(March 10, 2017 at 2:22 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote:(March 10, 2017 at 2:17 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Your incredulity and/or hyper-skepticism does not equate to “no evidence” on my part.
And yet no evidence has been presented. You keep brining up Aquinas's 5 ways as though they were evidence in some way, they aren't.
With respect to Aquinas, the demonstrations are based on common observations, i.e. things about the world that are 'evident'. That's what evidence means. It is evident that beings can persist despite changes (1W). It is evident that efficient causes are essentially ordered (2W. It is evident that there is something rather than nothing (3W). It is evident that some things better instantiate their kind (4W). It is evident that causes have regular effects (5W). More recently, I have been mentioning other things that are evident: the natural instinct of humans to believe, apprehension one's self in relation to being-as-such, and cross-cultural consistency in mystical experiences of the divine. All that counts as evidence. I can appreciate if you feel the evidence does not support my conclusion, but that's not the same thing as claiming "no evidence."
