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28. God / A. Divine Nature / 2. Divine Nature

[characteristics of a supreme being]

41 ideas
Xenophanes said the essence of God was spherical and utterly inhuman [Xenophanes, by Diog. Laertius]
God is a pure, solitary, and eternal sphere [Empedocles]
God is pure mind permeating the universe [Empedocles]
Even the gods love play [Plato]
Only divine things can always stay the same, and bodies are not like that [Plato]
There must a source of movement which is eternal, indivisible and without magnitude [Aristotle]
The source of all movement must be indivisible and have no magnitude [Aristotle]
God is not blessed and happy because of external goods, but because of his own nature [Aristotle]
For Epicureans gods are made of atoms, and are not eternal [Epicurus, by Cicero]
Early Stoics called the logos 'god', meaning not a being, but the principle of the universe [Stoic school]
God created humans as spectators and interpreters of God's works [Epictetus]
All men agree that God is blessed, imperishable, happy and good [Sext.Empiricus]
God must suffer to understand suffering [Sext.Empiricus]
How can we agree on the concept of God, unless we agree on his substance or form or place? [Sext.Empiricus]
God is nowhere, and hence everywhere [Porphyry]
Allah is lord of creation, compassionate, merciful, king of judgement-day [Mohammed]
We can approach knowledge of God by negative attributes [Maimonides]
The concept of God is the unique first efficient cause, final cause, and most eminent being [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
God the creator is an intelligent, infinite, powerful substance [Descartes]
Nothing apart from God could have essential existence, and such a being must be unique and eternal [Descartes]
Spinoza's God is not a person [Spinoza, by Jolley]
Spinoza's God is just power and necessity, without perfection or wisdom [Leibniz on Spinoza]
God is wholly without passions, and strictly speaking does not love anyone [Spinoza, by Cottingham]
God is the sum and principle of all eternal laws [Spinoza, by Armstrong,K]
God is a substance with infinite attributes [Spinoza]
God does not act according to the freedom of the will [Spinoza]
God has no purpose, because God lacks nothing [Spinoza]
God is not loveable for producing without choice and by necessity; God is loveable for his goodness [Leibniz on Spinoza]
God feels no emotions, of joy or sorrow [Spinoza]
God's essence is the source of possibilities, and his will the source of existents [Leibniz]
God must be intelligible, to select the actual world from the possibilities [Leibniz]
God produces possibilities, and thus ideas [Leibniz]
God is not a mathematician, but a poet [Hamann, by Berlin]
If God is the abstract of Supremely Real Essence, then God is a mere Beyond, and unknowable [Hegel]
The older conception of God was emptied of human features, to make it worthy of the Infinite [Hegel]
God is the absolute thing, and also the absolute person [Hegel]
God does not think or exist; God creates, and is eternal [Kierkegaard]
Only God is absolutely infinite [Cantor, by Hart,WD]
Remove goodness and wisdom from our concept of God. Being the highest power is enough! [Nietzsche]
I can only believe in a God who can dance [Nietzsche]
'God' is an imaginative unity of ideal values [Dewey]