(February 9, 2018 at 5:28 pm)SteveII Wrote:(February 9, 2018 at 2:45 pm)polymath257 Wrote: if there is an infinite regress of causes, an infinite number have already passed at any point, so there is no problem. The only problem is if there is a *start* to that infinite sequence.
Your first sentence is a contradiction. It is impossible to count to infinity with successive addition. Think about it: what number plus 1 gets you to infinity? Looking at that in reverse, if there were an infinite number of events in the past you would never count down from the past to 3...2...1...present event. The present would never arrive. Saying silly things like if you never *start* does nothing to solve it.
Good thing we don't have to worry about all this anyway (except purely for the sake of intellectual stimulation and nothing more), considering the implications of modern cosmology/physics with regards to time and causality and all that.
