Q&A: An Intelligent Being as a Cause
An Intelligent Being as a Cause
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In the cosmological argument you claim that an event cannot be a cause; rather, it has to be a being / entity (we accept only explanations like that in everyday life, as in your example of my friend hitting me and I ask him why).
After that you add and say that it is more likely that this is an intelligent being that decided to begin the chain of events that led to the final event.
On the same topic, you also say that a law is not a cause, but rather a description, and for example in the case of the law of gravity, the cause is the force of gravity. The force is the entity that generates the attraction between bodies (and likewise the cause of that force itself is derived from the entity that has mass).
In the case of the force (and of its existence), the fact that it is not an intelligent being does not bother you.
Even if we agree that a cause must be a being / entity, the logical leap you make in the case of the world—that this is an intelligent being—is not clear to me. Especially since there are cases in which you admit that an intelligent being is not required as a cause.
Do you mean that the world is complex / designed, and therefore its cause must be an intelligent being (as opposed to a force, which is not complex)?
Thank you,
Nathan
Answer
A force is not intelligent, and therefore it is clear that someone created it. When the result appears intelligent, it is reasonable that it was created by an intelligent being. When there is a planned structure, there is probably a planner.
Note that, as I wrote, this already leads us to the physico-theological argument (the cosmological argument does not rely on complexity and design, but on the very fact that something exists). Though in my opinion, even without the complexity, it is still reasonable that the source is an intelligent being. Because if there exists a non-intelligent being, the question arises what its own source is—but that’s a different opera.