Refutation of the First Cause argument from Hume (PS, Hume doesn't demand that you worship him - after all - he is not as proud as your God).
1. The first cause argument is dependent on causation
2. Causation is dependent on time
3. If there was ever no time then there would have been no causation
4. If time was infinite then it would never have gotten to today
5. Today exists
6. Therefore, time is finite.
7. Therefore, there was a point without time
8. Therefore, there was a point without causation
9a. The universe could be the result of a state of affairs without causation
9b. God/Allah could be the result of a state of affairs without causation who then created the universe
9c. Ockhams razor provides that the more simple explanation is most likely to be true.
9d. An uncaused universe is more simple than an uncaused god who then created the universe
10a. Therefore, it is more likely that the universe is uncaused; and,
10b. God does not exist.
3 comments:
I like the logic, I'm going to bookmark this page for future reference
Me too. What I like about it is that it replicates the cosmological argument pretty much to the letter, but then shows how God as Uncaused Cause is simply an ad hoc addition. In other words, the burden of proof remains with those who claim that God exists.
9c. Ockhams razor provides that the more simple explanation is most likely to be true.
9d. An uncaused universe is more simple than an uncaused god who then created the universe
Hume has commited a logical fallacy here. The universe occuring as a product of random chance is as statistically probable as shooting across the entire universe and hitting a bulls-eye you were aiming for.
The modern quasi-scientific materialist gets around this by saying there are infinite different uncaused universes and this happens to be one of the infintesimally small number of inhabitable ones. Or alternately they will use the athropomorphic argument which is the worst kind of circular reasoning: I am here to reason about the universe therefore the universe is highly probable randomly come into existance and be capable of supporting my sort of life.
Ockham's razor certainly makes the existance of the personal creator God look good next to these far fetched examples of "reasoning". A fuller discussion of this can be found at http://operation513.blogspot.com/2008/09/dawkins-confusion.html.
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