Q&A: The Contingency Argument
The Contingency Argument
Question
I learned a bit about Leibniz’s argument. Why is God necessary? (Following the beginning of your answer to the person who asked whether God could commit suicide, where you said that He is a necessary being.) After all, one can imagine a situation in which there is nothing at all, not even God.
Answer
That is the accepted belief. The question of whether one can arrive at it through a philosophical argument is not simple. It is very plausible that He is eternal, meaning that He has always existed. Otherwise, He too would have been created, and the infinite regress would apply to Him as well. And if He is eternal, then apparently His existence is necessary (although there is no logical identity between those two).
Anselm, in chapter 4 of the Proslogion, tries to prove that He is necessary. See my first talk on the First Existent.