Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: November 19, 2024, 6:42 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
#11
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
We don't know if our reality had a cause or not. Maybe it's eternal. Maybe it isn't, but had no external cause. We don't know. We have no current way of finding out. Without evidence, or anything to test, we're just speculating.

What I can say is that if there is a first cause, don't worry about it. It makes no practical difference to anything.

https://youtu.be/inw1fNItjdU
Feel free to send me a private message.
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.

Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum
Reply
#12
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
(September 23, 2016 at 9:49 am)_Velvet_ Wrote: But I still find it very hard to believe that the universe (or the quantum fluctuations that might have caused the big bang, or whatever you want it to be your first cause) be an uncaused cause, unless it is something different from everything we know (maybe this is argument from incredulity, but to me it really wouldn't make any sense to have a natural uncaused first cause while everything else has a cause prior, including time itself, so the only way to stop the regression of causes its coming to a "special" cause)

Yes.


Also, the cosmological argument is self-defeating. If a god can exist without a prior cause, then why can't the universe?
I am John Cena's hip-hop album.
Reply
#13
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
(September 23, 2016 at 10:46 am)Rhythm Wrote: How do you bridge the gap, conceptually, between a first cause and a god?

I don't, I just acknowledge that this cause might be some kind of god, and I feel it would make most sense if it were, just because if it was a natural phenomena it would make sense if it was also caused.

---

Thanks everyone for the feedback = ]
Reply
#14
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
Again, "supernatural" is not a well-defined term.

I have a video about that too, if you're interested Tongue
Feel free to send me a private message.
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.

Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum
Reply
#15
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
(September 23, 2016 at 12:29 pm)ApeNotKillApe Wrote: Also, the cosmological argument is self-defeating. If a god can exist without a prior cause, then why can't the universe?

This is one of the classic refutations that I just don't think it holds.

A god could come to existance without a prior cause because he would be able to do godlike shit like creating himself or some other magical and non-sensical stuff that natural things just can't do (or at least wouldn't be reasonable to expect they would)

While an universe coming into existance without a prior cause doesn't really make sense (not saying its impossible but I just don't think it would make any sense for it do suddenly come into existance)
Reply
#16
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
(September 23, 2016 at 12:43 pm)_Velvet_ Wrote:
(September 23, 2016 at 12:29 pm)ApeNotKillApe Wrote: Also, the cosmological argument is self-defeating. If a god can exist without a prior cause, then why can't the universe?

This is one of the classic refutations that I just don't think it holds.

A god could come to existance without a prior cause because he would be able to do godlike shit like creating himself or some other magical and non-sensical stuff that natural things just can't do (or at least wouldn't be reasonable to expect they would)

While an universe coming into existance without a prior cause doesn't really make sense (not saying its impossible but I just don't think it would make any sense for it do suddenly come into existance)

Who said it suddenly came into existence?
God thinks it's fun to confuse primates. Larsen's God!






Reply
#17
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
Yeah, that's a false dichotomy. Even if that's the case, making sense to us isn't a requirement for truth.
Feel free to send me a private message.
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.

Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum
Reply
#18
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
(September 23, 2016 at 11:37 am)Faith No More Wrote: If an uncaused universe causes you trouble, why wouldn't an uncaused conscious entity with magical powers cause you that same trouble?

Remember, the cosmological argument started out as a blatant attempt at special pleading only to have an ad hoc revision added later to avoid that.  That's your first indication that something is amiss.

Also, the cosmological argument takes what is a temporal principle, i.e. all effects must be preceded in time by a cause, and attempts to apply that to when time does not exist.  How can you safely apply the principle of cause and effect when there literally is no space-time for a cause to precede its effect?

1: because this first cause, whatever it might be doesn't need to follow or rules of causation because it is somehow different, the way it is from outside our dimension of time already makes it more plausible to me for it to exist on a uncaused way.

2: Yes i'm aware, and i'm completely against using the cosmological argument as a theist argument as this would be just stupid, but instead I use it to see it would make a lot of sense for us to have a) infinite regression of causation b) a first cause that its somehow special in a sense that it would be from outside of causation rule.

3: It would have be some sort of "cause from outside of time", the first cause its different from everything else exactly in that, it is the phenomena started time and started the causation chain.
Reply
#19
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
(September 23, 2016 at 12:43 pm)_Velvet_ Wrote:
(September 23, 2016 at 12:29 pm)ApeNotKillApe Wrote: Also, the cosmological argument is self-defeating. If a god can exist without a prior cause, then why can't the universe?

This is one of the classic refutations that I just don't think it holds.

A god could come to existance without a prior cause because he would be able to do godlike shit like creating himself or some other magical and non-sensical stuff that natural things just can't do (or at least wouldn't be reasonable to expect they would)

You're excuse is magic. Non-sensical magic. Operating on a preexisting temporal plane. Orchestrated by a disembodied humanoid mind.

Quote:While an universe coming into existance without a prior cause doesn't really make sense (not saying its impossible but I just don't think it would make any sense for it do suddenly come into existance)

You're thinking of the origins of the universe in linear terms, in terms you as a resident of the universe naturally gravitate to. That you think of a god as inherently temporal (engaging in self-creation etc.) speaks to this. There was no 'prior' to the universe, the universe didn't pop out of some previous state of non-existence because non-existence doesn't exist.
The laws of cause and effect apply to the universe, they don't apply to nothingness because nothing applies to nothingness because nothing doesn't exist.
If you were to travel back in time, the big bang is as far as you could ever possibly go.
I am John Cena's hip-hop album.
Reply
#20
RE: Am I a Deist? Cosmological Argument seems reasonable to me.
(September 23, 2016 at 1:01 pm)robvalue Wrote: Yeah, that's a false dichotomy. Even if that's the case, making sense to us isn't a requirement for truth.

I will have to think about that.

Do we have examples of things that are truth but make no sense?
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  The Kalam Cosmological argument. JJoseph 113 10003 January 10, 2024 at 12:38 am
Last Post: Astreja
  Satanism seems fun FrustratedFool 50 4638 August 24, 2023 at 6:37 pm
Last Post: FrustratedFool
  Atheism seems to rise in Turkey Woah0 1 995 September 11, 2022 at 2:02 pm
Last Post: Jehanne
  "Why is it reasonable to believe in prisons, but not in the hell?" FlatAssembler 124 10939 February 19, 2021 at 12:11 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
Information [Serious] How many reasonable solutions are there to any particular social issue? Prof.Lunaphiles 69 9770 April 11, 2020 at 8:55 pm
Last Post: BrianSoddingBoru4
  *trigger warning* What if atheism's not all it seems? PhilosophicalZebra 143 31884 December 27, 2017 at 1:54 pm
Last Post: CapnAwesome
  Have I just demonstrated a deist god? Socratic Meth Head 11 2831 May 21, 2016 at 12:17 am
Last Post: ignoramus
  New Deist user here. Starlord 51 10635 July 17, 2015 at 10:25 am
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Tentatively Christian; looking for a reasonable discussion GriffinHunter 216 38394 March 26, 2015 at 6:03 am
Last Post: The Reality Salesman01
  Atheists aren't always intelligent or reasonable or rational TaraJo 16 7072 December 15, 2012 at 8:42 am
Last Post: Brian37



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)