RE: Shia Islamic Argument for the existence of God
May 13, 2016 at 9:04 am
(This post was last modified: May 13, 2016 at 9:09 am by TheMuslim.)
(May 12, 2016 at 11:00 pm)IATIA Wrote:I usually don't reply to stuff that doesn't hold logical relevance to the soundness of the demonstration I'm inquiring critique for, but I'll reply to this because this is a question I've heard before multiple times and found the Imams to have given interesting answers - from the same book I found the DOTV in.(May 12, 2016 at 2:33 pm)TheMuslim Wrote: It is nonsensical to say that there is no reality. If the claim "there is no reality" is taken to be true, then that would mean that reality really doesn't exist. But if reality really doesn't exist, its non-existence is real - its non-existence is a real phenomenon and state of affairs - its non-existence is a reality. No particular can exist without a universal (even if there is only one instance of a reality, it implies that a reality exists). Hence we have a contradiction - which is precisely why saying such a thing ("there is no reality") is nonsensical.
You may even ignore the above exposition and just read the following and then tell me what part of it you don't understand (or what part of it you don't agree with for logical reasons).
If you say that reality's non-existence is a reality, then you're contradicting yourself (you're saying there's no reality, and yet also implying that that's a reality - hence admitting that a reality exists).
If you say that reality's non-existence is not a reality, then you're saying precisely what the demonstration is saying (i.e. reality's non-existence is not a reality).
Then, can god make a rock so heavy that it cannot move it. Same train.
A Commentary on Theistic Arguments, pages 204-205: "In his al-Tawhīd, al-Shaykh al-Sadūq, blessings be with him, narrates that two different individuals asked Imam Ja‛far al-Sādiq, peace be with him, whether God has the power to place the earth in an egg-sized tiny container in a way that neither the earth loses its size nor the container expands. The Imam, peace be with him, gives one of them a rhetorical (jadalī) answer and the other a demonstrative one. In response to the first inquisitor, the Imam, peace be with him, says “Open your eyes, do not you see the expansive heavens and the earth? How God has placed something which is bigger than the earth in your eyes which are smaller than an egg.” This answer was sufficient to satisfy the inquisitor. In his answer to the second individual, while stressing that by His infinite power, God can do everything, the Imam says “What you have asked is impossible and nothing (lā shai’).” That is, although God is powerful to do everything, however, you have not asked about a “thing”; therefore, what you have inquired about is not an exception to the Divine omnipotence; rather, it is excluded from the domain of power. This response of the holy Imam, peace be with him, comprises a profound philosophical analysis about impossible phenomena that an impossible thing has a notion the extension (misdāq) of which is “nothing"."