and temporal origination do not entail dependence on the Creator. For you have not demonstrated this necessary connection. The proposition you deny does not require this proof; and if it is not self-evident, proving the existence of the Necessary Existent does not refute it. The question is whether the Necessary Existent is characterized by it, not whether the Necessary Existent exists.

These points have also shown that, where he stated something true in this discussion, he established it neither conceptually nor by proof. When the falsehood in an argument is exposed and the truth it contains is identified, yet that truth, though apparent, remains unsubstantiated, the argument’s shortcomings are evident.

Twenty-third point:

His statement: “It is thus established that they must acknowledge that the distinctive character of His essence, by which it is distinguished from all other essences, is something whose ultimate reality mental conception and imagination cannot grasp, and this