ABSTRACT
The doctrine of divine simplicity maintains that God has no parts or components whatsoever. He has no properties, either essential or accidental. He has neither spatial nor temporal extension. There is no division of his life into past and future states, for that would imply temporal compositeness. God's simplicity is allegedly implied by his perfection, which implies independence, which implies his independence of his part. God is said to be holy. It is very difficult to know what is meant by 'holy'. If one considers people or things that have been said to be holy, it is difficult to believe that there is any characteristic common and peculiar to them, other than people's reactions to what they regard as holy, that might be detected by the five senses or show up on instruments. There is at least an appearance of incompatibility between regarding God as personal and regarding him as infinite, simple, unitary and impassible.
