I know that God is the most perfect being possible, yet he does not have the ability to make a being equal to himself. Wouldn't he be even more perfect if he had the ability to copy himself? No. If God had the ability to make a being equal to himself then he would actually be less than perfect. God is all-perfect ("omniperfect") and so has all possible perfections. One is the kind of existence he has. Theologians and philosophers distinguish between two kinds of existence: necessary and contingent. Something which necessarily exists is something that could not fail to exist. Something which exists contingently is something that depends on something else for its existence. All created beings are contingent since they depend on their Creator to bring them into existence. (This is true even if they are outside of time.) Since God has the most perfect form of existence as a consequence of his omniperfection, God is a necessary rather than a contingent being. Suppose God did create a being equal to himself. This duplicate or clone, to whom God would be equal in every way, must be contingent, since created. But this would mean that God himself would have only contingent existence (if the clone were a true clone) and would lack the perfection of necessary existence. Thus God would be less than perfect if he had the ability to copy himself. For him such an ability would be a weakness, not a strength. Copyright (c) 1993 Catholic Answers. Reprinted with permission from the October 1993 issue of This Rock magazine.