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Section 2. After these three proofs that He is One, I say: every argument that negates there being two is an argument for the One;
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and you have already encountered what I presented earlier of our refutation of the adherents of this school.
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I say here as well: I found that when these people are asked, 'Why do you trace all existing things back to only two principles, and do not claim that each species among them has its own distinct principle?' —
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they say: we see that however many their types, they all gather into benefit and harm and there is no third between the two — and so we trace them back to two.
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I examined this argument and found that an opponent can counter them by saying: we find that all benefit and harm gathered together resolve into the five senses,
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— some of which are perceived through sight, some through hearing, and likewise through the other three — so you have no stronger claim to gather them
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...into two, any more than someone else could gather them into five.
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One may also counter them by pointing out that all benefit and harm fall under color, and the natural primary colors are seven:
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white, black, green, yellow, red, the color of the sky, and the color of the earth;
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so they have no stronger claim to gather everything into two than someone else has to gather it all into seven.
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One may also counter them by pointing out that the two fall under taste, and the primary tastes are nine:
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sweet and oily — both hot and moist; bitter, salty, and pungent — hot and dry; sour, astringent, and acrid — cold and dry;
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and the bland — which is the taste of water and cucumber — cold and moist;
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so they have no stronger claim to gather it all into two than to gather it all into nine.
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They may likewise be countered by reference to the four natures on which everything rests.
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Likewise by the ten categories that supervene on substance; likewise by the six species of motion; likewise by the seven species of quantity.
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Likewise by the three tenses; and the three propositions; and the three figures —
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...I will not prolong the discussion — enough to show the corruption of their position, from the angle of their arbitrary extraction of some number from among all other numbers and their fixing of it.
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Let me add clarity to this and say: if each of the two, when wishing to create something, cannot complete it except with the other's assistance, then both are incapable;
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and furthermore: if one's will compels the other to assist him, then both are under compulsion;
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and if both are free agents, and one wills to give a body life while the other wills to put it to death, then that body must be simultaneously alive and dead.
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I say also: if each of the two can conceal something from his counterpart's gaze, then neither is all-knowing;
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and if neither can do this, then both are incapable.
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I say also: if the two are joined, then they are one; and if they are separated, there must be a third between them;
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and I do not permit their adherents to liken them to shadow and light that touch without a third — for those two are accidents, while their pair are, on their own account, two bodies.
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These arguments thus came out in agreement with what the scriptures say — that there is no Creator other than the One —
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as it says: 'You were shown to know that the Lord is God — there is none else besides Him' (Deut. 4:35);
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and also: 'Know this day and lay it to your heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below — there is none else' (Deut. 4:39);
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and also: 'Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else' (Is. 45:22);
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and also: 'So that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is nothing besides Me — I am the Lord and there is none else' (Is. 45:6);
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and also: 'I am the Lord and there is none else; besides Me there is no God — I girded you though you did not know Me' (Is. 45:5);
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and: 'Am I not the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me — a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me' (Is. 45:21), and the like.