William Lane Craig's Cosmological Arguments

Page 2 of 4 [ 64 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4  Next

MCalavera
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,442

01 Jan 2014, 2:26 am

91 wrote:
MCalavera wrote:
Earlier, I said that William Lane Craig's God could not have created this universe using his mind (or will). Here's why:

His God supposedly has free will.

Free will entails choosing to do one thing rather than another ... and for no predetermined reason at all.

This shows that God's will is really random.

God's will being random is no different from chance.

Which means that God's will did not really play a role in the bringing forth of this universe and, therefore, it was not logically necessary.

William Lane Craig agrees that we shouldn't multiply entities/features unnecessarily.

Conclusion: God himself is rendered unnecessary, and the Singularitor is much more likely to have caused the existence of this universe.


Well Craig would probably agree with that statement, he is an incompatibilist libertarian. I would not, but that is a different matter. The objection would be meaningless to Craig, he would agree with your argument but dispute the truth of the dichotomy between determinism and indeterminism. I don't know of anyone on this forum that takes his view on the matter so I don't think your argument has a foil.


The argument is that God's mind is logically not needed. If God is really free to create anything, then he does so randomly. But if so, then God's mind/will is not really needed and chance/randomness is sufficient alone.

If, however, God was predetermined to create this universe and nothing else, that would raise questions that positing the Singularitor itself wouldn't need to raise, such as: Why this universe and not something else?



91
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,063
Location: Australia

01 Jan 2014, 2:43 am

MCalavera wrote:
The argument is that God's mind is logically not needed. If God is really free to create anything, then he does so randomly. But if so, then God's mind/will is not really needed and chance/randomness is sufficient alone.

If, however, God was predetermined to create this universe and nothing else, that would raise questions that positing the Singularitor itself wouldn't need to raise, such as: Why this universe and not something else?


As I suggested in my last post, you are creating a dichotomy which cannot be proven, even in terms of its likelihood. As such a they would be within their rights to dismiss it as a non-sequitur since they agree with your Incompatibilist argument and already construct their argument within the confines of libertarianism. It is a useless objection to make because within a deterministic/indeterministic framework Craig will AGREE with you but he will reject the constructed dichotomy.


_________________
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.


MCalavera
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,442

01 Jan 2014, 2:50 am

And then he will have to explain why he rejects the dichotomy. Saying it's a non sequitur is futile because my dichotomy is based on logical reasoning.

Either you're free to do something (this implies randomness) or you're predetermined for it.



91
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,063
Location: Australia

01 Jan 2014, 3:01 am

MCalavera wrote:
And then he will have to explain why he rejects the dichotomy. Saying it's a non sequitur is futile because my dichotomy is based on logical reasoning.

Either you're free to do something (this implies randomness) or you're predetermined for it.


Not on libertarianism, they AGREE with the incompatibility of free will and those topics, if they are held to be universally true. That last part they would never grant nor can it ever be proven.


_________________
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.


MCalavera
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,442

01 Jan 2014, 3:21 am

91 wrote:
MCalavera wrote:
And then he will have to explain why he rejects the dichotomy. Saying it's a non sequitur is futile because my dichotomy is based on logical reasoning.

Either you're free to do something (this implies randomness) or you're predetermined for it.


Not on libertarianism, they AGREE with the incompatibility of free will and those topics, if they are held to be universally true. That last part they would never grant nor can it ever be proven.


Your personal view is this is a false dichotomy, but I see no argument as to how. No third option. Nothing.



91
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,063
Location: Australia

01 Jan 2014, 3:31 am

MCalavera wrote:
91 wrote:
MCalavera wrote:
And then he will have to explain why he rejects the dichotomy. Saying it's a non sequitur is futile because my dichotomy is based on logical reasoning.

Either you're free to do something (this implies randomness) or you're predetermined for it.


Not on libertarianism, they AGREE with the incompatibility of free will and those topics, if they are held to be universally true. That last part they would never grant nor can it ever be proven.


Your personal view is this is a false dichotomy, but I see no argument as to how. No third option. Nothing.


My view is irrelevant, I pointed out to you that the argument was a waste of time here because you would find no foil for your objection in this forum. I am doing my best to show it to you from Craig's perspective, which although different from my own is equally logically valid. Craig is a libertarian, his formulation of the argument is libertarian. Just as Craig is also an a-theorist of time (another remarkably unpopular view inside the discipline of philosophy). He argues within his worldview, which in my view limits the power of his position to those who accept the underlying positions of his arguments. Once however, you accept the worldview it is logically consistent and extremely powerful. This is an interesting attack, but it is not an attack on Craig, who would not accept the dichotomy, he would suggest that Cartesian Dualism makes more sense of our subjective experience of free will (which is true), even if parts of it are undermined by identifiable determinstic processes.

You won't win attacking the argument through a deterministic processes by assuming that determinism is true. Essentially you are making the same mistake he is, of assuming your worldview and using it to attack his, when in fact they do not really overlap at all. If you want to go at his argument, you will need to either prove determinism or indeterminism (which is not possible) or find some part of his argument that can be rejected regardless of his worldview. If not, you are far better off attacking his argument by unpacking how reliant on his own worldview it actually is.


_________________
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.


MCalavera
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,442

01 Jan 2014, 3:36 am

Good job not making any actual argument worth addressing. Maybe another theist here will chime in and actually refute the quote below:

Quote:
Either you're free to do something (this implies randomness) or you're predetermined for it.



91
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,063
Location: Australia

01 Jan 2014, 3:37 am

MCalavera wrote:
Good job not making any actual argument worth addressing. Maybe another theist here will chime in and actually refute the quote below:

Quote:
Either you're free to do something (this implies randomness) or you're predetermined for it.


Not to a libertarian, they would just say that the mind is free.


_________________
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.


MCalavera
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,442

01 Jan 2014, 3:38 am

91 wrote:
MCalavera wrote:
Good job not making any actual argument worth addressing. Maybe another theist here will chime in and actually refute the quote below:

Quote:
Either you're free to do something (this implies randomness) or you're predetermined for it.


Not to a libertarian, they would just say that the mind is free.


Free = random.



91
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,063
Location: Australia

01 Jan 2014, 3:41 am

MCalavera wrote:
91 wrote:
MCalavera wrote:
Good job not making any actual argument worth addressing. Maybe another theist here will chime in and actually refute the quote below:

Quote:
Either you're free to do something (this implies randomness) or you're predetermined for it.


Not to a libertarian, they would just say that the mind is free.


Free = random.


Not to a libertarian. A libertarian does not grant that. A libertarian like Craig holds that the the determinism/indeterminism question only hangs over physical states. The mind is not a physical state to them so the issue does not apply.


_________________
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.


MCalavera
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,442

01 Jan 2014, 3:48 am

Doesn't matter. On logical grounds, free = random.



91
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,063
Location: Australia

01 Jan 2014, 4:34 am

MCalavera wrote:
Doesn't matter. On logical grounds, free = random.


Nope. Once again, not to a libertarian.


_________________
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.


LoveNotHate
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Oct 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,195
Location: USA

01 Jan 2014, 4:40 am

MCalavera wrote:
Doesn't matter. On logical grounds, free = random.


"Mental states or a soul" is not based on logic though. :)



MCalavera
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,442

01 Jan 2014, 4:40 am

Even so, true freedom is randomness, so if they are arguing that God was predetermined to create this universe and not something else, then God did not have a free choice in the matter.



MCalavera
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Dec 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,442

01 Jan 2014, 4:41 am

LoveNotHate wrote:
MCalavera wrote:
Doesn't matter. On logical grounds, free = random.


"Mental states or a soul" is not based on logic though. :)


God, according to William Lane Craig, doesn't have some separate soul like human beings supposedly do. He is a spirit himself.

And even so, the argument still affects even a spirit or soul.



LoveNotHate
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Oct 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,195
Location: USA

01 Jan 2014, 4:43 am

MCalavera wrote:
Even so, true freedom is randomness, so if they are arguing that God was predetermined to create this universe and not something else, then God did not have a free choice in the matter.


Quoted: "He believes GOD before actualizing a possible world, God knows everything that does or will happen as well as how free creatures would act if placed in any particular circumstance" (therefore predetermination)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lane_Craig