RE: The First Cause? Prime Mover Argument
May 10, 2015 at 9:15 pm
(This post was last modified: May 10, 2015 at 9:33 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Those who offer it are unlikely to conceptualize any prime mover as an abstract. OP thinks prime mover is a god...........for example. That's not abstract, we just don't know what it means to any given user and so it often comes off -as- abstract.
to elucidate:
to elucidate:
Quote:Premise 1) Everything in the Universe is either impermanent, or depends upon something else for its existence. (things are born and they die, the universe tends towards entropy, nothing within the Universe lasts forever)pretext for the coming attribute claim, a great deal of time is spent on this thing....
Quote:Premise 2) An infinite regress of finite, impermanent causes seems logically impossible.Does it....is that relevant? Couldn't a prime mover be impermanent? We need not refer to an infinite regress of impermanent cause...and why would permanence of cause be relevant -at all-? I think it's misleading, personally...because even if there were some "permanent cause" we've been asked to simply accept this...whilst one day my children will visit my grave. We need no further evidence for the efficacy of impermanent causes. If I am to accept prime mover -simply for the sake of argument- I will still suggest that this prime mover might be long since gone. Might explain why, as the op mentions...we have no direct experience of it. There is nothing to directly experience.
Quote:Conclusion 1)Therefore there must a permanent, infinite first cause of everything in the Universe. (or the Universe is itself permanent/infinite but BBT suggests it had a beginning and is expanding so this seems implausible)"therefore" must follow from something....but in truth, this is contained in premise 1. But...I can see that infinity and permanence play heavily into OPs idea of a god. Common obsessions.
Quote:Premise 3) This first cause is empistemically hidden from us (we have no direct experience or knowledge of it)Hiddenness...check.....
Quote:Conclusion 2) Therefore we know nothing about it other than what is necessary for a first cause of the Universe.ah, the old "we don;t know"..what foolows from we don't know, is, of course, we don't know...but the OP elucidates...adding yet another attribute...mysteriousness, check.
Quote:Conclusion 3) Therefore there is a, largely mysterious, infinite, permanent, first cause of the Universe that I will call a Prime mover.We've determined that the OP prefers mysterious, infinite, permanent causes.......as to whether or not such things exist....well......
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