They said, “In like manner, the Almighty’s anger and His pleasure bear no resemblance to the anger and pleasure of His creatures; the same principle that applies to one applies to the other. To allow one while forbidding the other is nothing but obstinate denial.

They also said, “Rational evidence proves the existence of will but not of anger.”

We answered, “Proof does not work in reverse: the absence of a particular argument does not entail the non-existence of that which is in question. We have faulted you for negating matters for which you possess no proof of negation—how, then, can you deny what revelation itself affirms?”

Moreover, these attributes can be confirmed by rational considerations of the same order as those that establish the other attributes. Action points to power; flawless precision points to knowledge; particularizing one thing over another points to will; and rewarding the obedient while punishing the disobedient points to love and hate, pleasure and anger. One may further argue that these are attributes of perfection, completely free of deficiency, and thus the Lord must necessarily be described by them. This, and similar lines of reasoning, explains why the Lord is characterized by pleasure, anger, love, hate, and rejoicing, yet never by sorrow or tears—for the latter are marks of deficiency that imply incapacity, whereas the former are marks of perfection that imply power and all the other attributes of majesty.

We have already shown that reason itself attests to the Lord’s entitlement to every attribute of perfection and His transcendence above all imperfections. Reason likewise establishes that nothing in creation resembles Him—neither in His essence, nor in His attributes, nor in His actions—for if two things were truly alike, whatever could be affirmed of one could likewise