Q&A: Several Questions
Several Questions
Question
1. In your view, does the world require external intervention? That is, can the singular point be identified as its own cause, or must there be a non-material creator?
2. According to Parmenides’ statement that being is and non-being is not, it follows necessarily that matter always existed, since it is something that is, and it cannot be that there was nothing at all—that is, non-being, for it is not—and being cannot come from non-being. What do you think? (And this connects to Spinoza’s view that God is the universe.)
3. How do you reconcile the incomprehensible evil in the world with a God who is morally perfect? Thank you!
Answer
Hello,
You asked several questions, some of which I did not understand, while others would require a very lengthy answer.
1. I’m not sure I understood the question. Are you asking whether the world needs a creator, or whether it could be its own cause? In my view, definitely yes. This is the cosmological and physico-theological argument, which I discussed at length in my book The First Existent. What is the nature of that creator? That is already a different question, but apparently it is not material (because matter is not its own cause).
2. I have never understood these statements. They seem to me like mere wordplay. You can ask whether creation ex nihilo is possible. In my view, it is not. It has nothing to do with the nonsense of Parmenides and Spinoza and so on.
3. See column 547 on my website.