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: May 31, 2024, 6:21 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
How to debunk the first cause argument without trying too hard
#13
RE: How to debunk the first cause argument without trying too hard
(July 22, 2015 at 8:13 pm)Dystopia Wrote: TL;DR -----> If god doesn't need a cause then why the fuck does the universe need one? Answer - Special pleading.

The apologist method of dealing with this problem was to change the argument (as MysticKnight noted) from "everything that exists" to "everything that begins to exist." It's still special pleading, IMO; they've simply baked it into the premise, trying to pretend that if they do it that way then the charge of special pleading doesn't apply. But even putting that aside, they need to show that god did not have a beginning. This is where you go down the circular logic path ("the Holy Book says so, and the Holy Book was written by god, and we know it was because the Holy Book says so...").

Nor does the argument rule out a natural cause. And our history is one where such questions always wind up having a natural explanation and not a supernatural one. So it's reasonable to expect there to be a natural explanation for the existence of the universe. It is unreasonable to expect there to be a supernatural one.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."

-Stephen Jay Gould
Reply



Messages In This Thread
RE: How to debunk the first cause argument without trying too hard - by Tonus - July 23, 2015 at 7:10 am

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Mike Litorus owns god without any verses no one 3 437 July 9, 2023 at 7:13 pm
Last Post: brewer
  Morality without God Superjock 102 9426 June 17, 2021 at 6:10 pm
Last Post: Ranjr
  Christian missionary becomes atheist after trying to convert tribe EgoDeath 40 5124 November 19, 2019 at 2:07 am
Last Post: EgoDeath
  Faux News: Atheism is a religion, too TaraJo 53 24941 October 9, 2018 at 10:13 pm
Last Post: Alan V
  Most humans aren't too logical when it comes to world views and how to go about it. Mystic 28 4077 October 9, 2018 at 8:59 am
Last Post: Alan V
  Atheists who announce "I'm good without god" Bahana 220 23101 October 8, 2018 at 5:15 pm
Last Post: Belacqua
  Me too Foxaèr 6 1341 October 7, 2018 at 10:08 pm
Last Post: outtathereligioncloset
  Too many near death experiences purplepurpose 77 17609 November 13, 2017 at 8:48 am
Last Post: Little Rik
  Can someone debunk this FPerson 162 33776 November 12, 2017 at 7:53 pm
Last Post: Cyberman
  Sometimes it's hard for me to shut up about my atheism Der/die AtheistIn 23 5364 August 15, 2017 at 5:18 am
Last Post: Der/die AtheistIn



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)