Eternity and Infinity of God...

When Thomas argues that the question of the beginning of the world is a question of faith, "not a demonstration or science," is his argument that the world could be so old that God, since the founding not an act of the Motion:

"... We must remember that one thing, efficiently by the Motion before their effects in time. ... But if the action is not immediately and another, it is not necessary that the manufacturer a precondition to a standing of the matter, as it seems to be the case, in lighting technology. Consequently, it does not necessarily follows that if God is the cause of the world, it must be long before in the world, because the establishment, which he the world, not a change each other ... "

It is at least conceivable, Thomas argues that the world coexisted of eternity with God, in its existence can be convened in the world was created - roughly the same way as the light the existence of the 'lighting product immediately. Paradoxically, however, Thomas will not be granted eternity in the world, is an attribute of God alone. The continuation Boathouse, Thomas thinks of eternity "while its total ownership and endless perfect life”. For example, this can only ever be awarded to a matter in which there is no change, no inheritance, “not before and after”. But in the world, it is, of course, "before and after". So, strictly speaking, the world can not last forever. But Thomas, who recalled not exclude the possibility of eternity in the world, he never, but as to whether and the eternity of which he accepts ... or more readily accepted as a possibility, rational, but one that should be rejected in the first sentence of Genesis.