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The Argument from Time and Contingency
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- We notice around us things that come into being and go out of being. A tree, for example, grows from a tiny shoot, flowers brilliantly, then withers and dies.
- Whatever comes into being or goes out of being does not have to be; non-being is a real possibility.
- Suppose that nothing has to be; that is, that non-being is a real possibility for everything.
- Then right now nothing would exist. Since...
- If the universe began to exist, then all being must trace its origin to some past moment before which there existed—literally—nothing at all. But...
- From nothing nothing comes. So...
- The universe could not have begun.
- But suppose the universe never began. Then, for the infinitely long duration of cosmic history, all being had the built-in possibility not to be. But...
- If in an infinite time that possibility was never realized, then it could not have been a real possibility at all. So...
- There must exist something which has to exist, which cannot not exist. This sort of being is called necessary.
- Either this necessity belongs to the thing in itself or it is derived from another. If derived from another there must ultimately exist a being whose necessity is not derived, that is, an absolutely necessary being.
- This absolutely necessary being is God.
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