{"id":477,"date":"2014-04-01T21:46:04","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T21:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/?p=477"},"modified":"2015-01-04T18:42:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-04T18:42:32","slug":"the-deduced-nature-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/?p=477","title":{"rendered":"The deduced Nature of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Download .pdf<\/a><\/h3>\n

After deducing the existence of One God, we can now finalise our rational understanding of His Nature. However, the initial deduction of His Nature is arrived at by negation, that is, we know what God cannot be, and, therefore, by implication what He must be. I call these attributes of the first-order.<\/p>\n

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First-order divine attributes<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

God is:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • the Creator, because He is the Uncaused sole Cause and therefore cannot be caused or created<\/li>\n
  • eternal, because He created time and cannot be temporal<\/li>\n
  • immaterial, because He created matter and energy and cannot be material<\/li>\n
  • transcendent, because He created space and cannot be spatial<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \n

    Second-order divine attributes<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

    From these first-order divine attributes, we can further deduce second-order divine attributes that God is:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • one, by Ockham\u2019s Razor, absence of immaterial conceptual differences and finite regression<\/li>\n
    • self-sufficient from all material causes, because He created all material things, and from all immaterial causes, by finite regression<\/li>\n
    • is not immanent, because He would then cease to be immaterial<\/li>\n
    • is all-powerful, because the universe was created without a material cause<\/li>\n
    • is personal with an independent Will, because He chose to create the universe at a particular time<\/li>\n
    • is all-knowing, because He created matter, energy, space and time, and therefore must know everything about them before He created them<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n

      Eternality<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

      We can now elaborate further on eternality. Eternality can be defined as:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • infinite-omnitemporality, which is existence at every point in infinite time<\/li>\n
      • timelessness, which is simply existence beyond time<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        God cannot be infinite-omnitemporal because He created time and therefore cannot exist in time, in the same way that God cannot exist in the material universe because He created matter, energy and space and therefore must be immaterial and transcendent. Infinite-omnitemporality would mean that God created Himself. This would mean simultaneous existence-nonexistence which violates the law of non-contradiction and is a logical impossibility. God can, however, be timeless-eternal, because He transcends His creation. He transcends time. He exists beyond time in the same way that He exists beyond matter, energy and space, all of which He created. Therefore, God is timeless-eternal.
        \n<\/p>\n

        \n

        Personhood<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

        We can now elaborate further on divine personhood. A person is someone who knows himself, is aware of himself and has intentions and a will. A material person is, in addition, temporal because he exists in time. Therefore, he has to anticipate the future and to recollect the past. God, however, is timeless-eternal because He created time. Therefore, He neither anticipates the future nor recollects the past. Therefore, God is a person, but unlike His creation.<\/p>\n

        \n

        Causality<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

        But how can a personal, timeless-eternal God stand in causal relations with the material universe without being in time? Causality in the material universe is based on temporal references so that the cause is tied to time. That is, a cause is an event that precedes the caused event in time. However, time-contingent causality cannot exist outside the material universe because time does not exist outside the material universe and God is timeless-eternal. Therefore, there must either be timeless causality or no causality outside the material universe. Since the material universe was caused, there must be timeless causality outside the material universe. However, as material temporal creatures, human beings cannot comprehend the nature of timeless causality. Therefore, there is no rational answer as to how a timeless-eternal God can cause, can bring into existence a time-contingent universe. In the same way, there are no rational answers as to how an immaterial transcendent God can cause, can bring into existence a material universe. Only the timeless-eternal immaterial transcendent personal God can know how He causes, how He brought into existence, and indeed how He interacts with the material time-contingent universe. The answer can, therefore, only be found, if at all, in divine revelation. However we will have reached at this point the limit of human knowledge, the boundary between reason and belief, more specifically the boundary between reason and belief in the Unseen. Therefore, whatever the answer in divine revelation, it has to be accepted as a matter of belief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Download .pdf After deducing the existence of One God, we can now finalise our rational understanding of His Nature. However, the initial deduction of His Nature is arrived at by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2203,"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions\/2203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my-islam.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}