A Simple Argument for God's Existence
This argument can begin with any object that exists. Think of anything. Let's say.. A red cup.
Now, this cup has qualities it shares with other objects. This means that it is related to many other objects. Its redness, for example, relates it to other red things. And its "cup-ness" (the qualities that make it a cup) relates it to other cups.
This is true for any object we come across in our experience. If there was an object that had nothing in common with other objects, we wouldn't even be able to recognize it as an object.
An interesting observation to make is that the relations between objects transcends time and space.
Think of that red cup. It's redness relates it all red things in the past, and also all red things in the future.
The implication of this is that all objects form part of a timeless system which encompasses all objects and in which all objects are related. Let's call this the Comprehensive Timeless System (CTS).
So even before any particular object comes into being in time, its relations have been exhaustively pre-determined by virtue of belonging to CTS.
But how is it possible for an object that is constrained by space-time to enter into relations that transcend space-time? How can this red cup be related to the red car from 10 years in the future - a car that doesn't exist yet? How can temporal things belong to a timeless system?
The only answer seems to be that the temporal system of objects is a replication of CTS. In a way, CTS prescribes the flow of history, and all temporal objects are what they are in virtue of CTS.
Just like an author plans out the flow of a narrative, CTS plans out the flow of history. CTS is analogous to an author's conception of a story's plot, and the events of history are like the unfolding of that plot.
Here comes the main point: CTS cannot exist if God does not exist. The exhaustive pre-determination of the entirety of history does not make sense unless upon the supposition of a sovereign God.
To reject the existence of a CTS is to affirm that the objects we experience have no relation to one a other. This is an untenable view.
The alternative - affirming CTS - requires that one also affirms the existence of God.
Therefore, God exists.
I wonder if you think this is a decent formalization. A few premises are not covered/argued in this article; I'll mark them.
ReplyDeleteP1. If some objects are unclassified, classification is impossible.
P2. If classification is impossible, knowledge is impossible.
P3. If all objects are classified, God exists.
P4. Knowledge is possible.
P5. All objects are classified.
C: God exists.
I think P2 is not stated or defended in this article. I think P1 may be mostly implicit in this article.
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