NECESSITY OF GOD’S EXISTENCE

CHAPTER 6

NECESSITY OF GOD’S EXISTENCE

The same line of reasoning clearly shows that God necessarily exists. For everything that has the possibility of being and of not being, is mutable. But God is absolutely immutable, as has been demonstrated. Therefore it is impossible for God to be and not to be. But anything that exists in such a way that it is impossible for it not to exist, is necessarily Being itself,ipsum esse. Necessary existence, and impossibility of nonexistence, mean one and the same thing. Therefore God must necessarily exist.


Moreover, everything that has a possibility of being and of not being, needs something else to make it be, for, as far as it itself is concerned, it is indifferent with regard to either alternative. But that which causes another thing to be, is prior to that thing. Hence something exists prior to that which has the possibility of being and of not being. However, nothing is prior to God. Therefore it is impossible for Him to be and not to be; of necessity, He must be. And since there are some necessary things that have a cause of their necessity, a cause that must be prior to them, God, who is the first of all, has no cause of His own necessity. Therefore it is necessary for God to be through Himself.
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God's existence is necessary for there to be any existence at all. It is also impossible for Him to not exist. In fact, He is Being itself. God's being is through Himself and through nothing outside Himself. His Being does not change. In fact His being cannot change.  


It's not like that with created things. It is not necessary that any of us exist. In fact, it is possible for us not to ever have existed, and existence itself would not suffer at all. However, for existence to have any meaning, there must be God to give it that meaning. The fact that He reveals Himself  as the self-existent One - Jehovah - shows from Scripture that He is the source of all existence. 

The amazing thing is that St. Thomas used God's message in nature to prove what special revelation confirms. Of course Thomas knew Scripture as well as or better than anyone. However, he proved that by looking at creation and using human reason, that same conclusion can be demonstrated as an irrefutable fact - God is necessary and it is impossible for Him to not exist. 

There is no other rational way to explain our own existence. 

Of course, in Christian philosophy - especially Thomism - there is a distinction made between "existence" and "being." I'm not quite sure how to express that, but I am working on it. The idea, - as I understand it in my very inadequate and beginner-level understanding - is that God is Being itself. Everything in creation derives its existence from God. He did not just create things and let them just go their merry way. He also sustains all of creation, from the dirt under our feet to mankind, created in the image of God, to the farthest galaxy. It is all sustained by Him every moment of every day. In fact, every day is a new creation. 

If God changed - that is, if He moved - then all of creation would be affected.

He must be. Otherwise, there is no being and no existence to even talk about. It is present tense "be". He must continually "be", or nothing else can be.

In Him we live, and move and have our being.

Well, I think I'm on the right track, but I don't quite get it.


http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2010/09/classical-theism.html