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The Physico-theological Argument

שו”תCategory: philosophyThe Physico-theological Argument
asked 12 months ago

In the first statement (if I remember correctly) you made an analogy between things we know that were created by man (like a clock) to any complex thing, that just as complex things we know were created by an intelligent designer, so too are more complex things like the universe. Although when the question was asked why God himself was not created by an intelligent designer, you claimed that this analogy only applies to things in our experience, and for things outside our experience it is not correct to say that complex things need an explanation. I didn’t really understand what the explanation was in this division, why did the analogy only apply to things in our experience?


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מיכי Staff answered 12 months ago
The assumption that a complex thing was created intentionally and not by chance is not the result of experience but an a priori (probabilistic) claim. But to avoid infinite regress, there must be some being that starts the chain. It is likely that it is not a being in our experience, since these are created and are not eternal. Therefore, there must be something that is not in our experience that starts this chain. But it was not created by chance either, but was not created at all. If it were created, I would argue that it was also created by an intelligent designer.

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דגדג replied 12 months ago

Yes, but that's what I'm asking about. Obviously, some being has to end the chain, but why assume that it's more logical that the being that's not in our experience is the one that wasn't created? Maybe there are also beings in our experience that weren't created? After all, the analogy isn't about all the things in our experience, but only beings that were created by man. Maybe it's likely that complex beings that are in our experience but weren't created by man are the ones that started the chain?

מיכי Staff replied 12 months ago

Because what our experience tells us is that they are created beings. Even those who were not created by man were created.

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