think about twins. They were conceived at the same time, and they began at the same time - so why couldn’t two Gods be “conceived” or have existed for the same time?

That’s when the thought that God was never “conceived” because He is a neccessary being - not a contigent. And He has ALWAYS existed. Then my brain starts to resemble mush, and that’s when I give up 😛

I know there isn’t two Gods - just restating this so no one thinks that I’m arguing for the existence of two Gods. BUT I want to know how to defend the fact that there aren’t two Gods.

Then, there are three persons in one God (the trinity.) And I know sometimes people will slip up and say “three Gods in one person.” Why isn’t this possible? I know polytheism is a false belief, and I know that the trinity is three PERSONS in one GOD, but I just need some clarification.

Is this one beyond the human mind to comprehend and simply a matter of faith (Hebrews 11:1?) I don’t know! 🤷

Can someone clarify?
 
What I recall is that if there were two Gods there would need to be something that differentiated them, and then one (at least) would be lacking in something (and therefore not God!).
 
snarflemike said:
What I recall is that if there were two Gods there would need to be something that differentiated them, and then one (at least) would be lacking in something (and therefore not God!).
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That was what my religion book said - but why would there have to be a differenciation? Why couldn’t they be two Gods equally?
 
LaMusicaSenior said:
That was what my religion book said - but why would there have to be a differenciation? Why couldn’t they be two Gods equally?
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God, by definition is perfect, that is, possessed of all perfection. You cannot have two equally perfect beings, because each would lack the other, and thus would not be possessed of all perfection. This flows from Aquinas’ fourth way–you cannot have two pinnacles of perfection.

-ACEGC
 
LaMusicaSenior said:
That was what my religion book said - but why would there have to be a differenciation? Why couldn’t they be two Gods equally?
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There would have to be a differentiation or it would only be one God. If two things are identical in every possible way, they are not two things but only one thing.
 
snarflemike said:
There would have to be a differentiation or it would only be one God. If two things are identical in every possible way, they are not two things but only one thing.
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Thank you. This makes sense.

Thanks to all who responded - keep responding if you have something else to say! 😃
 
LaMusicaSenior said:
Ok - I know there is only 1 God.

But my question is this: I know God is Unique (one of His traits.) If there were another neccessary being, there would have to be some form of distinction between them; one would have a potency the other didn’t have, and therefore wouldn’t be a neccesarry being.

So I started thinking - probably where I went wrong 😃 - and I was thinking about the eternal existence of God - He always has and always will be and how He has no beginning. So I thought, if there were two Gods, then one would have had to “started” before the other, so the other one wouldn’t be eternal.

But then, think about twins. They were conceived at the same time, and they began at the same time - so why couldn’t two Gods be “conceived” or have existed for the same time?

That’s when the thought that God was never “conceived” because He is a neccessary being - not a contigent. And He has ALWAYS existed. Then my brain starts to resemble mush, and that’s when I give up 😛

I know there isn’t two Gods - just restating this so no one thinks that I’m arguing for the existence of two Gods. BUT I want to know how to defend the fact that there aren’t two Gods.

Then, there are three persons in one God (the trinity.) And I know sometimes people will slip up and say “three Gods in one person.” Why isn’t this possible? I know polytheism is a false belief, and I know that the trinity is three PERSONS in one GOD, but I just need some clarification.

Is this one beyond the human mind to comprehend and simply a matter of faith (Hebrews 11:1?) I don’t know! 🤷

Can someone clarify?
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Well, everything that exists, exists because of God and exists within God’s conception of it.
But our understanding of “God” is based solely because God exists. He has given us that understanding. So our very “definition” of who God is, is given to us by Him.

So who is God? God is love. God IS. If there was something eternal other than Eternal Love outside of God, then it wouldn’t be, by definition, “God.” So what would “it” be then? We actually wouldn’t be able to conceive of “it” because “it” exists outside God and outside our imagination.

If there was this “It” outside God, we would then have to assume that our God and the “It” have either chosen to remain separate or do not know about one another, or cannot interrelate at all. This seems rather odd, don’t you think? We’d also have to assume that the “It” is an eternal being and of a completely different essence than God. Can there be two eternities in and with two separate beings? If there are two separate beings, now we have implied a time and a space. This negates the very definition of God, because God is not limited to time nor space. For there to be “another,” even “twins” as you put it, it would have to include a sense of time and space, and not eternity.

Eternity is the only explanation. And since God is eternal, there can only be one God.

To all you Philosophers out there, feel free to tear apart my terrible logic.
 
LaMusicaSenior said:
Ok - I know there is only 1 God.

But my question is this: I know God is Unique (one of His traits.) If there were another neccessary being, there would have to be some form of distinction between them; one would have a potency the other didn’t have, and therefore wouldn’t be a neccesarry being.

So I started thinking - probably where I went wrong 😃 - and I was thinking about the eternal existence of God - He always has and always will be and how He has no beginning. So I thought, if there were two Gods, then one would have had to “started” before the other, so the other one wouldn’t be eternal.

But then, think about twins. They were conceived at the same time, and they began at the same time - so why couldn’t two Gods be “conceived” or have existed for the same time?

That’s when the thought that God was never “conceived” because He is a neccessary being - not a contigent. And He has ALWAYS existed. Then my brain starts to resemble mush, and that’s when I give up 😛

I know there isn’t two Gods - just restating this so no one thinks that I’m arguing for the existence of two Gods. BUT I want to know how to defend the fact that there aren’t two Gods.

Then, there are three persons in one God (the trinity.) And I know sometimes people will slip up and say “three Gods in one person.” Why isn’t this possible? I know polytheism is a false belief, and I know that the trinity is three PERSONS in one GOD, but I just need some clarification.

Is this one beyond the human mind to comprehend and simply a matter of faith (Hebrews 11:1?) I don’t know! 🤷

Can someone clarify?
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**Please read this Disclaimer: If anything I write below contradicts in any way the Catholic Faith, please correct or ignore it. Do not accept anything I say below as true or as fact, unless you personally know that it is in accord with Catholic teaching. I am simply proposing food for thought. **

Hi there!

I’ve thought about this before too:
So, we’re saying God is an eternal being, with certain qualities like omniscience and omnipresence.
In order for there to be multiplicity, two or more of something, they need to differ in some way; but for 2 things that are eternal, omnipresent, and omniscient, how could they differ? If one knew something the other did not, one would not be omniscient, if one acted some way the other could not (for when you “can” “potentially” act without time, there is no time outside of time for you not to have acted…if that makes sense), one would not be omnipotent, and so forth.

So we see that if, in a scenario you seem to suggest, the gods are ‘conceived’ together, existing eternally at the same time, for the same amount of time, “doing” the same actions and knowing the same things and with every other aspect of themselves the same; we do not have 2 gods but 1 God.

If you told me you had 2 oranges on a table, I would think that would be nice; but if you had 2 oranges in the exact same spot on a table, both oranges of the same mass and measurement, same nutritional content and sweetness, and so forth, then we can surmise that you do not really had 2 oranges but 1 orange.

For the twins scenario, like the oranges above, they may be conceived at the exact same moment, but they certainly could not physically become a zygote at the exact same space, one pre-zygotic cell would need to be next to, or on top of, or encompassing, or split from, the other.

I hope this makes some sense, and someone else will have to speak with you on The Persons of The Trinity; what I have talked about here is matters of ‘essence’, and all Persons of the Trinity have the same essence. The only thing I might be able to help you think about for how the Trinity makes sense is to presuppose that the Act of that One Essence, “God”, is really an Act of Love. But Love requires more than 1 Person, otherwise it would be selfishness on the part of that 1 Person, so we have at least 2 Persons who love eachother as a part of the Act of Love, the Eternal Act that God (in His essence and Persons) is doing, and with a love that strong, eternal, effective, and so forth, it would make sense to call that Love between those 2 Persons a 3rd Person itself, for we certainly say “God is Love”. However, the Trinity is a matter of Faith.
 
I can suggest that you read Frank Sheed’s Theology for Beginners
 
1ke said:
I can suggest that you read Frank Sheed’s Theology for Beginners
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Linusthe2nd said:
Well, if you are thinking that deeply into things it is time you started doing some serious reading. Here is St Thomas on the One God: newadvent.org/summa/1011.htm#article3

And here he is on the Trinity: newadvent.org/summa/1027.htm

And here is the Catechism, you can read what it says about these subjects: vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM

👍
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Thanks for these suggestions. My “deep” questions always lead to quiete the book list 😃

But that’s OK - I love to read and love to learn about the faith, so I think I’ll tackle some of these for sure. 👍

Thanks again to all for the help!
 
the God and Goddess, opposing polaritys, offsetting and balancing each other, neither good nor evil but different, like Yin and Yang. That’s the basis of my religion, so its not at all crazy to me.
 
Hunter24 said:
the God and Goddess, opposing polaritys, offsetting and balancing each other, neither good nor evil but different, like Yin and Yang. That’s the basis of my religion, so its not at all crazy to me.
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Are you saying that everything in nature - including human beings - and the supernatural has to have an opposite to offset each other? Like the opposites attract theory?

Yet some people never marry, or find a “significant other” - are they incomplete, and going on a crazy sprial because there is no one to offset them?

On the subject of the Wicca religion -

Sending tons of prayers your way. 🙂 I know that the return to the Wicca religion is a pretty recent movement. Beings that this is so, my apologetics concerning your beliefs are not very expereinced. I also know that there is a lot of individualistic beliefs, so that requires much more knoweldge of your belief system that I possess.

I read your story about your faith journey, and afte reading some other material, I found taht especially those going through or emerging from teenage rebellion—it is essentially a “shock value” religion - being one with the universe, etc. After the warm and fuzzy feelings fade off, and you mature more in your theological view (we all are always learning new things) your attachement to polytheism might fade and return to a monotheistic view?
 
LaMusicaSenior said:
Are you saying that everything in nature - including human beings - and the supernatural has to have an opposite to offset each other? Like the opposites attract theory?

Yet some people never marry, or find a “significant other” - are they incomplete, and going on a crazy sprial because there is no one to offset them?

On the subject of the Wicca religion -

Sending tons of prayers your way. 🙂 I know that the return to the Wicca religion is a pretty recent movement. Beings that this is so, my apologetics concerning your beliefs are not very expereinced. I also know that there is a lot of individualistic beliefs, so that requires much more knoweldge of your belief system that I possess.

I read your story about your faith journey, and afte reading some other material, I found taht especially those going through or emerging from teenage rebellion—it is essentially a “shock value” religion - being one with the universe, etc. After the warm and fuzzy feelings fade off, and you mature more in your theological view (we all are always learning new things) your attachement to polytheism might fade and return to a monotheistic view?
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Thank you for the prayers, i appreciate good will no matter the source 🙂

Theres an incredible amount of variation here but ill give it how i have come to understand it. This isnt so much about the individual as the whole, pantheistic and soft polytheistic Wiccans like myself think that the God and Goddess are made up of all living things, so a man is part of the God and a woman, the Goddess. so weather u have a soul mate is not at all discused (although most think so, im not shur). even spirits and genderless life must, on a spiritual level, be male or female.

on the latter part of your post, actualy im still in the broom closet about this to my family and most of my friends so im not after shock value. Lifes a journey and at the moment it has taken me here, who knows were it will lead? the only way to find out is too keep searching and learning.
 
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