Q&A: Proof of the Non-Existence of God
Proof of the Non-Existence of God
Question
Hello Rabbi, not long ago I came across a proof for the non-existence of God. I would be happy to hear your opinion about it: do you find a contradiction in it, and what is it?
Axioms:
1. God is perfect in every perfection — exists eternally in time, and is infinite in space.
2. God is part of the cosmos, where the cosmos is “everything that exists, existed, or will exist.”
Now there are four possible states of existence for the cosmos we are in.
1. The cosmos is eternal in time.
2. The cosmos is not eternal in time.
3. The cosmos is not infinite in space.
4. The cosmos is infinite in space.
Now we will show, according to each approach and according to “Occam’s razor,” that there is no need for God.
1. If the cosmos is eternal in time, then it is its own cause, and therefore there is no need to add God.
2. If the cosmos is not eternal in time, that means God is not eternal, and then we have ruled out God, because part of His perfection is to exist forever.
3. If the cosmos is not infinite in space, then God is not infinite, and that contradicts the definition of His perfection.
4. If the cosmos is infinite in space and God is also infinite in space, then nothing besides God can exist, and therefore I cannot exist; and the very fact that I exist means that there is no God.
Answer
A baseless piece of pilpul.
1. Even if the cosmos is eternal in time, that does not necessarily mean that it is its own cause. You are identifying the dimension of time with the causal dimension. That is a philosophical mistake. I discussed this in the second and third notebooks (and in my book The Existing First), in the discussion of the principle of sufficient reason. Our world is made up of material things, and it is reasonable that they are not their own cause.
2. Why, if the cosmos is not eternal, would that mean that God is not eternal? Where did that strange assumption come from?
3. Same as above.
4. This touches on the question of tzimtzum, and here I have explained in several places by way of the parable of dimensions. Think of God as a four-dimensional being (or infinitely dimensional), while we are three-dimensional. We do not take up space within His infinity, and then both He is infinite and we exist.
Discussion on Answer
I don’t know what it means that He is part of the cosmos. I do not agree with that assumption.
He created the cosmos.
You forgot that we are theists and not pantheists?
These are questions for Spinoza. Well, actually the atheists are following their own approach 🙂 Unfortunately that applies in other areas too.
Thank you very much, I understood the answers to 1 and 4. But regarding answers 2 and 3, it says in the axioms that God is part of the cosmos, so if the cosmos is not eternal or not infinite, then God within it is also not eternal or not infinite.