“Infinite Being”... means completely unlimited being. — Dfpolis
A usual formulation is that God can do anything not contradictory. Yes? No? You have:Because an infinite being’s capacity to act is not limited by what it is. For it, no possible act is negated by its specification. — Dfpolis
I assume that as an "infinite" being God is, now - exists. If that is so, then on your definition God could not exist now, at the same time he exists. He could exist and not exist, be and not be, at the same time (assuming "same time" is meaningful).A being is necessary when it is. (Once it is now, it is no longer possible for it not to be now.) — Dfpolis
"Again, finite does not mean quantitatively finite, but limited in its ability to act."Any collection of finite beings, including the universe as a whole, is finite in being. — Dfpolis
When you earlier (and correctly, I think) noted that existence is always distinct from essence. But regardless, your premise doesn't really follow from the justification. The existence of a finite being might still be unlimited in time, for example. Or finite beings might explain the existence of each other. These possibilities remain unexplored.So for an infinite being, what-it-is would be identical with that-it-is. — Dfpolis
Premise 4: If a being exists, its explanation must exist.
If this were not true, science would be impossible. If things "just happened," the observations would not be underlying dynamics, and could neither confirm nor falsify hypotheses. Note that “explanation” has two senses: (1) the fact(s) that make some state of affairs be as it is. (We may or may not know these.) This is the sense I am using. (2) Our attempt to articulate our understanding of (1). This is not the sense I am using here. — Dfpolis
Gödel. The time traveller steps into an ordinary rocket ship (not a special time machine) and flies off on a certain course. At no point does she disappear (as in Leap) or ‘turn back in time’ (as in Putnam)—yet thanks to the overall structure of spacetime (as conceived in the General Theory of Relativity), the traveller arrives at a point in the past (or future) of her departure. (Compare the way in which someone can travel continuously westwards, and arrive to the east of her departure point, thanks to the overall curved structure of the surface of the earth.) — Smith, Nicholas J.J.
Being human explains my ability to think, because that is part of what it is to be human. But, being human does not imply that I exist. If it did, no human could cease existing. — Dfpolis
Further, I find the insistence that God must be omnipotent unnecessarily limiting, given the well-trodden logical problems with the notion of omnipotence. In my view, no god worth believing in is omnipotent — andrewk
completely unlimited being — Dfpolis
an old man in the sky — Dfpolis
completely unlimited — Dfpolis
While some people may think of God as an old man in the sky, that is not the notion of God in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, nor that addressed by Aristotle or the Buddhist Logicians. — Dfpolis
Look at the progress science has made. In fact it looks like your argument is simply a revamp of the God of the gaps argument. — TheMadFool
I’m not overall in agreement with the OP, BUT I think this claim is deeply questionable. Yes, science has made progress in some respects - certainly in terms of technological and medical invention, of which there can be no doubt. But scientific cosmology and even the basic nature of matter itself is often and widely said to be in a state of crisis, and there are raging controversies over the reality or otherwise of many universes, parallel universes, and so on, none which seem remotely solvable in our lifetime. Now of course that is not in itself an argument for theism, but you can’t gesture towards science as an argument against it, either — Wayfarer
Premise 6: A finite being cannot explain its own existence — Dfpolis
I am not going to say that there are brute facts. I am going to say that it is not a self evident truth that there are not - and since you're the one offering the proof, the burden is on you. — Theologian
Premise 2: Whatever exists is either finite or infinite. — Dfpolis
Since finite beings have a history of coming into and going out of existence, — Dfpolis
Premise 6: A finite being cannot explain its own existence.
Why? Because whatever can be explained by a being, viz. whatever a being can do, results from its essence, the specification of its acts. For a finite being, existence, the unspecified power to act, is logically distinct from its specification. I am human and I exist. Being human explains my ability to think, because that is part of what it is to be human. But, being human does not imply that I exist. If it did, no human could cease existing. — Dfpolis
Because whatever can be explained by a being, viz. whatever a being can do, results from its essence, the specification of its acts. — Dfpolis
I would argue that infinite (unlimited ability to act) is self-contradictory in a finite universe. — Devans99
being outside of time — Devans99
if there is a God, and She has anything remotely like personal characteristics, She is wise and kind, and nothing at all like the cruel, vain, childish, violent personality described in the holy books of the three Abrahamic religions. — andrewk
Let’s start by clearing up some confusion. (1) While some people may think of God as an old man in the sky, that is not the notion of God in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, nor that addressed by Aristotle or the Buddhist Logicians. For us, God is an Infinite being. (2) “Infinite Being” does not mean, “really big and powerful being.” It means completely unlimited being. — Dfpolis
Given the nature of the universe in which we find ourselves, why on Earth would you conclude that?
The Abrahamic God, whatever else you might say of Him, is surely infinitely more plausible than that.
Although personally, I think the most plausible theology is Lovecraft's. Ironic, considering he never represented his own writings as anything other than fiction. — Theologian
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