But if it is said, “No event ever occurs until an event occurs,” this is impossible by the agreement of rational people and according to plain reason. This may be called circularity. For if it is said, “Nothing occurs until something occurs,” this is circular: the existence of events as a category depends upon the existence of that very category.

The statement that He—glorified be He—has always been producing effects may mean that He has always been producing effects in everything. No rational person says this, but it is a necessary consequence of the philosophers’ argument. Or it may mean that He has always been producing effects in one thing after another. This is what the rational proofs entail, in agreement with the scriptural proofs.

When some of them answered that the determining factor was power, the eternal will, eternal knowledge, the possibility of coming into existence, or something similar, they received this reply:

“If these things do not give rise to a newly occurring cause, actualization without a determining factor follows. If a newly occurring cause does arise, the question of its coming into existence is the same as the question of whatever came into existence through it.”

Others instead sought to refute them by pointing out a consequence of their position, saying:

“This entails that no event occurs in the world, yet sensory experience disproves this.”

They replied:

“This follows only if infinite regress is impossible. You hold it to be impossible, whereas we do not. If coming into existence depends upon continually occurring events, this difficulty disappears.”

Infinite regress is of two kinds: a regress of causes, which scholars agree is impossible; and a regress of conditions, concerning which rational thinkers hold two well-known positions.