I will ask you some questions. Based on your answers, I will determine whether your beliefs, if coherent, have any interesting religious implications. Have fun!

Is it possible for something (other than a spontaneous action) to begin to exist without anything causing it to exist?

No I don’t know Yes

By “spontaneous action”, I mean an action of a thing (such as raising one’s arm or something’s swerving to the left) that is not determined (not necessitated) by anything.

By “I don’t know”, I mean “I don’t have a belief one way or the other”.

I use the word, “thing”, in the most general sense. People are things. Attributes are things. Properties are things. Facts are things. Tables are things. Everything is a thing. I’m not saying that there are any attributes or tables. But if there were, they would count as things.

By “cause”, I mean “something that produces or brings about an effect”. I will stipulate that no cause can be identical to its effect or a part of its effect. I take that to be consistent with ordinary usage of the term, “cause”. But if someone disagrees with that definition, she should replace my occurrences of the word, “cause”, with “cause*”, where “cause*” has my definition above.

When I say that something “begins to exist”, I mean that it has existed for only a finite interval of time (whether open or closed) and “never” existed in a timeless state.

I use the term “exists” where others might use the term “obtains”. For example, when I say that a fact exists, I mean the same thing as that a fact obtains.

In my analysis, I will use basic rules of logical inference. In some places, I use the S5 axioms of modal logic.

By “possible” I mean logically possible, which I take to be the same as metaphysically possible. For example, it may seem to be logically possible for there to be a cubical shaped building. But it may seem logically impossible for there to be a building that’s both cubical shaped and at the same time spherical.

Some things may be logically possible even if they are impossible given certain situations. For example, given my birth, it is impossible that I not exist: it is impossible for me to both be born and not exist. However, if I can be born, then that means it is possible for there to be a time (past, future, or in a completely different universe) when I do not exist. In that sense, my non-existence is still logically possible.

By “physical universe”, I mean “the sum of all physical things”.

Disclaimer: Although I strive for logical consistency and accuracy, I am fallible. I make mistakes. If you believe that my analysis is mistaken at some point, I hope you will let me know so that I can make corrections.