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Inverse View
It is not the case that Aquinas holds that God's providence operates through secondary causes, meaning particular volitions can work through contingent creaturely responses.
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Reasons For
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Reason for
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1.
If God's providence genuinely ensures particular outcomes, then creaturely choices cannot be contingent—they must be divinely determined.
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2.
Explaining how God's particular volitions reliably produce effects through genuinely free creatures requires mechanisms Aquinas never adequately specifies.
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3.
The distinction between primary and secondary causation may obscure rather than resolve the tension between divine omniscience and creaturely freedom.
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Reasons Against
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Reason against
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1.
If God is truly omnipotent, He can achieve His purposes through creatures' free choices without determining those choices.
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2.
Creatures acting on their own inclinations and reasons preserves genuine creaturely agency and avoids making God responsible for evil.
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3.
Secondary causation is metaphysically coherent: divine and creaturely causes operate at different levels without competition.
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