(February 11, 2018 at 12:27 pm)Grandizer Wrote: God isn't in any better situation with regards to this whole necessary vs. contingent thing, and that if the whole cosmos is contingent, then so is God (after all, theists haven't shown that it's logically impossible for God to exist in one possible world and not exist in another, or that God does not depend on some necessary thing for its existence; they only assert that their God is necessary), and vice versa (if God is necessary, why not the cosmos). And so in this case, we go straight to the infamous razor and cut God out (no God needed).(my bold)
They claim that there is one necessary thing and to this thing they call god. Not the other way around, like you're implying.
Although, a case can be made that the whole philosophy was developed to arrive at this particular outcome.
What is not entirely demonstrated, because reality is weirder than our logic would suggest based on our sampling of the rules on this corner of the cosmos, is that there need be such a necessary thing in the first place.
The infinite regress (that can be claimed to come about through the establishment of space-time, the cosmos, as the most necessary thing) can be avoided if one notes that it is possible for time to exist and yet not pass - a photon, traveling at the speed of light, does not age.
