7rcTIX1xP

The Fifth Lesson: The One and the Many.775
creation of Something from Nothing. It finds the statement unthinkable, and
contrary to all the laws of thought. It is true that the Reason is compelled
to accept as a final truth, many things that it cannot understand by reason
of its finitude—but this is not one of them. There is no logical necessity for
the Reason to accept any such conception as this—there is no warrant in
the Reason for any such theory, idea or conclusion. Let us stop here, for a
moment, and examine into this difference—it may help us to think clearer,
hereafter.
We find it impossible to understand the fact of the Infinite Being having
always existed—and Being without Cause. We find it impossible to conceive
of the nature of an Eternal, Causeless, and Infinite Being—to conceive the
nature of, such a Being, remember.
But, while this is so, still our Reason, by its own laws, compels us to think
that there must be such a Being, so long as we think at all. For, if we think at
all, we must think of there being a Fundamental Reality—and we must think
of that Reality as being without Cause (because there can be no Cause for
the First Cause); and we must think of that Reality as being Eternal (because
It could not have sprung into Being from Nothing, and therefore must have
always been); and we must think of that Reality as Infinite (because there is
nothing outside of Itself to limit It). Think over this statement for a moment—
until you grasp it fully.
But there is no such necessity, or compulsion, in the case of the question of
Creation from Nothingness. On the contrary, the necessity and compulsion
is all the other way. Not only is the Reason unable to think of Creation from
Nothing—not only does all its laws forbid it to hold such a conception—
but, more than this, it finds within itself a conception, full-grown and potent,
which contradicts this idea. It finds within itself the strong certainty that
Whatever Really Is has Always Been, and that all transient and finite shapes,
forms, and manifestations, must proceed from that which is Real, Infinite,
Causeless, and Infinite—and moreover must be composed of the substance
of that Reality, for there is nothing else Real from which they could have