Necessary Thing

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Thought as much. Try it this way:

If quanta that did not exist previously *pop* into existence and then *pop* out again, they can be considered both necessary and contingent. If it had not had an existence (however brief - 'necessity' doesn't require or imply durability), it would not be necessary. It has been convincingly argued that only necessary things exist, and I'm okay with that. However, to exist (in any meaningful sense of the word), the quanta must have something in which to exist. We call that something 'spacetime'. So quanta are contingent upon there being a spacetime matrix in which to exist.

But 'exist' and 'necessary' are both slippery terms, 'contingent' somewhat less so. It may be necessary for a particular quantum packet to exist for a trillionth of a second, and the be necessary that it not exist, so there's not a lot of difficulty there.

Let me save you some trouble before you try to apply this to godism. Aquinas failed utterly to prove that God in necessary, or that the universe is contingent upon the existence of God. Aquinas' failure lies in the fact that his 'proofs' for God are nothing of the sort (ontology is, and always has been, little more than clever word play). Until you can demonstrate (not simply argue) that God exists in the everyday meaning of the word, trying to further demonstrate that God is necessary and that everything else is contingent upon God is really just so much smoke and mirrors.

Boru