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God Vs. Reys: The Existence Of God

Decent Essays

From the Excerpts on God from a Neo-Scholastic Theology Book, we learn from its first section that God is a subsistent (continuously existing) being, and that he is existence itself. As written by Reys in the first excerpt "Subsistent Being," "[God's] existence is not an activity distinct from the ultimate being... Its 'nature' and 'existence' are one single eternal fact" (CP2 10). Likewise, we see this same fact in Chapter 3 of CP2, where it says, "With anything other than God, you can distinguish its nature/essence from its existence... [b]ut with God, you can't distinguish His nature from His existence, because they're the same thing" (CP2 6). These both relate to each other as they both say that God's nature and God's existence are one …show more content…

Reys speaks of God -- or of Deity, as he is commonly referred to in this paragraph, as "in itself... necessary irrespective of everything else" (CP2 11), meaning literally that God is necessary regardless of everything else. God is existence and as stated in the fourth chapter in CP2, God is the only necessary being, everything else is considered a contingent being. As CP2 Ch. 4 says it's "impossible for [God] not to exist; [God] exists by 'metaphysical necessity'" (CP2 7). By the same token, both the packet and Reys work understand that God is absolutely necessary, and that everything else can be chosen by him to either be brought into existence and/or taken out of …show more content…

When Reys writes that "God, being one and self manifest, is thus self-explanatory" (CP2 12), does that only apply to himself, as we as humans with our reason and what has been revealed through revelation still struggle with the mysteries of the faith, such as the Trinitarian doctrine? Also, what does it mean by when Reys writes "... Deity alone has intrinsically the ability and right to exist" (CP2 12), what does it mean God has a right? Why does he as the Ultimate being, as existence itself, need to have a right to exist, when he can't impossibly not

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