Dr. Craig is a liar.

[LadyForCamus]

No, not at all familiar.

Huh.

Sure you can prove that an infinite regress is absurd. I posted about Hilbert's Hotel awhile back. Here it is again:

Imagine a hotel with a finite number of rooms. All the rooms are full and a new guest walks in and wants a room. The desk clerk says no rooms are available.

Now imagine a hotel that has an infinite number of rooms. All the rooms are filled up so an infinite number of guests. A new guest walks up and wants a room. All the clerk has to to do is to move the guest in room #1 to room #2 and the guest from #2 to #3 and so on so your new guest can have a room #1. You can do this infinite number of times to a hotel that was already full.

Now imagine instead the clerk moves the guest from #1 to #2 and from #2 to #4 and from #3 to #6 (each being moved to a room number twice the original). All the odd number rooms become vacant. You can add an infinite number of new guests to a hotel that was full and end up with it half empty. 

How many people would be in the hotel if the guest in #1 checked out?

If everyone in odd number rooms checks out, how many checked out? How many are left?

Now what if all the guest above room number 3 check out. How many checked out? How many are left?

So from the above we get:
infinity + infinity = infinity
infinity + infinity = infinity/2
infinity - 1 = infinity
infinity / 2 = infinity
infinity - infinity = 3

Conclusion: the idea of an actual infinite is logically absurd. 

Pythagoras made an equally strong argument against irrational numbers.

My little sister once made a similar case against negative numbers. 

I have a similar distaste for imaginary numbers. 

But we're stuck with all of these because they describe the universe we live in.  Computers are designed thru the use of imaginary numbers.  If such numbers weren't true, then computers wouldn't work. 

Negative numbers don't work exactly like positive numbers, but that doesn't prove them false. 
Irrational numbers don't work exactly like rational numbers, but that doesn't prove them false.

And transfinite numbers don't work exactly like finite numbers, but that doesn't make them false.  


And that's all that you've demonstrated:  Transfinite numbers can't be used in exactly the same way as finite numbers.  That doesn't even tend to prove that they don't function well and describe reality when you treat them like transfinite numbers rather than finite numbers. 

But Christians keep making the claim that infinities don't exist.  Is this a scientific fact or a religious dogma?  To answer that question, I went on campus and found three physics professors.  I put the question to them: Do infinities exist in the real world?   None of them came down on your side. 

I, therefore, tentatively conclude that your claim is religious dogma rather than scientific fact.  This is my lightly-held belief. 

I'll be happy to change my opinion if you establish that your opinion is the scientific consensus. 

Your demonstration that you can make mistakes by treating transfinite numbers like finite numbers doesn't prove anything about the reality or usefulness of infinities. 

William Lane Craig is smart, and educated, and makes a profession of fielding arguments like this.  I can't believe he hasn't been corrected on this point, or that he hasn't understood the corrections.  Yet he still fields this argument.  That is why I believe that the title of this thread ("Dr. Craig is a liar") is a true statement.  

If scientists generally agreed with Craig on this point, he would certainly tell his audiences about that.  Instead, all he proves is that college math and grade school math are different.  That's not a proof of anything but intellectual stubbornness.

I can't believe WLC has been working on one logical argument for 40 years..