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    Aquinas and the classical theist tradition hold that divi... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The omniscience of God is dependent on God, and not vice versa.

    Aquinas and the classical theist tradition hold that divine attributes are not accidents inhering in God but are identical to the divine essence, dissolving the asymmetry.

    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.If divine attributes were accidents, God would depend on them for existence, contradicting divine aseity and absolute independence.
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    • 2.Identity theory preserves God's absolute simplicity: no composition of substance and properties, thus no potential multiplicity in God's being.
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    • 3.Classical theism requires that God's justice, mercy, and power are not contingent features but constitute what God necessarily is.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Identity claims that justice = power = mercy = essence seem incoherent: identical things share all properties, yet these attributes differ.
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    • 2.The doctrine dissolves rather than solves the problem: saying attributes are 'identical to essence' merely relabels the asymmetry without explaining it.
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    • 3.Human intuition and language treat divine attributes as distinct properties; identity theory requires counterintuitive metaphysical machinery to overcome this.
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    Divine Attributes1 linked

    Related

    Classical theism requires that God's justice, mercy, and power are not contingen...Human intuition and language treat divine attributes as distinct properties; ide...Identity claims that justice = power = mercy = essence seem incoherent: identica...Identity theory preserves God's absolute simplicity: no composition of substance...
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    If divine attributes were accidents, God would depend on them for existence, con...The doctrine dissolves rather than solves the problem: saying attributes are 'id...The omniscience of God is dependent on God, and not vice versa.

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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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