Medieval Thinkers on God’s Power, Knowledge, and Eternity Aquinas — Omnipotence (The Stone Paradox)

Paradox: Can God make a rock so heavy He can’t lift it?

God can do all possible things.

Logical contradictions (like married bacherlor, triangle 4 sides) aren’t “things” at all.

if he cant make rock he is not all powerful

if he makes it and cant lift hes not all powerful

Omnipotence means perfect power, not the ability to do nonsense.

inability to do nonsense not a sign of weakness

Avicenna — Omniscience & the Necessary Being

• Everything is either necessary (must exist) or contingent (depends on something else).
  
  

• The universe is contingent → must depend on a Necessary Being (God).
  
  

• God knows all things by knowing Himself.
  
  

• His knowledge creates, not reacts

• Analogy: A 3D being seeing all of a 2D world at once — nothing escapes His view.
  
  

Cosmological:

• Every effect has a cause → chain of causes can’t go back forever.
  
  

There must be a First Cause → God.
Example: Domino chain — something must start it.

big bang, all matter came into being - first cause

Design:

Non-intelligent things act toward goals (e.g., stars, plants).

Purpose implies direction by an Intelligent Being.

ie: An arrow needs an archer → nature’s order implies God.

Boethius — Eternity vs. Perpetuity

• Eternity: “The whole, perfect, simultaneous possession of endless life.”
  → God is outside time — all moments (past, present, future) are “now” to Him.
  
  

• Perpetuity: Endless life within time.
  → Humans and the world live in sequence.
  👉 Analogy: God sees the whole movie; we watch it frame by frame.
  
  

Ibn ʿAdī — Against Theological Fatalism

Problem: If God knows the future, are our choices free?
Answer: God’s foreknowledge is non-causal.

• Knowing something doesn’t make it happen.
  
  

• Like predicting rain — it doesn’t cause rain.
  
  

• God’s knowledge doesn’t destroy free will.
  👉 Humans freely choose what God already knows they will.
  
  

Julian of Norwich — Divine Love

Everything exists because of God’s love.
Even pain and sin are part of His plan for goodness.

“He made it, loves it, and keeps it.”
Her mysticism complements the logical arguments with emotional faith.