RE: why things are rather than not...and necessary existence
June 21, 2012 at 12:08 am
(This post was last modified: June 21, 2012 at 12:11 am by Angrboda.)
(June 20, 2012 at 12:13 am)MysticKnight Wrote: Nothing is just is without reason.
Where did you get this principle from? Did you just pull this out of your ass? You did, didn't you? Trying to guess how the universe works from intuition or first principles will only demonstrate the human capacity for foolishness. Quantum mechanics seems to delight in defying our intuitions. And radioactive decay is a perfect example of things being without a reason. We can predict how much of a radioactive sample will decay over time, but there is no reason why one particular atom decays when another doesn't. It's random. The result of radioactive decay "just is". So much for your principle.
And before that you engaged in the lottery fallacy. That a particular person won the lottery is not evidence that they were possessed of properties that the losers didn't possess (aside from number of lottery tickets purchased). Some theorists propose that the specific properties of our universe evolved as a consequence of its method of origination. And others, like Victor Stenger, point out that people who tally up properties in order to make an argument based on fine tuning frequently over count massively by doing things like counting properties that aren't independent as independent properties, and counting essentially dimensionless properties as if their having a unique value meant anything, and for properties that matter, choosing the scale such that the specific zone of comfort appears small, but which is only small because of the scale chosen (arbitrarily). (Tell you what, see if you can get William Lane Craig to give you a list, and, first he won't give you a list, but those who will populate their lists with items that don't belong.)