This answer is the second part of Station IV of the journey. It builds on the fact that the First Cause must be necessary, independent, eternal and almighty — as shown in the first part of the station. Why it follows from this that there can be only a single Creator, you can read here word for word, exactly as it appears in the journey.
Could there be several Creators?
There are people who would now claim, however, that there could be not just one but two or more Creators. Yet this is not logical, as will be shown in what follows.
The Creator must necessarily exist and can depend on nothing else. If there were two or more Creators, they would be either:
- exactly the same, or
- different in some way.
They cannot be exactly the same
Suppose two Creators were exactly the same in every respect — the same power, the same will. Then clearly only one of them would be needed. So if they were separate, they must differ in some way.
If they are different, one must be incomplete
But if they were different — if one has something the other does not, such as more knowledge or more power — then one is weaker, incomplete, and would need something that he does not possess. He would thereby be dependent and could not be the First Cause, for the First Cause must be absolutely independent and perfect. Therefore the First Cause can only be a single Creator. A further Creator is not logical.
Who would begin?
Imagine two friends want to play a game together, like Minecraft, where you can build your own virtual world. But both say: "I will only start building if you build first." Then the world would never come into being, since neither takes the first step.
Now imagine it took several Creators to create the world. Either each one waits for the other to begin. Then nothing would happen. But that cannot be, for our universe exists and has a beginning. Or one acts alone and begins the creation. Then only this one is independent and the others would be superfluous.
Who would decide?
If two Creators have different ideas — for example, one wants the stars to shine brightly and the other wants them to shine faintly — whose idea then wins? Only one can decide what happens. In that case it would mean that one is stronger or more authoritative, which again shows that the other is dependent and not necessary.
Several Creators would lead to chaos
When we consider our universe, a breathtaking order reveals itself: planets move in precise orbits, the laws of nature act universally and unchangingly, and life itself arises through a complex sequence written into the DNA.
If several Creators had designed these things, would we not rather expect chaos? Imagine two artists painting the same picture but unable to agree on the design. One paints the sky blue, the other red. One paints trees, the other erases them again. The result? A mess.
If the universe had many Creators with differing ideas, we would likewise expect chaos — for example, planets colliding with one another, laws of nature changing from place to place, life arising randomly and not functioning properly.
But what do we actually see? We see:
- The sun rises every day at exactly the right time.
- The Earth is at a perfect distance from the sun, so that liquid water can exist — a prerequisite for life.
- The planets move in stable orbits without colliding with one another, even though they race through space over billions of years.
- The diameter of the sun is about 400 times larger than that of the moon, and the sun is about 400 times farther from the Earth than the moon, which is why the moon covers the sun during a solar eclipse.
- The regular succession of spring, summer, autumn and winter, which keeps life in balance and makes it habitable.
- The precise length of a day, and the daily alternation of day and night.
This kind of order and harmony permits only one conclusion: there must be a Creator who created everything and who sustains everything.
Even if they agree, one must be the Almighty
Someone might say: “Perhaps all the Creators are in complete agreement. They all work together and never quarrel.” Even if this were true, the fact that they agree would mean that they are dependent on one another and incomplete. If, for example, two Creators agree to share power equally, they cannot both be almighty.
They are limited by one another, and a true First Cause cannot be limited. It must not depend on anything else in order to exist. All the other Creators would be dependent on this one, which means that they would not be truly independent. Therefore they could not be the First Cause and would not be necessary.
The only logical conclusion is therefore: there can obviously be only a single, almighty and independent Creator. Everything else is creation.