(April 7, 2013 at 7:29 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: The argument begins by saying that no efficient cause can cause itself. If something is caused, then it depends on something other than itself to begin. Anything that begins must have a cause. If the physical universe did not have a beginning then you have an infinite regress of causes and effects, one that is incapable of causing itself. Therefore the whole of the causal chain (even one that extends into the past infinitely) depends on something independent of causal chain. That something is an uncaused cause that is not part of the physical universe as we know it.
And god's creator is beyond even that, then, right? Why would "If god did not have a beginning then you have an infinite regress of causes and effects, one that is incapable of causing itself." be invalid?
It should be noted that there is not necessarily a reason to think existence itself needs a cause. The only know instances (as far as I know) of the existence of physical matter beginning would be quantum fluctuation, which is not caused.
John Adams Wrote:The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.
