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God cannot decide

bahman January 21, 2018 at 18:58 5275 views 12 comments
God is pure actuality. Options are potential and are needed for any decision. Hence God cannot decide because there is no potentiality in Him.

Comments (12)

Vajk January 21, 2018 at 23:51 #145976
I would give a like, but I can't.
Sir2u January 21, 2018 at 23:59 #145979
Déjà vu. 8-)
Deleted User January 22, 2018 at 00:23 #145988
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bahman January 22, 2018 at 13:45 #146118
bahman January 22, 2018 at 13:46 #146119
Reply to Sir2u
That was different argument.
bahman January 22, 2018 at 14:44 #146128
Quoting tim wood

Two questions: 1) what are your grounds for this assertion?


Potentiality generally refers to any "possibility" that a thing can be said to have.
Actuality, in contrast to potentiality, is the motion, change or activity that represents an exercise or fulfillment of a possibility (the definition of potentiality and actuality are derived from Wikipedia).
Pure actual means that there is no potentiality in God or in another word God is fully fulfilled.

Quoting tim wood

2) What do you imagine the consequences of your assertion are? (Beyond the ridiculous notion that god cannot decide.)


Only this one, God cannot decide. Do you have something else in your mind?

Quoting tim wood

And let me save you some trouble by suggesting how you might start: First, by defining your terms. Next by making clear the connections between the terms. Finally, by extracting conclusions from the parts of your thinking that you can make reasonably clear. Absent these, you're not really making sense.


I provided the definitions. The rest should follow simply. Let me know where do you have problem and we can start from there.
Deleted User January 22, 2018 at 16:01 #146141
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bahman January 22, 2018 at 18:54 #146179
Quoting tim wood

Better than fair! Let's start here: potentiality is, in respect of what is potential. But whatever is potential isn't (in itself) actual.


Good. I agree.

Quoting tim wood

"God is pure actuality." This is a proposition. Usually propositions are either true or not-true. God is here undefined. Either "pure" is an adjective, or "pure actuality is a noun substantive. Because God is usually characterized as unknowable, we can only take propositions about God as hypothetical. The usual reason for positing a hypothetical is to see what the consequences might be.


Yes. Pure actuality is a noun. I use pure to stress that God is actual in all His attributes.

Quoting tim wood

Let's suppose and assume true that [1] God is pure actuality. We can't convert this: [2] pure actuality is God is not a valid conclusion from [1]. If God and pure actuality are not names for exactly the same thing, then God and pure actuality are different, and it follows that because God cannot be less than pure actuality, then he must be more. The more can only be impure actuality and non-actuality.


Yes, you can say that pure actuality is God.

Quoting tim wood

The only sense I can make of impure actuality is as an admixture of actuality and non-actuality. Non-actuality can only comprise a) that which isn't (actual) and will never be actual, and b) that which isn't actual but that could be actual, i.e., potential.


Yes, I agree.

Quoting tim wood

The bridges between actual and potential usually traverse time and possibility. In as much as God is eternal (either that or there is/will be pure actuality that God is not); that in eternity everything that can be will be (if not, why not?); and that God exists outside of/transcends/is not subject to time, then the potential just is the actual for God. As a corollary, the impossibility of the impossible is also actuality, so the impossible in its non-actuality is also actual for God.


This is contrary. Potential cannot be actual.

Quoting tim wood

What is a decision? A decision is an actual that actualizes a potential. From above it follows not that God can make a decision - a decision is a function of time and possibility, best understood as something that people do - but rather that God is decision, is all possible decisions, and of impossible decisions, the impossibility of them.


I don't agree with the proposition "God is decision" given the definition of decision.

Quoting tim wood

If you don't agree, then I must ask you continue with your excellent practice of offering definitions by defining "God".

I leave to you working out what follows if God exactly is pure actuality.


I think that is your turn to answer to my objections.
Deleted User January 23, 2018 at 03:15 #146337
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bahman January 23, 2018 at 15:58 #146496
Quoting tim wood

It might rain tomorrow. Tomorrow's rain is potential. The possibility - the potentiality - is actual.


No. As you said and I agreed potential isn't actual.

Quoting tim wood

Do you agree that there is such a thing as change?


Yes.

Quoting tim wood

And do you believe that change is in any meaningful with respect to God - can God change or cause change? (If you do, how?)


God cannot change but it can cause change. He can only perform one eternal act.
Deleted User January 23, 2018 at 16:24 #146504
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rodrigo July 27, 2018 at 06:14 #200562
what does god need to decide on ?

is it realistic to think that this phenomenon that connects us all internally and exists in a realm impossible for us to fathom .... we think he needs to make decisions ?? when he will make it rain ?


the concept of god or life nature is one that does not need decisions , it follows a pure way of existence .... with integrity ... it is loyal to its nature hence there is no deviation from what is ....

what decisions would god need to make ? .......