My Existence from Myself

If I had derived my existence from myself, then I would not doubt anything at all since I would be God.

• I would have always existed and I would not need a cause.

A life-span can be divided into countless parts, each completely independent of the others.

My existence at one time does not follow that I exist at later times, unless some cause keeps me in existence. That cause creates me afresh at each moment.

The nature of time is different in:

• the time for bringing something into existence*, and
• the time needed to keep a thing existing.

Superphysics Note

This is the difference between timespace and spacetime

Thus, there is no real distinction between preservation and creation – only a conceptual one. This is exposed by the natural light.

Do I have the power to exist forever?

I do not. My continued existence depends on some being other than myself.

My Existence from My Parents

My parents do not keep me in existence. They did not even form my mind. They merely brought about an arrangement of matter that contains me.

Thus, I conclude that the mere fact that I exist and have within me an idea of God proves that God exists.

How did I receive this idea from God?

I did not get it from the senses*. It has never come to me unexpectedly, as do most of the ideas that occur when I seem to see and touch and hear things.

Superphysics Note

It comes from the intuitional sense called the feelings

I did not invent the idea of God either. I cannot take anything away from it or to add anything to it.

When an idea is sheerly invented, the inventor is free to fiddle with it. My idea of God is a natural unit that does not invite or even permit such interference.

The only remaining alternative is that my idea of God is innate in me, just as the idea of myself is innate in me.

This is likely because God created and placed this idea in me to serve as a craftsman’s mark stamped on his work

I am a thing that is incomplete and dependent on something else. That something aspires without limit to ever greater and better things.

I could never exist with an innate idea of God if God did not really exist. ‘God’ means the idea of:

• the very being who is within me
• the one who has no defects and has all those perfections

It shows that he cannot possibly be a deceiver, since the natural light makes it clear that all fraud and deception depend on some defect.