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    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    God is immaterial and eternal (has no material or tempora... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    God is immaterial and eternal (has no material or temporal parts).

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

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.God is simple.
      ?

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    • 2.A simple being cannot have parts, including material or temporal parts.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Process theology (Whitehead, Hartshorne) holds that God is genuinely temporal, experiencing the world sequentially as it becomes.
      ?

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    • 2.A God who lacks temporal parts cannot be genuinely responsive to creaturely events, undermining classical theism's relational claims.
      ?

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    • 3.If divine responsiveness is incoherent on the immutability model, the doctrine of impassibility entails a God less perfect than a responsive one.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The Incarnation, central to Christian orthodoxy, commits Chalcedonian theology to Christ having material and temporal parts as fully human.
      ?

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    • 2.If the Son is homoousios with the Father yet genuinely material and temporal in the Incarnation, divine immateriality cannot be an essential divine attribute.
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    Topics

    Divine Attributes

    Related

    A God who lacks temporal parts cannot be genuinely responsive to creaturely even...A simple being cannot have parts, including material or temporal parts.God is simple.If divine responsiveness is incoherent on the immutability model, the doctrine o...
    +3 moreShow less
    If the Son is homoousios with the Father yet genuinely material and temporal in ...Process theology (Whitehead, Hartshorne) holds that God is genuinely temporal, e...The Incarnation, central to Christian orthodoxy, commits Chalcedonian theology t...

    Similar

    Matter is eternal and uncreated85%Being immaterial, there is nothing in God to distinguish him from his ...81%Matter is unlimited, indefinite, without form and quality.81%Spinoza defines God as a substance consisting of an infinity of attrib...81%

    Source

    AI-extracted2/3 agreementValid
    SEP: divine-simplicity
    View source passageHide passage
    Besides perfection and necessity, immateriality, eternity, and immutability also seem to point to simplicity as their ground. Because God is simple, he cannot have parts and so cannot have material or temporal parts. And because God is simple, he cannot harbor any unrealized potentialities, and so must be immutable. The centrality of DDS to medieval philosophical theology is shown by its position in the order of topics in Aquinas’ Summa Theologica. It occurs as Question 3 right after Question 2 on the existence of God.
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The passage explicitly states "Because God is simple, he cannot have parts and so cannot have material or temporal parts," which directly matches the extracted argument's premises and conclusion.

    Clearly stated argument in the text.

    Confidence:

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit