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    Aquinas's doctrine of divine simplicity holds that God is... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→A simple cause has one and only one simple effect.

    Aquinas's doctrine of divine simplicity holds that God is absolutely simple yet produces causally distinct creatures with irreducibly different essences (ST I, q.3).

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    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.God's absolute simplicity avoids composition, which would imply dependence on parts and limit divine perfection.
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    • 2.Creation ex nihilo requires an absolutely transcendent cause whose being differs infinitely from creatures' derivative existence.
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    • 3.God's unified essence can ground distinct effects through the infinite scope of divine intellect and will without internal differentiation.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.If God is absolutely simple, His knowledge and will cannot be genuinely distinct properties, undermining causal explanations of creation.
      ?

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    • 2.Creatures with irreducibly different essences suggest real distinctions that cannot originate from a being with zero internal differentiation.
      ?

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    • 3.Divine simplicity appears to collapse distinctions God must make (e.g., between justice and mercy) to account for varied divine actions.
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    Causation1 linkedDivine Attributes1 linked

    Related

    A simple cause has one and only one simple effect.Creation ex nihilo requires an absolutely transcendent cause whose being differs...Creatures with irreducibly different essences suggest real distinctions that can...Divine simplicity appears to collapse distinctions God must make (e.g., between ...
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    God's absolute simplicity avoids composition, which would imply dependence on pa...God's unified essence can ground distinct effects through the infinite scope of ...If God is absolutely simple, His knowledge and will cannot be genuinely distinct...

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