The first cause argument (I prefer lower case!) has numerous flaws. I think Joe has pointed out the most crucial one. A first cause does not necessarily equate to a personal all-loving allknowing god.
But there are other flaws too.
A minor flaw in the intro of the argument is that the universe is depicted as a limited region. Science is not conclusive about this and leaves open the possibility that the universe is truly infinite. It is true however that the visible part of the universe is limited though.
Causality is often depicted as one long straight chain of events, but there is no intrinsic reason why causality can't have cyclic aspects on a cosmic scale: the first cause of the big bang may be the last event of the universe in it's prior form. This possibility has not been disgarded by science conclusively so far (no one can claim to know what happened before time at the Planck scale).
Even if god created the universe, it may still be that god itself had a natural cause. Your friend rules out this possibility by saying that in that case his god would not be first cause. So what? He may not be happy with the fact that this demotes his god, but that would be special pleading wouldn't it?
Also observe that intention of an all-mighty agent, is used in the argument. Does the universe need some agent's intention? It is superfluous. The universe might have been created without intention, in fact it would be a striking breach of nature's laws we know so far (see my bio for a free interpreted example of this).
Another possibility is that what we observe as our universe is only part of a superuniverse in which some events are starting points for daughter universes such as ours. Odd as this may seem, this in fact is a possibility that is considered a serious candidate in theoretical phyiics (M-brame theory). Of course if you ponder about it, you could even stack an infinite hierarchy of universe-superuniverse levels and never need a first cause.
A variant on the last possibility is that we only see a part of all the dimensions of our universe. Suppose there are 30 dimensions in all while we experience only four. It may be that there is some causality chain that connects the other dimnsions with ours. It would seem to u as if the universe popped out of nothing. We would going on between the dimensions.
But there are other flaws too.
A minor flaw in the intro of the argument is that the universe is depicted as a limited region. Science is not conclusive about this and leaves open the possibility that the universe is truly infinite. It is true however that the visible part of the universe is limited though.
Causality is often depicted as one long straight chain of events, but there is no intrinsic reason why causality can't have cyclic aspects on a cosmic scale: the first cause of the big bang may be the last event of the universe in it's prior form. This possibility has not been disgarded by science conclusively so far (no one can claim to know what happened before time at the Planck scale).
Even if god created the universe, it may still be that god itself had a natural cause. Your friend rules out this possibility by saying that in that case his god would not be first cause. So what? He may not be happy with the fact that this demotes his god, but that would be special pleading wouldn't it?
Also observe that intention of an all-mighty agent, is used in the argument. Does the universe need some agent's intention? It is superfluous. The universe might have been created without intention, in fact it would be a striking breach of nature's laws we know so far (see my bio for a free interpreted example of this).
Another possibility is that what we observe as our universe is only part of a superuniverse in which some events are starting points for daughter universes such as ours. Odd as this may seem, this in fact is a possibility that is considered a serious candidate in theoretical phyiics (M-brame theory). Of course if you ponder about it, you could even stack an infinite hierarchy of universe-superuniverse levels and never need a first cause.
A variant on the last possibility is that we only see a part of all the dimensions of our universe. Suppose there are 30 dimensions in all while we experience only four. It may be that there is some causality chain that connects the other dimnsions with ours. It would seem to u as if the universe popped out of nothing. We would going on between the dimensions.
"I'm like a rabbit suddenly trapped, in the blinding headlights of vacuous crap" - Tim Minchin in "Storm"
Christianity is perfect bullshit, christians are not - Purple Rabbit, honouring CS Lewis
Faith is illogical - fr0d0
Christianity is perfect bullshit, christians are not - Purple Rabbit, honouring CS Lewis
Faith is illogical - fr0d0
