Philosophy

There are varying beliefs within supernaturalism, which is the belief in a supernatural agency that intervenes in the course of natural laws.

Animism is the belief that all objects and phenomena have a soul. Animists worship their ancestors, are superstitious, and believe in magic. There are about 103 million animists in the world, mostly living in Africa.
- The definition of soul entails consciousness. Rocks and trees are unconscious entities, and therefore cannot have a soul. Thus, not all objects have souls. Superstition is untenable. Magic is no more than hoaxes and illusions. Animism should thus be rejected.

Theism is the belief that the universe is affected by supernatural agency. Between 87.6 to 92.2% of the world's population professes belief in God, deities or similarly understood Higher Power.

Polytheism is the belief in several gods who act on the world. Polytheistic religions include Hinduisim (900 million adherents), Shintoism (4 million adherents), and Taoism. _explanation of polytheistic religions under construction_, _refutation of polytheism under construction_

Monotheism is the belief in a revealed single personal Creator of the universe who is at the very least timeless, immaterial, uncaused, beginningless, changeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful and intelligent. This agent, God, is often considered omniscient, omnipotent, and [spiritually] omnipresent. Monotheistic religions include Christianity (2.1 billion adherents), Islam (1.3 billion followers), Sikhism, Zorastrianism, and Bahaism.

_religious definitions under construction_

Arguments for theism:
The existence of God is supported by the arguments from change {1}, efficient causality {2}, time and contingency {3}, degrees of perfection {4}, design {5}, Kalam cosmology {6}, contingency {7}, the world as an interacting whole {8}, miracles {9}, consciousness {10}, truth {11}, origin of the idea of God {12}, ontology {13}, morality {14}, conscience {15}, desire {16}, aesthetic experience {17}, religious experience {18}, and common consent {19}, as well as Pascal's Wager {20}. [Reference: Peter Kreeft and Fr. Ronald Tacelli: Twenty Arguments For The Existence Of God]

_explanation and defense of premises under construction_

{1} under construction
{2} under construction
{3}
1. We notice around us things that come into being and go out of being. A tree, for example, grows from a tiny shoot, flowers brilliantly, then withers and dies.
2. Whatever comes into being or goes out of being does not have to be; nonbeing is a real possibility.
3. Suppose that nothing has to be; that is, that nonbeing is a real possibility for everything.
4. Then right now nothing would exist. For
5. If the universe began to exist, then all being must trace its origin to some past moment before which there existed—literally—nothing at all. But
6. From nothing nothing comes. So
7. The universe could not have begun.
8. But suppose the universe never began. Then, for the infinitely long duration of cosmic history, all being had the built—in possibility not to be. But
9. If in an infinite time that possibility was never realized, then it could not have been a real possibility at all. So
There must exist something which has to exist, which cannot not exist. This sort of being is called necessary.
Either this necessity belongs to the thing in itself or it is derived from another. If derived from another there must ultimately exist a being whose necessity is not derived, that is, an absolutely necessary being.
This absolutely necessary being is God.
{4} under construction
{5}
The universe displays a staggering amount of intelligibility, both within the things we observe and in the way these things relate to others outside themselves. That is to say: the way they exist and coexist display an intricately beautiful order and regularity that can fill even the most casual observer with wonder. It is the norm in nature for many different beings to work together to produce the same valuable end—for example, the organs in the body work for our life and health. [Refer to the argument from the world as an interacting whole.]
Either this intelligible order is the product of chance or of intelligent design.
Not chance.
Therefore the universe is the product of intelligent design.
Design comes only from a mind, a designer.
Therefore the universe is the product of an intelligent Designer.
{6} Kalam Cosmological Argument
1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause of
its existence.
2.The universe began to exist.
2.1 Argument based on the impossibility of
an actual infinite:
2.11 An actual infinite cannot exist.
2.12 An infinite temporal regress of events
is an actual infinite.
2.13 Therefore, an infinite temporal regress
of events cannot exist.
2.2 Argument based on the impossibility of the
formation of an actual infinite by
successive addition:
2.21 A collection formed by successive
addition cannot be actually infinite.
2.22 The temporal series of past events is
a collection formed by successive addition.
2.23 Therefore, the temporal series of past
events cannot be actually infinite.
2.3 Confirmation based on the expansion of
the universe.
2.4 Confirmation based on the thermodynamic
properties of the universe.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause of its
existence.
4. If the universe has a cause of its existence, then
an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists,
who sans creation is beginningless, changeless,
immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and enormously
powerful and intelligent.
4.1 Argument that the cause of the universe is a
personal Creator:
4.11 The universe was brought into being either
by a mechanically operating set of necessary and
sufficient conditions or by a personal, free agent.
4.12 The universe could not have been brought into
being by a mechanically operating set of necessary
and sufficient conditions.
4.13 Therefore, the universe was brought into being
by a personal, free agent.
4.2 Argument that the Creator sans creation
is uncaused, beginningless, changeless, immaterial,
timeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful and
intelligent:
4.21 The Creator is uncaused.
4.211 An infinite temporal regress of causes cannot
exist. (2.13, 2.23)
4.22 The Creator is beginningless.
4.221 Whatever is uncaused does not begin to
exist. (1)
4.23 The Creator is changeless.
4.231 An infinite temporal regress of changes
cannot exist. (2.13, 2.23)
4.24 The Creator is immaterial.
4.241 Whatever is material involves change on
the atomic and molecular levels, but the Creator
is changeless. (4.23)
4.25 The Creator is timeless.
4.251 In the complete absence of change, time does
not exist, and the Creator is changeless. (4.23)
4.26 The Creator is spaceless.
4.261 Whatever is immaterial and timeless cannot
be spatial, and the Creator is immaterial and
timeless (4.24, 4.25)
4.27 The Creator is enormously powerful.
4.271 He brought the universe into being out of
nothing. (3)
4.28 The Creator is enormously intelligent.
4.281 The initial conditions of the universe
involve incomprehensible fine-tuning that points
to intelligent design.
5. Therefore, an uncaused, personal Creator of the
universe exists, who sans creation is "beginningless,"
changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and
enormously powerful and intelligent.

-- William Lane Craig [http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/craig-smith1.html]

Atheists have proposed various rebuttals to the Kalam cosmological argument, all of which are intellectually unsatisfying.
- Physics, observations, and thermodynamics make the oscillating model of the universe impossible.
- The chaotic inflationary model has been debunked.
- Observation contradicts the claim posited by the vacuum fluctuation models that the universe emerged from a quantum vacuum by a fluctuation. It predicts a non-zero probability for a universe existing at every point in space-time in the quantum vacuum; therefore, in an eternal quantum vacuum, all of the spatiotemporal points would create universes, which would then collide and coalesce into an infinitely old universe, which contradicts observation from which it is inferred that the universe began about 13.7 billion years ago.
- Because the quantum gravity models all depend on the use of "imaginary time" prior to 10^-43 seconds after the Big Bang, they are non-physical solutions, and thus not realistic. Upon converting the numbers back to real time, the initial singularity reappears.

Because of the weakness of the alternative models for the origin of the universe, the Big Bang model of creation ex-nihilo (out of nothing) is still the most plausible theory.
{7}
If something exists, there must exist what it takes for that thing to exist.
The universe—the collection of beings in space and time—exists.
Therefore, there must exist what it takes for the universe to exist.
What it takes for the universe to exist cannot exist within the universe or be bounded by space and time.
Therefore, what it takes for the universe to exist must transcend both space and time.
{8} under construction
{9}
A miracle is an event whose only adequate explanation is the extraordinary and direct intervention of God.
There are numerous well-attested miracles.
Therefore, there are numerous events whose only adequate explanation is the extraordinary and direct intervention of God.
Therefore God exists.
{10} under construction
{11} under construction
{12}
We have ideas of many things.
These ideas must arise either from ourselves or from things outside us.
One of the ideas we have is the idea of God—an infinite, all-perfect being.
This idea could not have been caused by ourselves, because we know ourselves to be limited and imperfect, and no effect can be greater than its cause.
Therefore, the idea must have been caused by something outside us which has nothing less than the qualities contained in the idea of God.
But only God himself has those qualities.
Therefore God himself must be the cause of the idea we have of him.
Therefore God exists.
{13}
There is a possible world (W) in which there is a being (X) with maximal greatness.
But X is maximally great only if X has maximal excellence in every possible world.
Therefore X is maximally great only if X has omnipotence, omniscience and moral perfection in every possible world.
In W, the proposition "There is no omnipotent, omniscient, morally perfect being" would be impossible—that is, necessarily false.
But what is impossible does not vary from world to world.
Therefore, the proposition, "There is no omnipotent, omniscient, morally perfect being" is necessarily false in this actual world, too.
Therefore, there actually exists in this world, and must exist in every possible world, an omnipotent, omniscient, morally perfect being.
{14}
Real moral obligation is a fact. We are really, truly, objectively obligated to do good and avoid evil.
Either the atheistic view of reality is correct or the "religious" one.
But the atheistic one is incompatible with there being moral obligation.
Therefore the "religious" view of reality is correct.
{15} under construction
{16}
Every natural, innate desire in us corresponds to some real object that can satisfy that desire.
But there exists in us a desire which nothing in time, nothing on earth, no creature can satisfy.
Therefore there must exist something more than time, earth and creatures, which can satisfy this desire.
This something is what people call "God" and "life with God forever."
{17} under construction
{18}
Many people of different eras and of widely different cultures claim to have had an experience of the "divine."
It is inconceivable that so many people could have been so utterly wrong about the nature and content of their own experience.
Therefore, there exists a "divine" reality which many people of different eras and of widely different cultures have experienced.
{19}
Belief in God—that Being to whom reverence and worship are properly due—is common to almost all people of every era.
Either the vast majority of people have been wrong about this most profound element of their lives or they have not.
It is most plausible to believe that they have not.
Therefore it is most plausible to believe that God exists.
{20} If there is a God and you deny Him, then you are in trouble. If there is no god and you accept him, there is no problem because it doesn't matter, as personality would cease after death. The problem with Pascal's Wager is that it does not define which "god" to believe in since in many religions, believing in a different god brings a punishing judgment. Nevertheless, one should attempt to discover whether there is a God or not and who He might be. There are objective standards for evaluating a religious worldview: _under construction_ .

Eutheism is the belief in a benevolent God.
Maltheism is the belief in a petty and wicked Creator of the universe.
- Maltheists cite ________________ as evidence for an evil God, but these are unconvincing due to strong counter-arguments:

_under construction_

Henotheism is the belief in one God without denying the existence of others.
_reply under construction_

Pantheism is the belief that everything is God, i.e. God is the universe and the universe is God.
- The Kalam Cosmological Argument establishes the existence of a single personal Creator of the universe who is at the very least timeless, immaterial, uncaused, beginningless, changeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful and intelligent. God is by definition physically separate from the universe because He is its Creator, so pantheism is false.

Panentheism is the belief that God is greater than the universe and that the universe is contained within God. Pantheists believe the universe is God, while panentheists believe the universe is in God.
_reply under construction_

posted by A Sinner  # 10:00 PM