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Clarification for the cosmological view

שו”תCategory: philosophyClarification for the cosmological view
asked 3 years ago

Hello Rabbi,
 
The cosmological proof assumes that everything we have experience with has a cause that caused it, and from this we arrive at the conclusion that God is the cause of the universe, but He has no cause because He is not learned from experience.
 
But this assumption is strange to me because experience does not show that everything has a cause in the sense that something new was created, but in the sense that matter changed its form. Whereas with the universe, it is the opposite. Its cause is not a change in matter, but a creation that did not exist.
 
If so, it turns out that it is impossible to prove that God created the universe, but at most that He changed the form of matter that already existed. Does the Rabbi agree?


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מיכי Staff answered 3 years ago
The principle of causality is not a result of experience. It is a priori. My argument is that it applies only to objects that are familiar to us and not necessarily to others. Your question is at the seam between the cosmological and the physical-theological view. Even if causality indicates that something is created from something, this chain must begin somewhere. Beyond that, the complexity of the thing created also requires explanation. Beyond that, even if you only conclude that it created a change in existing matter, this is still evidence of its existence.

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