222
votes
How can one not believe in god as the root cause of the universe?
The alternative between existence and non-existence of a creator god cannot be decided by the argument of the first cause.
Whoever argues that a first cause is needed and that this first cause is god,...
- 19.6k
181
votes
How can one not believe in god as the root cause of the universe?
The most compelling argument I've heard in this vein is that the existence of God just adds an extra step.
As Jo Wehler has pointed out, claiming God is the first cause raises the question: "What is ...
- 1,761
112
votes
How can one not believe in god as the root cause of the universe?
God here I defined as prime cause.
If you simply define god as the prime cause, then that is simply word-play. You obviously understand that the vast majority of people do not use the word 'god' ...
- 3,049
92
votes
Asserting that Atheism and Theism are both faith based positions
We must draw a distinction between atheism and agnosticism. Atheism is not believing in the existence of a God (or Gods), regardless of whether conclusive evidence is available, while agnosticism is ...
- 766
84
votes
How can one not believe in god as the root cause of the universe?
What is "nothing"?
This is Argument From First Cause. This exists in several variants...
Kalām
Plato/Aristotle
Thomas Aquinas
The short rebuttal to this is: what is "nothing"? We ...
- 4,826
71
votes
Asserting that Atheism and Theism are both faith based positions
No, atheism is not a faith based position. This has been debunked time and time again and there are numerous resources on the internet that cover this error in logic. If theism claims the existance of ...
- 1,113
42
votes
Why does Dawkins think it is wrong to posit that a paragon of 100% morals could theoretically exist?
dimension of comparison = something you can compare things about. i.e., consider two dogs: a toy poodle and a doberman pinscher.
You can compare them in terms of size in which case size is the ...
- 24.3k
42
votes
How can one not believe in god as the root cause of the universe?
There are a few different ways to show that this argument doesn't necessarily lead to the idea of a god.
Special pleading: You get to claim that everything must have a cause...except a god. But, a) ...
- 1,494
35
votes
Asserting that Atheism and Theism are both faith based positions
The only requirement of meeting the definition of "atheist" is that you do not have belief in any god(s). Computers, rocks, and newborn babies are all, by definition, atheists; because they do not ...
- 367
34
votes
Why does Dawkins think it is wrong to posit that a paragon of 100% morals could theoretically exist?
Dawkins is using the concept of smelliness for laughs, but the serious point that he's making is that we are capable of judging smelliness without a supremum of smelliness. The same goes for elevation:...
- 9,820
31
votes
Using Special Pleading to invalidate first-cause argument regarding existence of God
If I correctly understand your question, you ask: Why do people, who are not satisfied with introducing a creator god as first cause, demand a cause of this creator god?
IMO that's obvious: If ...
- 19.6k
28
votes
Asserting that Atheism and Theism are both faith based positions
Both positions, the theist and the atheist made a claim: The theist claimed the existence of god, the atheist claimed the non-existence of god. History shows: Neither of them could prove his claim.
...
- 19.6k
26
votes
Accepted
Term for people who believe God once existed but then disappeared?
"Theothanatologists" - For more information see Wikipedia.
The Death of God movement is sometimes technically referred to as
theothanatology, deriving from the Greek theos (God) and ...
- 3,496
24
votes
How can one not believe in god as the root cause of the universe?
In addition to the excellent answers given, a physicist would have problems with the following.
There ought to be cause(s) to this singularity, and cause(s) to that cause(s).
This takes causality ...
- 763
24
votes
Asserting that Atheism and Theism are both faith based positions
Alvin Plantinga, a Christian philosopher, presents a similar question regarding an extreme form of atheism that he calls "naturalism". Rather than asking whether the atheism of naturalism is faith-...
- 19.1k
23
votes
Isn't the knowledge of the non-existence of "God", objective?
Atheist conceptions of the idea of God often rest on a straw man fallacy that portrays a theistic view of God as Russell's teapot or as the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Both of these conceptions view God ...
- 19.1k
22
votes
Why does Dawkins think it is wrong to posit that a paragon of 100% morals could theoretically exist?
In my opinion this isn't actually a philosophical problem.
What Dawkins is attempting to point out is that the fact that any two elements are comparable doesn't mean there are absolute maximums or ...
- 355
18
votes
Where in the evolutionary chain did morality start to evolve?
First of all, I'm removing the references to evolution as this has been removed from the OP. The rest of this answer should directly address the relationship between the evolution of the brain, social ...
- 1,567
18
votes
How can one not believe in god as the root cause of the universe?
If the notions of actual or potential infinity are coherent, why is the notion of an infinite series of causes not also coherent ? The series of prime numbers is infinite - why not the series of ...
- 35k
18
votes
Term for people who believe God once existed but then disappeared?
What you describe is view of some deists who see God as observing humanity but not directly intervening in our lives - for more information see Wikipedia.
- 181
17
votes
How can one not believe in god as the root cause of the universe?
How can you lack belief in the existence of god.
Simple - "X believes in god" is a statement/predicate about human X.
For a non-believer, the state of believing in god is exactly as ...
- 852
17
votes
Isn't the knowledge of the non-existence of "God", objective?
Whether or not God exists is an objective question with an objective answer, however the argument beginning
Is it true that "X" exists in reality only when we are aware of having experienced it, or ...
- 564
17
votes
Is watching an amputated limb regrow proof of the supernatural?
Logically, if we could prove that God healed amputees then it would as a corollary prove the existence of God. (it is simply the argument that; "if X is specifically observed to do Y, then X must ...
- 2,357
16
votes
Accepted
Is God either immoral or not omnipotent?
I don't think this is an answer, but its a long series of comments. TLDR; there are many more considerations to the problem of evil than you seem to address.
You've missed a key element of Leibniz's ...
- 1,558
16
votes
Does the impossibility of an infinite regress prove God exists?
It's no solution to postulate a primordial source as a remedy against infinite regress. The concept of a primordial source prompts at once the question for its cause. To say it is "causa sui" - the ...
- 19.6k
16
votes
Accepted
Does the impossibility of an infinite regress prove God exists?
Most answers are misinterpreting your question. Whether it be space-time itself, the multi-verse, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster you would like to know if something had to first exist for infinity ...
- 282
15
votes
Asserting that Atheism and Theism are both faith based positions
The atheist position(s)
The most reasonable atheist position is the following position. They might say
"People say that some supernatural being exists, and they call this 'God.' Until they ...
- 3,049
14
votes
Why are there so many religions and gods?
This question is probably more aligned with history or anthropology than philosophy.
People began believing in gods thousands of years ago, long before modern transportation and communication. How ...
- 6,391
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible