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    Aquinas's doctrine of divine simplicity entails that God ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→God is the simplest kind of person there can be.

    Aquinas's doctrine of divine simplicity entails that God has no parts, properties, or distinctions, making 'infinite properties' an incoherent description of God.

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

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Divine simplicity follows necessarily from God being the ultimate ground of being; any composition would imply dependence on parts.
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    • 2.If God possessed distinct properties, these would be real entities that God depends on, contradicting His absolute self-sufficiency.
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    • 3.'Infinite properties' language treats infinity as a quantity of discrete items, which is incoherent whether finite or infinite in number.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.We can coherently distinguish God's justice from His mercy without positing real metaphysical composition—these are conceptual distinctions.
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    • 2.Strict simplicity makes God's freedom and agency unintelligible: how can an undifferentiated unity perform distinct acts or possess knowledge?
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    • 3.'Infinite properties' might mean God possesses every possible perfection without limitation, which doesn't entail mereological composition.
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    Natural Theology1 linked

    Related

    'Infinite properties' language treats infinity as a quantity of discrete items, ...'Infinite properties' might mean God possesses every possible perfection without...Divine simplicity follows necessarily from God being the ultimate ground of bein...God is the simplest kind of person there can be.
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    If God possessed distinct properties, these would be real entities that God depe...Strict simplicity makes God's freedom and agency unintelligible: how can an undi...We can coherently distinguish God's justice from His mercy without positing real...

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