Contingency Proof in the West

Document Type : Original Article

Author

• Sayyid Murtaḍā Ḥusaynī Shāhrūdī

10.22067/philosophy.v41i1.3177

Abstract

Contingency Proof is one of the oldest proofs of the existence of God, which enjoys numerous theological and philosophical expositions. What is examined in this article is the conventional form of this proof in the West, which has addressed the temporal contingency of universe and thereby demonstrated the existence of God. Its other expositions like essential contingency as well as substantial contingency, which are of special interest to Islamic philosophy, have either received no attention at all or not clearly stated. In this article, relying on the old and new scientific and theological sources of the West, the writer intends to reappraise and review this issue. Hereby, two rational proofs and two scientific arguments on its most significant premise have been presented. Its two rational proofs stress on the impossibility of
actual infinite existence and the impossibility of addition to potential infinite and its transformation into actual infinite; and its two scientific arguments are adopted from the patterns of creation and thermodynamic principles. Bringing up various theories of the pros and cons among the philosophers and theologians, the article proceeds to present a critical review of the above issue.

Keywords

• creation from non-being
• actual infinite؛ the Big Bang model؛ oscillation model؛ consistency model

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