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Whether One Adds Anything to Being?
It appears that “one” does not add anything to being. In fact, it is what being is, as any being that is either simple or compound (consisting of many parts as a whole) sustains itself as one, and does not become divisible or undivided. In other words, to be “one” is to “be” in the literal sense. It cannot be an addition to what already is. Whether One and Many Are Opposed to Each Other? “One” implies the idea of something measured and being the principle of things numbered, while “multitude” is the measure as to what something is measured by. They are opposed to one another because what is “one” is whole and indivisible. What is “multitude” can also be said to be as one, as someone would describe “a multitude of fish” just as many car parts create a car, but it is still the opposite of “one” because they are divisible by their parts as a whole. Whether God is One? One as a number is attributed to material things and belongs to mathematics so as to number things that are created. This does not apply to God from a numerical sense in that He is beholden to matter in this way. Evidently, God is One in the following ways: through simplicity, one thing can be conveyed to many, but that one thing can only be one, and not many. It is impossible that the person who is reading this text also exists somewhere else, and although other people may perceive you as the reader in different ways or have different opinions of you, it still so has it that there is only one of you, and there shall only be one of you going forward. That is the simplicity of God; so in the same way, God can only be One and not many. As through the infinity of His perfection, as God alone contains the perfection of all things and is lacking in nothing. Whether somebody experiences a perfection and becomes fully aware of its attributes, this person would realize that the perfection encountered or experienced is not a manifestation of its own, nor is the perfection exhibited isolated solely to this single user – because we see that what is fast in one person is also fast in another, and we also see that what is very smart in someone else can also be replicated or surpassed in someone else across the world without ever coming into contact with such a person, or we may see an armored rhino fitted with natural durable armor and able to withstand blows from a sledgehammer while at the same time we can compare a microscopic Tardigrade who as a species alone appears to be indestructible; even in space to cosmic radiation, and in the same way we also see that these attributes of perfection flows forth from a higher power which is the maximum of armor, toughness, intelligence, and speed, to which the source comes from, and that is only something that comes from God, to which He alone is lacking in nothing, and is also the maximum of all things in perfection. Finally, the unity of the world demands that things are ordered to each other either to serve one another or complement one another as in a hierarchical chart from successive categories and genus with the basis of outline being by order of one. In another way, the First Principle, that is the One who sees it good to order everything in this way, because what was First, which is God, is most perfect, where everything else that is ordered is set forth from. Whether God is Supremely One? God is one in the highest degree because He is His own Essence, His own Subsisting Substance, His own Simplicity, His own Being, and of course The One who Is Who puts all things that isn’t into being. In other words, The Holy Trinity holds the First Place as being Supremely One.
I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 1-26 from newadvent.org with permission. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
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mr. scott lowry, op
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