its death, and spreading throughout it every kind of creature, and the shifting of the winds and the clouds held subject between heaven and earth, are signs for people who reason.’

These familiar things that come into being cannot be necessary existents in themselves. For whatever exists necessarily in itself cannot be nonexistent and must have existed without beginning. These things, however, were nonexistent and then came into existence. Their existence after nonexistence therefore demonstrates that both their existence and their nonexistence are possible, since both have actually occurred. Thus, it is self-evidently known that among existing things there is something that has come into being and is contingent.

We then say:

An existing thing that has come into being and is contingent must have a cause that brings it into existence, exists without beginning, and exists necessarily in itself. For something that comes into being cannot bring itself into existence, just as a person cannot create himself. This is among the most evident, self-evident truths. Even after a person has come into existence and attained strength, he cannot add a limb to his body or increase its size: he cannot make a tall person shorter or a short person taller, nor make his own head larger or smaller than it is. Likewise, his parents cannot do any of these things.

It is self-evidently known that whatever comes into being after not existing must have someone who brings it into being. This is a self-evident proposition known through the innate disposition, even to children. If someone strikes a child while he is unaware and cannot see the person, he will ask, ‘Who struck me?’ If he is told, ‘No one struck you,’ his mind will not accept that the blow occurred without someone causing it. Rather, he knows that whatever occurs must have someone who causes it. Then, if he is told, ‘So-and-so struck you,’ he cries until he strikes the person who struck him. Thus, his innate disposition included acknowledgment