You live in a goldfish pond and you are a philosophic goldfish. Not for you the normal life of eating and breeding and eating... You wonder WHY there is a pond at all. Where has the pond come from? What keeps it in existence? Everything in the pond is wet and fishy but whatever created the pond is not like that or it would be part of the pond. The pond’s creator, therefore, would not be wet or fishy at all. This is very hard for you to imagine.

Space and time exist everywhere in the universe. They are like water to the goldfish...just as the goldfish cannot imagine a world without water, so human beings cannot imagine a Universe without space and time. The early Christian thinkers concluded that, if God created time and space, then God could not be in time and space – God has to be outside time and space. In goldfish terms, God has to be very, very different from anything within the Universe God made.

THE INFLUENCE OF PLATO & ARISTOTLE Plato and Aristotle both argued that whatever was perfect could not be in space and time Christian thinkers argued that as God is perfect this confirmed the idea that God is spaceless and timeless God created the Universe and sustains it by keeping it in existence, but that does not mean that God is in a particular place in the Universe.

LANGUAGE ISSUES If God is outside time and space then what can be said about this wholly simple being?

If God is outside time and space then nothing that involves space and time can be truthfully said to apply to Him. Ultimately, God is a Mystery... 1)God could not have a body (since bodies occupy space and time passes whilst these bodies exist) 2)God cannot change so God must be immutable which means incapable of change 3)God could not be divided into parts (bodies can be divided into parts, but God has no body) 4)Nothing that involves space or time could be truthfully said about God 5)God has no potential; God is fully actual 6)God necessarily exists; God is not contingent

GOD IS WHOLLY SIMPLE God is not made up of parts God is immutable God does not have a body God is not in space or time God has no potential God is necessary

Why does the simplicity of God matter? The simplicity of God matters because it is the implication of any understanding of God’s nature that claims God is not physical Which of the following scholars are the odd ones out regarding God’s simplicity? Can you deduce why they are the odd ones out?

AUGUSTINE ANSELM AQUINAS AVICENNA AVERROES BOETHIUS HUME JANTZEN MAIMONIDES SWINBURNE

ChallengeResponse God Changes How can a simple God love his people? God has no freedom if simplicity is true God is not described as simple in the Bible The Simple God is transcendent and is thus unknowable

ChallengeResponse God Changes God does not change. Instead, God is the source of change How can a simple God love his people? God loves us in a non-human way. Second, love concerns what God wills for human beings; it is not a reference to empathy for people God has no freedom if simplicity is true This is a misunderstanding of God’s nature. Aquinas argues that God ‘wills whatever he does from eternity’ (Summa Theologiae). Eg God is the Creator, so if God is simple, God eternally wills creation God is not described as simple in the Bible There are many references to God’s nature in the Bible some of which are not literal. Secondly, Malachi 3:6a suggests that God is unchanging The Simple God is transcendent and is thus unknowable God can be known through revelation. Secondly, some people claim God can, in a way, be known through the use of analogy of proportion and attribution and the via negativa