God is not, like creatures, made up of parts. God is spirit, without bodily dimensions. Firstly, no body can cause change without itself being changed. Secondly, things with dimensions are potential of division. But the starting-point for all existence must be wholly real and not potential in any way: though things that get realized begin as potential, preceding them is the source of their realization which must already be real. Thirdly, living bodies are superior to other bodies; and what makes a body living is not the dimensions which make it a body (for then everything with dimensions would be living), but something more excellent like a soul. The most excellent existent of all then cannot be a body. So when the scriptures ascribe dimensions to God they are using spatial extension to symbolize the extent of God's power; just as they ascribe bodily organs to God as metaphors for their functions, and postures like sitting or standing to symbolize authority or strength. Thomas Aquinas
About This Quote

The above quotation is an important statement by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, who was considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy. It's worth noting that Russell's concept of existence is not the same as what most people consider existence. Russell's concept of existence is "without bodily dimensions". This means that there is no part of God that exists in space that anyone can touch, smell or hear. This quote goes on to explain that you cannot physically touch God because He is just pure thought, but this does not mean that God cannot affect you in any way shape or form.

Source: Summa Theologiae: A Concise Translation

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More Quotes By Thomas Aquinas
  1. The soul is like an uninhabited worldthat comes to life only when God lays His headagainst us.
  2. Better to illuminate than merely to shine to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.
  3. The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is.
  4. Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.
  5. Causes of individuals presuppose causes of the species, which are not univocal yet not wholly equivocal either, since they are expressing themselves in their effects. We could call them analogical. In language too all universal terms presuppose the non-univocal analogical use of the term *being*.
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