Q&A: How Do You Stop the Regression?
How Do You Stop the Regression?
Question
Basically, we believers stop the regress in the question of the first cause by assuming that a spiritual entity like God is not subject to causality, and that solves the problem.
The question is that we have no proof that a spiritual essence is not subject to causality, and since this runs against reason [how could something exist without a cause that brought it about?], we should assume it is not true.
Moreover, one cannot say that a spiritual force is above time and therefore has no beginning or end, for we know that the soul and the angels, as well as the spirit of animals, are spiritual essences that were created at some point in time, and some of them are even completely cut off at times, so spiritual essences too have a beginning and an end [how does that fit with what we know about time?]. So on what basis should we assume that there is a spiritual essence that is its own cause and has existed forever?
Answer
I do not assume that; I infer it. My assumption is that an infinite regress is not an option. Therefore there must necessarily be a first cause. But matter is unlikely to be a first cause (one that is its own cause) – because in our experience material objects are not their own cause, and therefore the first link in the chain is apparently spiritual rather than material. QED.
Discussion on Answer
Eliezer, its not very pleasant to talk to a wall. I said that I am not assuming it; I am inferring it. Thats all. Im done.
That same implausibility [logically speaking] by which matter is not its own cause applies just as much to an entity of another kind—it is also hard to assume that it is its own cause [how? where did it pop up from?]. The only difference is that with matter we have “experience” that it is not created on its own; likewise with the spiritual we know that it is not created on its own and does not exist eternally [as mentioned in the question]. And it is only in order to escape the difficulty of the riddle of creation that we invent the idea that maybe there is some particular spiritual type for which the rules of logic and experience do not apply, and that it is the cause of its own existence—which is very strange to accept.