(May 24, 2018 at 6:42 pm)SteveII Wrote: I think you are wrong on this one (and I think we have been over this). We can infer several things from a first cause:
Immaterial: Since space came into existence at the first moments of the universe, the cause must not be made of at least the material in our universe. Material/physical object need space in which to exists and then you have the issue that if space exists, then time exists.
Personal: If the cause of the universe is timeless, then why is the universe only 14 billions years old? Why isn't it as permanent as its cause? The answer to that is that the cause of the universe must be endowed with a freedom of the will. Only persons have a freedom to act separate from any prior conditions. Only free will could get an effect with a beginning from a cause that is permanent.
Since the first cause is not physical, God is not ultimately a body; since it is not teleological, He is not ultimately a spirit; since He is distinct from the universe, He does not keep it in being as an Aristotelian cause.
Rather, God is as much above spirit as spirit is above body. God is goodness, and His mode of causation is "self-diffusion" thereof: neither physical nor teleological but of a unique 3rd kind. We cannot understand it but can judge God as good.