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Article: God, Existence of
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Science and Religion
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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God, Existence of
Most theists tend to think of God as the Supreme Being. Human knowledge and power are strictly limited, while God is omniscient and omnipotent. But humans are beings and God is a vastly superior being. Hence human beings exist and God exists in exactly the same sense. The tradition of Christian theology, however, also contains conceptions of the differences separating God and creatures that are more radical. According to Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225
–
1274), for example, there is in human beings a distinction between essence, which is to say what human beings are, and existence. But in God essence and existence are identical; God's essence is to exist. God is Being ...
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