RE: Any Theists on AF, I Challenge You to a Debate on the Existence of God
December 30, 2014 at 1:21 pm
(This post was last modified: December 30, 2014 at 1:23 pm by Mudhammam.)
I'll argue FOR the existence of God.
1. There must be a first cause. Causation cannot regress infinitely; a succession of events, such as those immediately preceding the present one, could not be added to an actual infinite set. But even if this can be shown to be possible, yet as incomprehensible as a first cause, the evidence in cosmology suggests that time, space, and matter had a beginning, and hence the cause for the world cannot be physical, but must metaphysical or hyperphysical.
2. The cause must be free and not restrained, as a mechanism that is only acting on sufficient conditions would result in another infinite regress.
3. The cause is responsible for finely-tuned order, through a synthesis of plurality in unity that, through intricately determined principles, brought about reflective "selves" who can relate to themselves. As science seeks out simpler principles to explain complex phenomena, our first cause is the most simple of all, a singularity of infinite potential. It contains potentiality to create, through infinitely complex mechanisms, a set of realities, one with beings who possess a taste for the infinite and the finite, chance and necessity, good and evil, in other words, the first cause acts and through its power comes to know itself as a plurality of selves.
4. Nature is the effect of God, and reflects the sublime plurality in unity, chaos in order, evil in good, and all other relational paradoxes that science can only dimly grasp.
:-) Ok, that's all I got for now.
1. There must be a first cause. Causation cannot regress infinitely; a succession of events, such as those immediately preceding the present one, could not be added to an actual infinite set. But even if this can be shown to be possible, yet as incomprehensible as a first cause, the evidence in cosmology suggests that time, space, and matter had a beginning, and hence the cause for the world cannot be physical, but must metaphysical or hyperphysical.
2. The cause must be free and not restrained, as a mechanism that is only acting on sufficient conditions would result in another infinite regress.
3. The cause is responsible for finely-tuned order, through a synthesis of plurality in unity that, through intricately determined principles, brought about reflective "selves" who can relate to themselves. As science seeks out simpler principles to explain complex phenomena, our first cause is the most simple of all, a singularity of infinite potential. It contains potentiality to create, through infinitely complex mechanisms, a set of realities, one with beings who possess a taste for the infinite and the finite, chance and necessity, good and evil, in other words, the first cause acts and through its power comes to know itself as a plurality of selves.
4. Nature is the effect of God, and reflects the sublime plurality in unity, chaos in order, evil in good, and all other relational paradoxes that science can only dimly grasp.
:-) Ok, that's all I got for now.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
