RE: Atheists, what are the most convincing theist arguments you heard of?
March 15, 2017 at 9:59 am
(March 15, 2017 at 12:44 am)Nonpareil Wrote: No. That's rather the point.
Aquinas' First Way's central premise is that all things that move must have a mover. This can only be demonstrated to hold within the universe, and cannot be shown to apply to the universe itself. If the argument is applied to the universe, as is the implication, it collapses; if it is applied only within the universe itself, it fails to establish that the first mover must be a deity rather than a natural force.
Either way, it fails.
Not to mention there's a nice little sleight of hand there at the end...
Quote:5. Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, moved by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.
Even if we accept all of the premises and logic to be valid, it's proven nothing more than something without a cause must exist. It says nothing about it being an intelligent entity, let alone the specific god "everyone understands" it to be, but ol' Tommy just leaps to the conclusion without hesitation that it must be his pet deity that he's trying to prove exists in the first place and hopes nobody will notice.
And this is the "best" they can do.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
