RE: Atheism and the existence of peanut butter
October 3, 2021 at 4:22 pm
(This post was last modified: October 3, 2021 at 4:26 pm by R00tKiT.)
(October 3, 2021 at 4:11 pm)polymath257 Wrote: But if there was no beginning, then the time interval between any two *actually existing* times is always finite.
So what ? In an eternal past, there are infinitely many segments of finite time.
(October 3, 2021 at 4:11 pm)polymath257 Wrote: Yes, I am talking about an *actually infinite* past. In other words, that there i no beginning. In other words, that there is an infinite regress of causes.
Why would *that* imply we 'could never get here'?
Because if there is no finite past, there can't be a present moment. An actually infinite past will take an infinite amount of wait by definition. Waiting infinitely for X means that X never happens, period.
(October 3, 2021 at 4:11 pm)polymath257 Wrote: Give a detailed argument why there could not be an infinite past that doesn't simply claim that we could not 'get here' without an argument *why* we couldn't.
In particular, when you say we couldn't 'get here', exactly *from where* are you saying it is impossible?
Precisely, because there is no *from where*. There is no starting point when we assume an infinite past. You can't just pick a moment and start with it, if you do that, you are not talking about an actual infinity any more, you will be considering the past a potential infinity, just like numbers. It's as if you skip all the (infinitely many) negative numbers and start from 0, false.
(October 3, 2021 at 4:18 pm)polymath257 Wrote: Which means that the 'God Hypothesis' is inherently untestable. And *that* is enough to disqualify it as a reasonable explanation of anything.
The God hypothesis is not empirical by definition. Testability/falsifiability/explanatory power criteria can only be applied to empirical hypotheses.