14. Not Even Miracles

The ordinary basic facts of the universe are necessary facts, and so anything and everything that exists is necessary as well. Everything that happens in the universe follows necessarily from the basic facts through causality. A cause produces an effect, which then causes some further effect, and so on. In this universe, there is no such thing as contingency. The chain of causes and effects is perfect. Everything that happens does so because it must happen. There is no way that anything could ever be other than what it already is. Possibility does not actually exist. It is an illusion produced by a lack of knowledge. There is only one way that things can be from now until the end of time.

The above conclusions follow from my starting point — I decided that the ordinary basic facts are necessary. But suppose I instead choose to take those ordinary basic facts as entirely contingent. The world would still exist as it presently does. It is only my perspective that has changed. But now, not only does possibility exist, it exists in the radical sense that anything is possible at any moment. This means I cannot know what is going to happen next.

Practical reasoning requires necessity in order to function. And insofar as reason itself is rooted in practical reason, to decide that everything is contingent might even be irrational. Yet it is also a powerful choice, for it is no less real than the alternative. Both options — absolute necessity and absolute contingency — originate in me, in my judgment, in the perspective that I choose.

Possibility is never less real than necessity. It is possible for the world to be other than it is. Nothing can be ruled out, not even total disaster, not even miracles.