234
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,...
- 42.3k
191
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 ...
- 1,869
121
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' ...
- 3,109
107
votes
How can religious faith be epistemically justified?
I will be writing this answer from the frank, blunt perspective of someone who is inclusive and accepting of all peoples and belief systems, but who tries to analyze my own personal pattern-matching.
...
- 1,359
93
votes
Are atheism and theism equally based on faith?
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 ...
- 785
85
votes
Accepted
How can religious faith be epistemically justified?
There are already some excellent answers which cover most of what I want to say, but I can't resist jumping in as well...
I'm going to refer to "me" as an (hopefully) relevant example of someone with ...
- 1,565
82
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 ...
- 5,229
73
votes
Are atheism and theism equally based on faith?
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 ...
- 1,154
45
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) ...
- 1,624
42
votes
Can God transcend human logic and reasoning?
Short answer: it's just a special pleading. So the answer is no.
Long answer: apophatic theology is nothing more than an elaborate exercise in intellectual cowardice. It's a clever trick employed by ...
- 2,745
40
votes
How can religious faith be epistemically justified?
I should know better than to jump into this fray. But I can't help myself since this is something I've wondered about myself. Here are the reasons I've collected over the years. Often times I don't ...
- 1,092
35
votes
Are atheism and theism equally based on faith?
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 ...
- 375
35
votes
Is the surprising applicability of mathematics to the physical world a brute fact, or something crying out for a theistic explanation?
Reality existed.
Math was invented, partly to describe and predict reality, a useful tool.
Calculus specifically is an example...
Isaac Newton (1642–1727) is best known for having invented the
...
- 1,950
34
votes
Is Andalusi/Rasmussen's proof for the existence of God correct?
As the argument is presented here, as a proof for the existence of God, the possible fallacies are:
Begging the question - assuming the conclusion
When one of the premises is "God is unlimited&...
- 13.6k
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 ...
- 42.3k
28
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 ...
- 7,650
27
votes
How can religious faith be epistemically justified?
The problem with the most literal meaning of 'faith': "belief in something without proof" with respect to religion is that it's a philosophical dodge. For example if you (as a religious person) are ...
- 1,097
27
votes
Are atheism and theism equally based on faith?
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.
...
- 42.3k
26
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 ...
- 803
24
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 ...
- 19.8k
24
votes
Are atheism and theism equally based on faith?
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-...
- 19.8k
23
votes
How can religious faith be epistemically justified?
Because we live in an age in which science, which can be defined as a reason-based epistemic framework that relies on testing and evidence, is, at an unprecedented speed, closing the gap of knowledge ...
- 1,468
23
votes
Accepted
Is the surprising applicability of mathematics to the physical world a brute fact, or something crying out for a theistic explanation?
The biggest issue seems to be that Craig implies that mathematics is entirely disconnected from the physical world. But maths emerged from our understanding of physical world. We saw that when you put ...
- 13.6k
20
votes
Accepted
Could Occam's Razor ever favor theism?
My two cents.
As @Conifold eloquently mentions, Occam's Razor is somewhat vague and notions of complexity somewhat arbitrary, so that given suitable criteria of complexity and simplicity almost ...
- 2,948
20
votes
Can God transcend human logic and reasoning?
The problem with the apophatic view is not so much a lack of coherence as a lack of meaning. By definition, it puts itself beyond criticism by placing its subject outside the sphere of human ...
- 26.3k
19
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 ...
- 36.1k
19
votes
Is Andalusi/Rasmussen's proof for the existence of God correct?
I would submit the broad, provocative claim that no logical proof of existence can be convincing, because "proof" assumes logic, but logic does not in and of itself talk about what actually ...
- 2,501
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 ...
- 1,527
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