Philosophim

Of course. But that can be said about anything, and isn't an argument. The entirety of physics could be wrong. We could all be brains in vats. Doubtin...

quote="Banno;620484"]?Philosophim It's plain that the leap from "this has a cause" to "everything has a cause" is unjustified. But that's not what I a...

See a few posts up above. I'm thinking of putting this mention in the OP because I've seen it a few times now.

But that doesn't negate cause and effect. That's the only thing that matters right now. I'm not here to argue whether BT is correct or not. I'm here t...

I understand your joy of philosophy! You may hold that without debate. What I'm asking is can your view point avoid what the OP is stating? If its alw...

Why has existence always existed? What caused it to be that way?

While I have my own opinions on this, your viewpoint does not negate cause and effect, so to avoid going on a tangetnt, its fine if you hold it for th...

quote="Gregory;620410"]Yes, but there may be true randomness and it would still remain casual. No. True randomness has no prior cause. The result of t...

Then you agree with the OP.

I'm glad you came back InPitzotl! I knew you were going somewhere with BT, but I needed to learn where so I could figure out how this applied to the a...

No. This is because people are not rational beings. People are rationalizing beings. A rational being will come to a conclusion that is logic, and act...

Certainly. What caused reality to be that way? If you answer, "Something else", then I'm going to ask the same question. If you answer, "It simply is"...

A person who only insults an intellect then runs away from a request to viably back that insult. I suppose you think everything you believe is right, ...

What is the purpose of justice? I think its key to your argument, and needs to be clarified.

And 11 pages of myself pointing out why these proposals of scientific illiteracy are incorrect. Feel free to take a stab at it yourself Benkei.

That is a choice, and one I respect. I believe there is no "correct" answer when this problem occurs, and should be left up to the individual. I have ...

Technically I would say "It may be true or false, but it is extremely likely that it is unknowable." It may just happen that the first planet you look...

I am trying not to interfere in your discussion with Banno, but I thought it would be useful to point this out for others. True randomness has no prio...

What? How? That's the conclusion of the argument. I do not say anywhere in the initial set up that an alpha necessarily exists. I am setting the stage...

Apparently. A few people in this discussion have gotten the argument after discussion and clarification. Straw men attacks, or attacks on my character...

I'm not assuming physics is deterministic though. I even mention several times that the physics of today might not have been the physics of thousands ...

I'm not sure you understood the OP, which is perfectly fine. The first cause is not Y. Y is when we look at a state and wonder, "Does this have a prio...

Of course the idea exists. The idea of a unicorn exists. But can we discover a unicorn in reality apart from the idea? No. The idea of cause and effec...

I'm not seeing any refutations here, which means despite your personal feelings, means the point stands. Your personal feelings or unbacked accusation...

I call these philosophies Gandolfian theories. There are plenty of people who postulate what Gandolf from The Lord of the Rings would do in a certain ...

This is exactly it. Omnibenevolence is a restraint on what we do, because there is some greater purpose than our own personal whims. An omnipotent God...

Of course they exist. We're talking about them right now. Further, when they are applied to reality, reality does not contradict their application. So...

Certainly. Cause and effect are measures of states over time based on interactive forces. A very simple and real world example is when you press you k...

An inadequate argument is a flawed argument. I was a teacher for five years. If you can take a complex concept and break it down so that even a four y...

Not a worry! It isn't as if we are typing a few paragraphs. A quality analysis is worth the wait! By laws, I do not mean any specific law. I mean a co...

All interesting points. I don't see why anything you said isn't a possibility. Fantastic conversation, and I loved the poems!

I think wisdom is when someone has knowledge, applies it correctly to a situation with the expectation of a particular outcome that occurs. To contras...

It very well could be the alpha. But, there are a few things to understand about QFT. First, its tenants are not proven yet. It is very much theory, a...

In short, no. But that theory might inspire funding into trying to see if its possible to prove multiverse theory. You would absolutely need to prove ...

Divine command theory is a way of avoiding the problem of evil, not solving it. The point that I used above is the same counter to divine command theo...

Ok, I think I see what you're going for. In this case, I would say you would know what it would take to prove multiverse theory true or false, (humani...

Logically, why could there not be "nothing"? Doesn't nothing exist now? The fact that something can appear while nothing remains around it is not far ...

I want to clarify this. Do you mean we have an idea that we can conceivably prove to be true or false, but we don't currently have the means to do it?...

No hard disagreement here. I think this is easy to understand.

And that's the entire problem your argument runs into. Morality is a set of constraints on what we should or should not do, independent of our power. ...

Just checking by what you mean by spontaneously. If you mean "By some numeric random chance", you are correct. We can't put numbers or predictions of ...

Yes, you are denying the property of omnibenevolent. Perhaps the part you do not understand is that what is good is independent from something with po...

The title of your topic is "Solving the problem of evil". The problem of evil is a very specific problem defined by the contradiction inherent in the ...

Well, the argument does. If you're trying to say causality doesn't really exist, but I can post even one instance that it does, then my point stands. ...

Maybe. It might also just be inert floating amongst other things. I would assume that some came into existence with momentum however, as otherwise we ...

I am not going to go into the entire literary history of philosophy of causation for a forum post to a general audience. I am using the general unders...

Your fingers. :D Am I wrong? Simple things are often all that are needed to prove a point. Demonstrate to me that your fingers were not one X in the c...

If you are claiming that what is good is what a powerful being decides, then you are not using the word omnibenevolent to describe that being. At that...

Perception combined with proper science can however. What caused the words that you wanted to type appear on your screen? Are you saying there was no ...

I think you misunderstood the OP. The OP concludes that there must exist things which have no prior explanation for their existence. If there is nothi...