(June 17, 2015 at 3:24 pm)TheMuslim Wrote: Hi everyone,
So last night, before falling asleep, I thought of a potential argument for the existence of God (and this isn't the reason why I believe in God), and would like to see feedback on whether it's a good argument or not and why. So this is how it goes:
The universe had a beginning. Therefore there can be only two possibilities: either it was created from nothing, or it created itself. The universe couldn't have created itself because it was nonexistent before its creation. And if it was created from nothing, because nothing existed, there were no factors to narrow down creation to a certain kind of thing, and thus nothingness had an infinite amount of options to choose from to create something. We know that it did choose a particular one. Therefore, by choosing a particular one, it (nothingness) discarded all the other options. Hence, nothingness has an inherent quality of picking certain things and not picking others, and also the power to create its chosen option. But how can nothingness have such qualities of power and choosiness; it is nothing; it has no quality or disposition! If nothingness does indeed have these qualities, then it is no longer nothing; it would be a powerful, choosy being that has the ability to choose freely (because there are no factors to limit its choice) and hence has a free will, and is uncreated. Sounds a lot like God!
Keep in mind that the resulting "nothingness" with its mentioned qualities does seem to match with the Islamic concept of God, because in Shia Islam, Allah (God) is nothing but His Qualities; His Qualities are Him, and are His Essence.
Those aren't the only 2 possibilities.
Here's another possibility to add to your list.
The universe always existed in some form, and it just changed forms with the big bang.
Your premise, "Therefore there can be only two possibilities", is what is known as a false dichotomy.
Just because those are the only 2 possibilities you are able to think of, does not mean those are actually the only 2 possibilities.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
