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A new argument for the existence of gods

Hillary May 16, 2022 at 07:32 7100 views 50 comments
Let me offer my two shekels in the gods debate. Consider the following argument.

-The universe is made from non-intelligent dead basic material
-Dead, non-intelligent basic material can't bring itself into existence. It's simply not smart enough.
-Conclusion: intelligent gods have brought the basic material into existence. They are the reason of existence, whatever that reason might have been.

The why question doesn't apply to the existence of gods, as eternal intelligences don't require another reason. How can dead stuff, out of which life evolved, just exist, even eternally, without a cause, or better, a reason for its existence? Letting it pop into existence by some "mindless spark", like brother @universeness suggested, seems almost the same as suggesting gods are the reason. Almost, as a mindless spark is the irrational alternative of gods with a reason.

Is my argument sound? Can we say it's a proof even?

Comments (50)

Angelo Cannata May 16, 2022 at 09:56 #695881
So, God should exist to satisfy your cause-effect mental scheme, the same way God should not exist to avoid conflicts with the mental schemes of atheists.
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 13:29 #696043
Quoting Angelo Cannata
So, God should exist to satisfy your cause-effect mental scheme,


It's the opposite. The universe satisfies my cause-effect scheme, and because the cause-effect scheme can't explain it's own existence, there has to be a non-causal reason for it's existence, i.e. ,gods
Jackson May 16, 2022 at 13:47 #696057
Quoting Hillary
The universe is made from non-intelligent dead basic material


Not true.
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 13:54 #696059
Reply to Jackson

But how did it create itself? What intelligence matter particles have to create themselves?
Jackson May 16, 2022 at 13:55 #696060
Quoting Hillary
But how did it create itself?


There was no creation.
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 13:56 #696061
Quoting Jackson
There was no creation.


How do you know?
Jackson May 16, 2022 at 13:57 #696062
Quoting Hillary
How do you know?


How do you know there was? Just a Christian dogma.
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 13:58 #696063
Reply to Jackson


So the universe exists without a reason? All life exists without a reason?
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 13:59 #696065
Reply to Jackson

Im no Christian. I dont believe in God.
Jackson May 16, 2022 at 13:59 #696066
Quoting Hillary
Im no Christian. I dont believe in God.


That's nice.
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 13:59 #696067
Quoting Jackson
How do you know there was?


How you know there wasn't? Scientific dogma tells you that.
Jackson May 16, 2022 at 14:01 #696069
Quoting Hillary
How you know there wasn't? Scientific dogma tells you that.


What science says the world always existed?
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 14:02 #696070
Quoting Jackson
That's nice.


Why did you assume Im a Christian?

Quoting Jackson
What science says the world always existed?


Then it still needs a reason it exists.

Jackson May 16, 2022 at 14:02 #696072
Quoting Hillary
Then it still needs a reason it exists.


If the universe always existed then why does it need a reason?
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 14:04 #696075
Quoting Jackson
If the universe always existed then why does it need a reason?


There might not be a first cause, but there just has to be a reason for life. To think not is irrational.
Jackson May 16, 2022 at 14:05 #696076
Quoting Hillary
There might not be a first cause, but there just has to be a reason for life.


Why does there have to be a reason?
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 14:08 #696080
Quoting Jackson
Why does there have to be a reason?


Because I believe in rationallity, the ratio. And non-intelligent particles in a quantum vacuum are too stupid to have come into existence by themselves.
Jackson May 16, 2022 at 14:09 #696081
Quoting Hillary
And non-intelligent particles


Yes, and this I contest.
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 14:14 #696085
Quoting Jackson
Yes, and this I contest.


What intelligence has a particle? How it creates itself out of the blue, even if eternal?
Angelo Cannata May 16, 2022 at 14:15 #696087
Reply to Hillary
The fact that the universe seems to your mind to satisfy your cause-effect scheme does not mean that your mental scheme expresses entirely how everything works. This is the mistake made by Russell's inductivist turkey.
Jackson May 16, 2022 at 14:16 #696088
Quoting Hillary
What intelligence has a particle? How it creates itself out of the blue, even if eternal?


I reject the logic of creation.
180 Proof May 16, 2022 at 15:45 #696138
Quoting Hillary
The why question doesn't apply to the existence of gods, as eternal intelligences don't require another reason.

Why not?

Is my argument sound? Can we say it's a proof even?

No. No.

Quoting Hillary
So the universe exists without a reason? All life exists without a reason?

Yes. Yes.

NB: The only "reason for existence" that does not beg the question (i.e. an infinite regress) – that is rational – is that there is no reason for existence.

Agent Smith May 16, 2022 at 16:25 #696149
3 Revolutions!

1. Creatio ex nihilo (Deus/Fluke): Nothing [math]\to[/math] Something

2. Biological: Inanimate [math]\to[/math] Animate

3. Psychological: Animate [math]\to[/math] Consciousness

---
Posited 4[sup]th[/sup] Revolution

4. Transcendence (Nirvana/Deus/etc.): Consciousness [math]\to[/math] ? Sabrá Mandrake!

Hillary May 16, 2022 at 17:51 #696184
Quoting 180 Proof
NB: The only "reason for existence" that does not beg the question (i.e. an infinite regress) – that is rational – is that there is no reason for existence.


No reason begs the question just as well. Why is there no reason? Why exist the universe and life in it without reason? Why is the universe irrational? Because its irrational? Even more irrational. The only rational explanation is gods, who don't need further reason to exist.
180 Proof May 16, 2022 at 17:56 #696187
Quoting Hillary
Why is there no reason?

Performative contradiction.
Hillary May 16, 2022 at 18:49 #696197
Quoting 180 Proof
Performative contradiction.


A reason a performative contradiction? I would say the lack of reason is an explosive irrationality. The gods could just gather globally and collectively speak the word. The logos was created.
180 Proof May 16, 2022 at 19:21 #696204
Relativist May 17, 2022 at 02:25 #696325
Quoting Hillary
How can dead stuff, out of which life evolved, just exist, even eternally, without a cause, or better, a reason for its existence? Letting it pop into existence by some "mindless spark", like brother

Why can't the material world exist eternally (ie at all times, even if the past is finite)? This doesn't entail "popping into existence", it means never NOT existing.
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 06:51 #696396
Reply to Relativist

You could push away the popping into existence to an infinite past, but that doesn't mean the universe wasn't created. The 4d structure on which two 3d universes inflate (emerge) periodically, is itself no subjected to thermodynamic time. The structure fluctuates in time and is too dumb to create it's own existence. To say its an eternal structure makes sense only from the emergent thermodynamic, unidirectional time perspective, as experiences in the two universes emerging on it periodically (each new pair with a new beginning in time). The question is: who the fuck made that 4d structure? Answer: gods created it to run a material version of the eternal etherical heaven on. In one big bang after another. Maybe there just was a first big bang, maybe we live in the zillionth...
universeness May 17, 2022 at 07:07 #696398
Reply to Hillary
So, I haven't received any of these burning physics questions you claim you have that physicists have so far refused to answer. I don't understand your delay, since your claim suggests these questions were created a long time ago so it's not like you would need time to form one of them.
Your credibility has diminished further imo.
I withdraw my offer to pose one of your 'burning' questions to the physicists who have answered my questions previously on Quora.
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 07:15 #696400
Reply to universeness

Check your mail... We were writing at the same time!
universeness May 17, 2022 at 07:22 #696403
Quoting Hillary
Check your mail... We were writing at the same time


Of course we were :roll: Anyway, I like to give people a little rope. Let's see!
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 07:23 #696404
Quoting universeness
Of course we were


We were! I just saw you were online!
universeness May 17, 2022 at 07:30 #696407
Quoting Hillary
We were! I just saw you were online!


Plausible yes but I don't see why I had to be online at the moment you send a PM with a physics question. I would have noticed the PM as soon as I came online.
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 07:32 #696409
Quoting universeness
Plausible yes but I don't see why I had to be online at the moment you send a PM with a physics question. I would have noticed the PM as soon as I came online.


So I should have written it immediately after the offer? "The offer stands for 12 hours only!"?
universeness May 17, 2022 at 07:37 #696411
Quoting Hillary
So I should have written it immediately after the offer? "The offer stands for 12 hours only!"?


Follow-up time is very important when others offer to assist you.
Especially when your credibility is already compromised Mr roleplaying athiest.
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 08:35 #696423
Quoting universeness
Especially when your credibility is already compromised Mr roleplaying athiest.


You are the roleplaying atheist. What credibility you talk about? Not being "peer reviewed" or an article on my name? Well, then you're credible...
universeness May 17, 2022 at 08:39 #696428
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 08:41 #696429
Reply to universeness

Is that all you got, Caesar?
universeness May 17, 2022 at 08:43 #696432
Reply to Hillary
The most shallow vessels make the loudest noise.
You are lost!
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 08:55 #696438
Quoting universeness
The most shallow vessels make the loudest noise.
You are lost!


On the contrary! Im found! And ahead of my time, insofar physics is concerned.
Relativist May 17, 2022 at 15:35 #696506
Quoting Hillary
You could push away the popping into existence to an infinite past
Doesn't require an infinite past, just initial conditions.
Quoting Hillary
To say its an eternal structure makes sense only from the emergent thermodynamic, unidirectional time perspective, as experiences in the two universes emerging on it periodically (each new pair with a new beginning in time). The question is: who the fuck made that 4d structure? Answer: gods created it to run a material version of the eternal etherical heaven on.
If indeed the arrow of time is associated with thermodynamics, this doesn't preclude a (thermodynamically) static quantum system from being the fundamental basis from which it emerges.

[U]Something[/u] is uncreated. IMO, it's more plausible to think that intelligence emerged gradually, rather than existing uncaused in a complete form, because intelligence implies a great deal of organization.



Hillary May 17, 2022 at 15:41 #696513
Quoting Relativist
If indeed the arrow of time is associated with thermodynamics, this doesn't preclude a (thermodynamically) static quantum system from being the fundamental basis from which it emerges.


Precisely. One cannot say time runs forward or backwards in such a primordial state.
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 15:50 #696520
Quoting Relativist
Something is uncreated.


Yes. The universe is uncreated if you turn time backwards. But then a new appears at the same time at infinity, running back to the central singularity.

Intelligence evolved slowly, but tthe life that slowly evolved is the material version of eternal heavenly life.
SpaceDweller May 17, 2022 at 20:04 #696595
Quoting Hillary
-The universe is made from non-intelligent dead basic material
-Dead, non-intelligent basic material can't bring itself into existence. It's simply not smart enough.
-Conclusion: intelligent gods have brought the basic material into existence. They are the reason of existence, whatever that reason might have been.


Awesome argument.
But how do you deal with theory of evolution?

Theory of evolution claims life come out of water, which is a non intelligent material.
If we exclude animals and humans and assume there is none for now, then plants are living but non-intelligent.
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 20:14 #696600
Quoting SpaceDweller
But how do you deal with theory of evolution?


I think they made the basics. If all life in heaven took part in the development, research, and finally creation of the particles with the right properties, in the right spacetime, all intelligences, all life, could evolve in the right way to give rise to all life, and every eternal god could have a counterpart in the temporary divine material version in the material universe. The big bang could bang periodically, to let life develop (which scientists call evolution) again and again, so the eternal gods could watch them over and over again. A reason for creation could be that boredom or and existential void hit the heavens... :starstruck:
SpaceDweller May 17, 2022 at 20:19 #696603
Quoting Hillary
so the eternal gods could watch them over and over again


One problem is that big bang is modern theory of universe, therefore a God which is the creator of big bang (or a series of big bangs) does not fit into any of the revelations about God that we have today.

In other words with such hypothesis you're creating a new religion.
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 20:26 #696611
Quoting SpaceDweller
One problem is that big bang is modern theory of universe, therefore a God which is the creator of big bang (or a series of big bangs) does not fit into any of the revelations about God that we have today.

In other words with such hypothesis you're creating a new religion.


Believe it or not, but I had a truly amazing dream. Maybe it were the gods themselves who made me dream, or maybe it was my unconsciousness in action, but I saw thousands of creatures working together and when they had found the solution they magically turned the particles real. And the universe was born. And the first bang banged... The standard view on god is an archaic outdated, old-fashioned one.
SpaceDweller May 17, 2022 at 20:44 #696621
Reply to Hillary
I find your argument in OP compelling because, the only thing that could make it wrong is biological phenomena of how intelligent life come to existence, out of water.

A good thing is that life out of water can't be reproduced with all the technological advancements we have.

I think it's either biological phenomena or God, but how to construct arguments on these 2 hypothesis is beyond my imagination.
Hillary May 17, 2022 at 21:43 #696634
Quoting SpaceDweller
A good thing is that life out of water can't be reproduced with all the technological advancements we have.


Good observation. Not one single lifeform can be produced in a lob. Not even a virus.

Quoting SpaceDweller
I think it's either biological phenomena or God, but how to construct arguments on these 2 hypothesis is beyond my imagination.


Life evolving naturally was the intention of the gods. The only thing they had to create was a rightly structured 4d quantum vacuum, containing the right virtual particles (which differ from real ones in the sense that they have all momenta and energies, as independent variables). Just create that and two universes bang into existence automatically. Again and again. As planned. We are doomed to dance for the gods over and over. But I don't mind!