Hello, Dr. Craig.

I wanted to thank you for all of your work.

You have encouraged my interest in intellectual exploration of the theological world.

To my question, I was arguing with a pantheist friend recently and he said that even if God existed,

existence as such is a higher category than him. Because if we think of existence as a vain diagram,

existence is the big circle and God is the small one. The reason is,

there are many other things in existence along with God. And if we simply say that existence

itself is God, that's the same as saying that existence equals existence, which is a tautology.

So we run into some problems with both definitions. What is the solution?

Thanks.

Shota, Georgia.

It's wonderful to hear Shota that even in far away Georgia, people are accessing and using the resources of reasonable faith.

Readers who don't know where Georgia is should take a look at a global map.

I certainly do believe that God is not all that exists. In addition to God, there also exist

beings created by God. So there are two types of existence, necessary existence and

contingent existence. God alone exists necessarily, whereas other things exist contingently.

So if we were to draw a circle representing everything that exists,

God would be designated by a smaller circle within it. But the error of your pantheist friend

is thinking that that larger circle is itself something that exists. That's just a category

mistake, saying that existence exists. Things exist. Existence is not a thing. Since existence

is not a thing, there's no problem with the theistic view

that God is not a part of anything. It is the pantheist himself who says that God is

...