 The central piece of the work is a demonstration that no branch of philosophy can prove the “newness” of the world. The natural scientist cannot, because that would require relying on an assumption that is not included in the principles of his science and would make them an inconsistent set if included. The natural scientist can explain how something comes into being by some pre-existing matter acquiring a form, but that is generation, not creation, and nature only produces new things through generation. Hence, the natural scientist can neither, qua natural scientist, assume the creation of the world and the existence of a first man nor the reality of the future resurrection; indeed, he must deny all three. To the mathematical sciences it simply does not matter whether the world is new or sempiternal. Neither can a metaphysician deliver the desired proof. In the first place, the metaphysician cannot demonstrate that an effect may be delayed in relation to its sufficient cause; i.e., metaphysics presupposes the principle “If a sufficient cause is posited, so is its effect” (posita causa sufficiente ponitur effectus). Second, there is no way a metaphysician may prove that the world is not coeternal with the divine will, for that would require an insight into the divine will that is not accessible to humans; claiming to have such insight amounts to madness, Boethius says.