On the neccesary implications of the supernatural to avoid infinite regress in the causal chain:
"Why can you not accept that something may not have a reason to exist...I am constantly told by christians that...all the matter of the universe had to be made, yet god did not"
Few will claim that each entity must have a *reason* (i.e. purpose); the claim is that each entity must have a *cause*. This is a simple application of the Law of Causality; that each effect is necessarily preceded by a cause. This law is a scientific law which can be derived both from empirical and a priori observations; it is not a religous construct.
By accepting the law outlined above, one must conclude that there was some 'first' cause which is found *outside* the natural and physical causal chain (i.e. a *supernatural* cause). This 'unmoved mover', to a theist, is God, and I've yet to see a more reasonable assertion.
posted by onceuponapriori at 3:04 م
