Zain's Guide to Overthinking Everything

Proving the God Hypothesis: Aquinas and Al Kindi     The quest to prove the existence of God has inspired profound philosophical reflections throughout history. Among the notable thinkers who engaged in this pursuit, Thomas Aquinas stands as a prominent figure in Christian theology and Al Kindi in the Islamic tradition. This blog post will present their arguments for God however without explanation. For an in-depth explanation of Al Kindi’s argument read William Lane Craig’s The Kalām Cosmological Argument , and for Aquinas read his Summa Theologica : First Part, Question 2, Article 3 and A History of Philosophy, Vol. 2: Medieval Philosophy - From Augustine to Duns Scotus by Frederick Copleston.   Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE):   The First Way – Argument From Motion   P1. Our senses prove that some things are in motion. P2. Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion. P3. Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion. P4...

  Thomistic Divine Simplicity: A God in Time? Discussions about the nature of God and time have intrigued theologians and philosophers for centuries, with various viewpoints shaping our understanding of the divine. One such perspective, deeply rooted in the thought of Thomas Aquinas, is the doctrine of divine simplicity. According to the doctrine of divine simplicity, there is no composition or change in God’s essence. For example, we may understand God to have the attributes of being merciful or loving or omnipotent, however these attributes are identical to each other and identical to His essence, according to Thomas Aquinas. The distinction between these attributes arrive from our mental conception of them as it is only a virtual not a formal distinction. In other words, God is a pure and eternal act of existence. This is not the only view of divine simplicity, for example both the Sunni Athari and Catholic Franciscan traditions hold that God’s attributes are truly distinct wit...