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published on May 13, 2015
John-Mark L. Miravalle
The Trinity's Choice
Oppy, Bergson, and God's Decision to Create
If God’s choice to create the universe is an unnecessary choice, then, Oppy argues, something contingent is ultimately at the origin of the universe, and as long as “brute contingency” is the basis for the universe’s existence, why bother with the additional postulate of a necessary being? Bergson’s work on free will, however, coupled with traditional trinitarian theology, suggests that it is more rationally satisfying, and certainly more in keeping with a viable principle of sufficient reason, to stop searching for causes/explanations at the free choice of the Christian God instead of at the universe itself.