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    God must create a world — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
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    God must create a world

    Divine AttributesNatural Theology
    ?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's perfections include a propensity of nature to diffuse his own fullness
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    • 2.It is not possible for God to be hindered in the exercise of his goodness and other perfections in their proper effect
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    • 3.Therefore, God must diffuse his own fullness
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Divine aseity entails that God is wholly self-sufficient and lacks no perfection that external creation could supply or express.
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    • 2.A being that must create to express its fullness is dependent on creation for the actualization of its nature, contradicting classical theism's God.
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    • 3.Therefore, the 'propensity to diffuse' either describes a free inclination or implies a deficiency incompatible with divine perfection.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Aquinas and the Scholastic tradition distinguish between God's absolute power (potentia absoluta) and ordained power, holding creation is radically contingent.
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    • 2.If God's nature necessitates creation, then creation shares in divine necessity, collapsing the Creator-creature distinction central to orthodox theism.
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    • 3.Edwards's argument thus smuggles Spinozistic necessitarianism into theism under the guise of divine goodness.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesNatural Theology

    Connections

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    Modality & Possibility1 linked

    Related

    A being that must create to express its fullness is dependent on creation for th...Aquinas and the Scholastic tradition distinguish between God's absolute power (p...Divine aseity entails that God is wholly self-sufficient and lacks no perfection...Edwards's argument thus smuggles Spinozistic necessitarianism into theism under ...
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    God's perfections include a propensity of nature to diffuse his own fullnessIf God's nature necessitates creation, then creation shares in divine necessity,...It is not possible for God to be hindered in the exercise of his goodness and ot...Therefore, God must diffuse his own fullnessTherefore, the 'propensity to diffuse' either describes a free inclination or im...

    Similar

    The world is created.90%God must create the best of all possible worlds.83%If God must create (i.e., the divine nature necessitates creation), th...81%God necessarily creates the best possible world79%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: edwards
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    An apparent consequence is that God must create a world to display his glory. End of Creation contends both that God's perfections include “a propensity of nature to diffuse of his own fullness” and that it isn't “possible for him to be hindered in the exercise of his goodness and his other perfections in their proper effect.” (End of Creation, 1765; Edwards 1957–, vol. 8, 447) It follows that God must diffuse his own fullness, i. e., God must create. Edwards also appears committed to the claim
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

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