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Has Adler Proven God’s Existence?

Has Adler Proven God’s Existence?

Last updated on: July 29, 2026 at 9:06 am by Roger E. Olson

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Has Adler Proven God’s Existence? 2026-07-29T09:06:39-05:00 Roger E. Olson

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Here I continue discussion of philosopher Mortimer Adler’s book How to Think about God: A Guide for the 20th-Century Pagan with chapters 14 and 15: A Truly Cosmological Argument and One Remaining Question. If you have read the chapters feel free to comment. If not, feel free to ask a question. In about a week I will finish the discussion of the book with chapters 16, 17 and 18.

Adler believes he has proven the necessary existence of a Supreme Being but not necessarily the God of the Bible or of any religion.

The gist of his proof is that the cosmos is what he calls radically contingent. It is only one possible world; it does not explain itself and, at least for inquiring minds, it calls for explanation. “Whatever can be otherwise than it is can also simply not be at all. A cosmos which can be otherwise is one that also can not be; and conversely, a cosmos that is capable of not existing at all is one that can be otherwise than it now is.” (144)

Also, “The [truly] cosmological argument, carried out in this way, appears to establish the existence of the supreme being that acts as the exnihilating cause of this merely possible cosmos, and so explains why it continues to exist. … We have found it necessary to posit the existence of God, the supreme being, in order to explain what needs to be explained—the actual existence here and now of a merely possible cosmos.” (145)

I am sure atheists will balk at something in Adler’s argument. So will some religious people because they will say the “God” Adler proves is not the real and true God.

Some philosophers and physicists respond to an argument like Adler’s by saying the cosmos itself might be, even probably is, infinite. Renaissance Catholic theologian Giordano Bruno was killed by the Inquisition for daring to say that. Recently two or three leading physicists have posited the theory.

Of course, IF the cosmos is really infinite, it does not require any explanation. In fact, IF it is infinite, it is a god or substitute for God. But one has to inquire about the evidence of its infinity. Claiming the universe is infinite is a philosophical, not a scientific, claim. Bruno was accused of the heresy of pantheism, equating God with the universe and vice versa. It seems the contemporary physicists who are saying (on Youtube and elsewhere) that the cosmos is infinite are also making a religious claim—pantheism—the oneness of God with the universe. Vedanta Hinduism and some forms of Western esotericism must be celebrating their “discovery.”

Adler would simply say that the cosmos, the universe, cannot be God because it is radically contingent, not necessary. He dismisses the older argument that the universe is contingent because every part of it is contingent. A whole made up of contingent parts cannot be other than contingent. I disagree with his disavowal of that principle.

I have a question for atheists. Why does it even matter if Adler’s supreme being exists or not? It does not seem to require anything of people. It does not compete with science. It competes with naturalism but naturalism is not science. Naturalism is a life and world philosophy. Why do atheists even care whether Adler has proven THIS God’s existence or not?

*Note: If you choose to comment, make sure your comment is relatively brief (no more than 100 words), on topic, addressed to me, civil and respectful (not hostile or argumentative), and devoid of pictures or links.*

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