In this post, I am going to consider the necessary property of God. God is often claimed to be philosophically necessary, with all other created things deemed to be contingent. I am going to challenge this prevailing idea.
First, let us consider what both terms (necessary and contingent) mean.
As mentioned, God is deemed to be necessary the fundamental foundation to reality. What might we understand by a logically necessary entity? As wiki explains:
The concept of a metaphysically necessary being plays an important role in certain arguments for the existence of God, especially theontological argument, but metaphysical necessity is also one of the central concepts in late 20th centuryanalytic philosophy. Metaphysical necessity has proved a controversial concept, and criticized byDavid Hume,Immanuel Kant,J. L. Mackie, andRichard Swinburne, among others.
Metaphysical necessity is contrasted with other types of necessity. For example, the philosophers of religionJohn Hick[2]andWilliam L. Rowe[3]distinguished the following three:
While many theologians (e.g.Anselm of Canterbury,Ren Descartes, andGottfried Leibniz) considered God as logically or metaphysically necessary being, Richard Swinburne argued for factual necessity, andAlvin Plantingaargues that God is a causally necessary being. Because a factually or causally necessary being does not exist by logical necessity, it does not exist in all logically possible worlds.[4]Therefore, Swinburne used the term ultimate brute fact for the existence of God.[5]
To me, there is a distinct potential, here, of confusingthe map with the terrain. We love to use logic and words as means to describe reality, but this does not mean they necessarily (no pun intended)arereality. After all, Christian philosophers have tried to use this technique to logic God into reality and existence, to much controversy.
Lets grant God as necessary, for the sake of argument. He is a necessary entity, existent in all possible worlds (itself a controversial idea).
Okay, so we have a necessary God with necessary properties. One must really assume that his properties are also necessary otherwise the term God as being necessary is really meaningless. We then get to some form of classical theism (the properties of which I roundly criticise in my ebookThe Problem with God: Classical Theism under the Spotlight) whereby God has the necessary ideals of perfect, or maximal, power, knowledge and love.
If God, then, as a necessary being, has necessary properties, and these properties necessarily cause a decision to create in a particular way the most perfect (since all of Gods decisions must be perfect) way then Gods decision to produce this world must also be necessary. It was the perfect choice (I cant, given the constraints on God in this way, see him being able to produce all or multiple versions of creation unless these be seen as perfect in some way) to create this world.
God, in his necessary perfection, chose to create this world. And remember, without time (before the creation of spacetime) any decision to create would not be temporal or deliberative (since deliberation takes time) and would thus be instantaneous (for want of a non-temporal term). Therefore, it really does look like creation springs necessarily from a necessary god.
Ergo, this universe is also necessary.
I cannot think of a way that the universe is contingent upon God since it would exist simultaneously with God. There would be no spacetime, so God would exist in not even a temporal sense, and the universe would coexist as a necessary extension of Gods properties.
This universeisevery possible world. Or, if there are multiple worlds within the perfect creation scenario, thentheyexist in every possible world.
In a sense, arguably, if you have a necessary God, you have some form of pantheism or panentheism where the created is merely a sort of necessary extension of God.
I will formalise this into a syllogism in my next post.
Read more:
This World as Philosophically Necessary - Patheos (blog)
- Shiv Khera and the Ultimate Value Test | MorungExpress ... - Morung Express - December 3rd, 2023 [December 3rd, 2023]
- 'She was startled by what the angel said and tried to figure out what ... - America: The Jesuit Review - September 21st, 2023 [September 21st, 2023]
- Religion in India - Wikipedia - December 26th, 2022 [December 26th, 2022]
- Ethics (Spinoza book) - Wikipedia - December 18th, 2022 [December 18th, 2022]
- Scientific Pantheism: Frequently Asked Questions - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Pantheism - Conservapedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Themes in Avatar - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Theism - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Animism - Wikipedia - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- What Was So Incredible About the Incredible String Band? - PopMatters - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Religious and philosophical views of Albert Einstein - Wikipedia - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- God's Omnipresence: A Reassuring Reality to Rejoice In - TGC Africa - The Gospel Coalition Africa - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Avatar Is Back, and It Still Looks Like Damanhur - Bitter Winter - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- PART 3 GOD'S ABUNDANT LIFE - Block Island Times - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- New York Botanical Garden In Three Hours: Here's What To See - TheTravel - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Reconciliation Pope And Paganism - Nation World News - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Only God could join us to God Catholic Outlook - Catholic Outlook - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Only God Could Join Us to God - Commonweal - September 3rd, 2022 [September 3rd, 2022]
- Back to school: dogs, AP classes and alarm clocks. What Colorado students are looking forward to this school year and what they want changed -... - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- The Organization | [Deck Recipes] July 31st, 2022 - YGOrganization - August 6th, 2022 [August 6th, 2022]
- Thinking of the Old Catholics and the Union of Utrecht - Patheos - July 25th, 2022 [July 25th, 2022]
- Speaking the Roots - The Shillong Times - July 25th, 2022 [July 25th, 2022]
- Basic beliefs of Scientific Pantheism World Pantheism - July 9th, 2022 [July 9th, 2022]
- Plural Like the Universe - City Journal - July 7th, 2022 [July 7th, 2022]
- Seeing Peter Obi through prisms of his younger brother The Sun Nigeria - Daily Sun - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- From Gnosticism to Marxism: The Spirit of Antichrist in Movement - OnePeterFive - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- World Pantheism Revering the Universe, Caring for Nature, Celebrating ... - June 5th, 2022 [June 5th, 2022]
- The R&S Pantheism Thread - City-Data - June 5th, 2022 [June 5th, 2022]
- Mary Beth Edelson Celebrated the Goddess Within - Hyperallergic - June 5th, 2022 [June 5th, 2022]
- The Organization | [Deck Recipes] May 26th, 2022 - YGOrganization - May 27th, 2022 [May 27th, 2022]
- Who Is Defending and Who Is Criticizing the Nine Years of Francis's Pontificate? (2) - FSSPX.News - May 3rd, 2022 [May 3rd, 2022]
- Girls performance in maths starting to add up to boys, says UNESCO - Modern Diplomacy - May 3rd, 2022 [May 3rd, 2022]
- Declaring the glory of God - The Robesonian - April 6th, 2022 [April 6th, 2022]
- Hen Kai Pan is a comic that finds a bleak but beautiful poetry in humanitys end - The A.V. Club - March 27th, 2022 [March 27th, 2022]
- Ideology of Pakistan and beyond - Chitral News - March 27th, 2022 [March 27th, 2022]
- Universal Directives of Quran: Introducing 'The Quran Speaks to You' - Kashmir Observer - March 27th, 2022 [March 27th, 2022]
- The Organization | [Deck Recipes] March 25th, 2022 - YGOrganization - March 27th, 2022 [March 27th, 2022]
- Homage in rock to Bodhisattva - Sunday Observer - March 17th, 2022 [March 17th, 2022]
- How can God be everywhere? - Journal Review - March 17th, 2022 [March 17th, 2022]
- Baruch Spinoza - Wikipedia - February 28th, 2022 [February 28th, 2022]
- New free book from Cambridge Press: Pantheism - Religion ... - February 28th, 2022 [February 28th, 2022]
- When This Jewish Musician Visited a Church During Benediction, He Never Expected This to Happen - National Catholic Register - February 19th, 2022 [February 19th, 2022]
- Hymn Notes: All Creatures of Our God and King - Longview News-Journal - January 27th, 2022 [January 27th, 2022]
- His Blood Cries Out From the Ground!: Climate Change And Moral Corruption - Patheos - January 9th, 2022 [January 9th, 2022]
- Respect for the Body: A Response to Archbishop Jackels - National Catholic Register - November 19th, 2021 [November 19th, 2021]
- AFRICA - "It is on the old mat that we sit and weave the new one": Cop 26, for a return to the sacred - Agenzia Fides - November 9th, 2021 [November 9th, 2021]
- BANGLADESH Rising number of baptised among tribal people in Rajshahi - AsiaNews - October 19th, 2021 [October 19th, 2021]
- Did Einstein Believe in God? - bethinking.org - October 17th, 2021 [October 17th, 2021]
- Three Decades Later, This Classic Book About the New Age Is More Relevant Than Ever - National Catholic Register - October 1st, 2021 [October 1st, 2021]
- Book of a Lifetime: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - The Independent - September 26th, 2021 [September 26th, 2021]
- Meditation Isnt Mere Therapy Its a Living Relationship With Almighty God - National Catholic Register - September 4th, 2021 [September 4th, 2021]
- Is Everything That Exists Part of God? (Pantheism) - August 28th, 2021 [August 28th, 2021]
- Home - Universal Pantheist Society - August 28th, 2021 [August 28th, 2021]
- 8 Major Worldviews (Part 1) | CrossExamined.org by Brian ... - August 26th, 2021 [August 26th, 2021]
- You shall have no other gods, including 'trivial' ones - The B.C. Catholic - August 26th, 2021 [August 26th, 2021]
- Religion Is Far Too Complex to Have a Single Evolution Story - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence - August 6th, 2021 [August 6th, 2021]
- Is the Enlightenment Still a Foundation for Working-Class Liberation? - LA Progressive - August 6th, 2021 [August 6th, 2021]
- The Revival of Stoicism - VICE - July 5th, 2021 [July 5th, 2021]
- Jane Goodall Meets the God Hypothesis - Discovery Institute - May 27th, 2021 [May 27th, 2021]
- Parramatta Laity Make Their Voices Heard in Dispute With Their Bishop - National Catholic Register - May 14th, 2021 [May 14th, 2021]
- Matthew Wong Ink Works, Never Before Exhibited, Will Alight in New York - ARTnews - April 19th, 2021 [April 19th, 2021]
- Double Blind by Edward St Aubyn review in pursuit of knowledge - The Guardian - March 31st, 2021 [March 31st, 2021]
- How to Sound Like a Catholic When You Talk About Ashes and Death - National Catholic Register - February 25th, 2021 [February 25th, 2021]
- The consolation of philosophy during Covid darkness - Offaly Express - February 25th, 2021 [February 25th, 2021]
- What Is This 'QAnon' Thing They're Talking About? - Calbuzz - February 21st, 2021 [February 21st, 2021]
- Manifestations of Higher Meaning: On Dana Gioia's The Catholic Writer Today and Studying with Miss Bishop - Los Angeles Review of Books -... - February 10th, 2021 [February 10th, 2021]
- Arts Pantheon - The Daily Star - January 17th, 2021 [January 17th, 2021]
- Christmas and the birth of truth on earth - TheCable - January 1st, 2021 [January 1st, 2021]
- Pantheism | Definition of Pantheism by Merriam-Webster - November 29th, 2020 [November 29th, 2020]
- No writer was better suited to chronicle the Depression than John Steinbeck - Spectator.co.uk - November 29th, 2020 [November 29th, 2020]
- A world of mysticism and spirituality - Times of Malta - November 29th, 2020 [November 29th, 2020]
- WHAT IS 'SPIRITUALITY OF PLACE'? | Bret Thoman - Patheos - November 29th, 2020 [November 29th, 2020]
- Do Not Offend the Gods: 8 SFF Books Featuring Deities - tor.com - October 7th, 2020 [October 7th, 2020]
- Religion, Non-Reductive and Saturated, Gains Respect in Post-Modern Academic World - Patheos - May 29th, 2020 [May 29th, 2020]
- What's the difference between pandemic and epidemic? - ChicagoNow - March 31st, 2020 [March 31st, 2020]
- Porfiry Ivanov: what Stalin said the main freak of the USSR - International Law Lawyer News - March 24th, 2020 [March 24th, 2020]
- World Pantheism Revering the Universe, Caring for Nature ... - March 5th, 2020 [March 5th, 2020]
- Freeman Dyson: The Passing of an Iconoclastic Physicist - Discovery Institute - March 5th, 2020 [March 5th, 2020]
- Pantheism | Britannica - February 27th, 2020 [February 27th, 2020]
- Dan McCaslin: Nature and Shallowing the Mind - Noozhawk - January 28th, 2020 [January 28th, 2020]