Q&A: Divine Attributes
Divine Attributes
Question
In the discussion of divine attributes, there are two main reasons brought by Maimonides for which he denies the possibility of definition or description of God (which, to the best of my knowledge, the Rabbi thinks can be said):
1. God is the cause of all causes and completely self-sufficient; He depends on nothing, since He is the cause of everything. If so, stating a definition would create complexity, since when I speak about a definition as something that is part of Him, then it applies to Him in that same way.
2. It is not possible to say anything about God, who is in a different category from me. Like talking about a blind person in terms of colors—two different categories. Since He created time and matter, He does not belong to either of them.
Accordingly, two main questions:
1. Is it possible at all to state a definition or description?
2. Is there any meaning to a statement such as, when I say “God exists,” is the concept of existence that applies to Him the same concept that applies to us?
I would appreciate elaboration. Thank you very much.
Answer
Let me begin by saying that the doctrine of negative attributes is not accepted by me, so from my perspective the basic premise of the discussion falls away. In addition, I did not understand the first argument you brought in support of negative attributes.
- I did not understand the question.
- Existence is not a property or a description. It is a statement about the thing itself, not a description of it. See the first booklet on this.