I find several things wrong with the prime mover argument.
Firstly, as someone that subscribes to philosophical skepticism, I think pure reasoning without empirical evidence is fruitless and leads us no closer to the truth.
Secondly, the prime mover argument fails as a hypothesis due to its lack of explanatory and predictive power. We gain no further understanding from it, as all it seeks to do is justify the existence of the prime mover without showing what consequences that would have on reality or what we should expect to see because of that.
Thirdly, there seems to be absolutely no support that the "first cause" of the universe should necessarily be a conscious being. Its supporters just try to sneak that in with arguments that boil down to nothing more than "I think it's a sentient entity, because I think the universe had to have been designed by something sentient."
The prime mover argument appears to be nothing more than people attempting to justify preconceived beliefs, rather than build a philosophically valid worldview from the ground up.
Firstly, as someone that subscribes to philosophical skepticism, I think pure reasoning without empirical evidence is fruitless and leads us no closer to the truth.
Secondly, the prime mover argument fails as a hypothesis due to its lack of explanatory and predictive power. We gain no further understanding from it, as all it seeks to do is justify the existence of the prime mover without showing what consequences that would have on reality or what we should expect to see because of that.
Thirdly, there seems to be absolutely no support that the "first cause" of the universe should necessarily be a conscious being. Its supporters just try to sneak that in with arguments that boil down to nothing more than "I think it's a sentient entity, because I think the universe had to have been designed by something sentient."
The prime mover argument appears to be nothing more than people attempting to justify preconceived beliefs, rather than build a philosophically valid worldview from the ground up.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
