(October 23, 2014 at 11:15 am)Heywood Wrote: Imagine a vat full of marbles...an infinite number of them. All the marbles are white except one. One marble is red. The red marble represents ThereExist[nothing]. The white marbles represent different configurations of ThereExist[Something]. Is it possible that you could randomly draw the red marble? Sure. What is the probability of drawing the red marble? Its 0.Very good. Without realizing it, you have produced another argument for God's existence called "argument from particularity."
Why is there something rather than nothing? Because while it is possible for ThereExist[nothing] to be the case, the probability it will be the case is 0.
The argument is almost as you have put it. We ask: Why is the world this and not something else? Either it was designed for a purpose, such that the purpose (or end) constrained the universe (or means) to a single thing or at least a finite set; or its essence was randomly pulled somehow out of an infinity of possible worlds. But not the latter, because the probability of this world’s being chosen in such a way is exactly zero. It is impossible to consider for selection every member of an infinite set.
But purposive design entails choosing between possibilities and suggests an intelligence at work behind the scenes. Hence, another conclusion: God is smart.
However, the original argument is separate and distinct from this one. For here we compare possible forms or essences of the world: X, Y, Z, etc. In the OP, we compare existences. The question was: Why something, i.e., anything such as any of X, Y, or Z, rather than nothing?
