and that there is One who brought him into existence. For it is known with certainty that whatever changes cannot be eternal: its change entails departing from a state it occupied before changing, whereas its being eternal would preclude that state. Thus, when it changes into the configurations we have mentioned, which it did not possess before changing, this indicates that these configurations came into existence, as did the configuration it occupied before they arose. Had that earlier configuration been eternal, it could not have ceased to exist, for what is eternal cannot cease to exist.

If this is as we have stated, the changes bodies undergo must ultimately lead back to configurations that came into existence. The bodies did not exist before these configurations; rather, they came into existence together with them. The orderly arrangement of all this indicates a powerful and wise Creator, since it could not happen by chance and reach completion without someone arranging it or intending the configurations that arose within these bodies rather than the other configurations they could have assumed. They could also have arisen earlier or later in time, and thus require someone to bring them into existence and arrange them. For the extract of clay and the lowly fluid