RE: The First Cause? Prime Mover Argument
May 8, 2015 at 8:49 am
(This post was last modified: May 8, 2015 at 8:59 am by robvalue.)
Everything having a cause is not something that is clear cut, especially at the quantum level. I see you've gone with slightly different wording here and are talking about dependency, I don't know how you establish that either.
All our understanding of physics goes mental near the Big Bang. There is also no reason to discount the idea of an infinite past, just because we can't imagine it. Also, the "first cause/prime mover" is special pleading, because the argument requires everything to have a cause/dependency/whatever, so to just define something in such a way as to be able to break that rule does not guarantee such a thing can exist. It's inventing a forgone conclusion just to satisfy the premises, which are not sound anyhow. If something can break the rule, then the universe itself could just break the rule.
Bottom line is all of science has not been able to say with any degree of confidence what happened before the plank time, so a simple logical argument isn't going to be able to demonstrate something that all of science cannot.
However, if it makes you feel better to think there was a first cause, then that's cool As you say, we can't know anything about it, if there is such a thing so referring to it as any kind of "God" seems random. I'd still be an atheist if I thought our reality was a simulation or a creation within another reality. I wouldn't feel the need to label any life forms in the parent reality "God".
I just prefer "we don't know".
All our understanding of physics goes mental near the Big Bang. There is also no reason to discount the idea of an infinite past, just because we can't imagine it. Also, the "first cause/prime mover" is special pleading, because the argument requires everything to have a cause/dependency/whatever, so to just define something in such a way as to be able to break that rule does not guarantee such a thing can exist. It's inventing a forgone conclusion just to satisfy the premises, which are not sound anyhow. If something can break the rule, then the universe itself could just break the rule.
Bottom line is all of science has not been able to say with any degree of confidence what happened before the plank time, so a simple logical argument isn't going to be able to demonstrate something that all of science cannot.
However, if it makes you feel better to think there was a first cause, then that's cool As you say, we can't know anything about it, if there is such a thing so referring to it as any kind of "God" seems random. I'd still be an atheist if I thought our reality was a simulation or a creation within another reality. I wouldn't feel the need to label any life forms in the parent reality "God".
I just prefer "we don't know".
Feel free to send me a private message.
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