Creation Ex Nihilo and Uncaused Worlds: A Dilemma

**Revised in light of Jason Thibodeau's excellent comments.***

I've argued for both unqualified and defeasible versions of the principle of material causality (PMC), according to which concrete objects that have an originating or sustaining efficient cause have an originating or sustaining material cause, respectively. I've also argued for the claim that PMC, when combined with classical theism's doctrine of God as the creator of the world out of nothing, entails that classical theism is false. However, while I think PMC is clearly correct, the conclusion can be reached whether one accepts PMC or not.

The long version of the argument is for another day, but here's the short version. Consider the following principle, which I'll call the Impossibility of Uncaused Concrete Objects (IUC):

(IUC) It's metaphysically impossible for a concrete object to come into existence if it has neither an efficient nor a material cause.

IUC is just an instance of the more general principle, ex nihilo nihil fit. And as far as widely accepted metaphysical principles go, the latter is about as good as it gets. And rightly so. Not only does it seem self-evident, but all of nature appears to conform to it without exception. 

However, some philosophers are still skeptical. Philosophers in this camp tend to sympathize with Hume that anything that can be imagined or conceived without contradiction is prima facie metaphysically possible. And since one can imagine, say, a quark -- or even the whole universe -- popping into existence uncaused out of nothing, and can do so without a contradiction in one's conception, that's enough to call the principle into question. On the basis of this line of reasoning, philosophers of this stripe take it to be a live possibility that ex nihilo nihil fit is false, and thus that it's a live possibility that the universe popped into existence uncaused, out of nothing.

Now consider the following version of PMC: 

(PMC) It's metaphysically impossible for a concrete object to come into existence by an efficient cause if it lacks a material cause. 

PMC looks to be on an epistemic par with IUC. Both seem self-evident, and both enjoy the support of universal experience. However, neither principle is analytic, and so one can deploy the Humean gambit above to resist them if one is so inclined.

Given that IUC and PMC are in the same epistemological boat, therefore, it seems unprincipled and arbitrarily selective to accept one while rejecting the other. Therefore, it looks as though one should treat them similarly: either accept both, or use the Humean gambit to reject both.

Here's the rub. Either option entails the falsity of classical Anselmian theism. For consider the first option: accept both principles. If you do that, then you accept PMC, in which case you accept something that entails that God can't create concrete objects ex nihilo, in which case you accept something that entails that classical Anselmian theism is false. On the other hand, suppose you reject both principles. Then you reject IUC, in which case you accept that there is a possible world at which concrete objects pop into existence out of nothing without a cause. But since classical Anselmian theism entails that God is the creator or sustainer of all concrete objects outside himself in all possible worlds in which he exists, you accept something that entails the falsity of classical Anselmian theism. Therefore, either way, you accept something that entails the falsity of classical Anselmian theism.

In short, the conclusion goes through whether you accept PMC or not.