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Cosmological argument: Difference between revisions
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→Premise 2
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====Premise 2==== | ====Premise 2==== | ||
The crucial premise of the argument. Before the Big bang theory was theorized in the 20th century, scientists generally thought that the universe was eternal. The implicit question of premise 2 is | The crucial premise of the argument. Before the Big bang theory was theorized in the 20th century, scientists generally thought that the universe was eternal. If the universe is eternal and therefore beginingless, then there has to be into the past an infinite amount of past events. There are major concerns however if an actual infinite of things can exist in reality. If there can be then premise 2 can be discarded. It has to be infinite if there was never a beginning, the standard view outside of the Big bang model, it is temporal because it relates to causes within time, and is regressive because it is moving backwards forever into the eternal past. This is assuming that an actual infinite of things, or in this case past causes, can actually exist in reality. The implicit question of premise 2 is: Can an infinite collection actually exist? The argument against an actual infinite is put succinctly by William Lane Craig. | ||
{{cquote| | |||
An actual infinite cannot exist.<br/> | |||
An infinite temporal regress of events is an actual infinite.<br/> | |||
Therefore an infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist.<ref>Bruce L. Gordon and William A. Dembski, ''The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science'' (Intercollegiate Studies Institute 2011), pg. 905 </ref>|}} | |||
* An actual infinite is a collection that has an actually infinite number of members. The number of its member is greater than any other natural number (0,1,2,3 etc). It is not growing toward infinity, it is infinite. There literally exists an actually infinite number of things in the collection. This is irrational because, you could subtract a number from the infinite collection and that will lead to self-contradictory results. Within the math of an actually infinite number of members you subtract identical quantities from identical quantities, but this is why in [[mathematics]] subtraction from identical quantities is prohibited, it is self-contradictory. <ref>[http://www.rfmedia.org/RF_audio_video/Defender_podcast/20040509CosmologicalArgumentPart2.mp3 Cosmological Argument Part 2] By William Lane Craig</ref> | * An actual infinite is a collection that has an actually infinite number of members. The number of its member is greater than any other natural number (0,1,2,3 etc). It is not growing toward infinity, it is infinite. There literally exists an actually infinite number of things in the collection. This is irrational because, you could subtract a number from the infinite collection and that will lead to self-contradictory results. Within the math of an actually infinite number of members you subtract identical quantities from identical quantities, but this is why in [[mathematics]] subtraction from identical quantities is prohibited, it is self-contradictory. <ref>[http://www.rfmedia.org/RF_audio_video/Defender_podcast/20040509CosmologicalArgumentPart2.mp3 Cosmological Argument Part 2] By William Lane Craig</ref> | ||
