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STEALING FROM GOD: CAUSALITY, PART 2

4/24/2018

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​The second main point Turek makes in his chapter on causality is that without God, there would be no laws of nature — and therefore no cause and effect:

“Have you ever asked yourself, why are there laws at all?… Why is reality governed by cause and effect? Why are the laws of nature so uniform, precise, and predictable?” 

He says that “Either they arose from a preexisting supernatural intelligence or they did not.” (And he adds that “even Lawrence Krauss recognizes this” — which shouldn’t be surprising, given that those are the only two logical possibilities!) And of the two, the first of course appears to him far more likely: “After all, experience tells us that laws always come from lawgivers.” 

But of course, experience doesn’t teach any such thing. Experience tells us that legal codes come from lawgivers; it does not tell us that laws of nature do. If we had a different word for natural laws — if they were always called, say, natural principles instead — Turek wouldn’t be making this all-too-common mistake. 

He also asks why, given that “all physical things change,” natural laws don’t change — the implication being that materialism cannot explain unchanging laws. But first of all, it’s not necessarily the case that all physical things change. Turek is either counting on the fact that most of his readers will just accept that without really thinking about it, or he himself has not thought about it. The fact that complex entities do change over time does not imply that every one of their components does so as well. Do photons change? Do electrons? Second, and more importantly, laws of nature aren’t “things.” They aren’t physical entities. So even if all physical things did change, that wouldn’t mean the laws would as well. 

Turek, like many theists, believes that atheists have a problem on their hands in that they cannot account for the origin of natural laws. Such laws cannot be explained scientifically because that would necessarily mean appealing to further natural laws, which would also have to be explained, thus leading to an infinite regress. The only possibility, therefore, is that God explains them. 

However, as with so many other theistic arguments, this is just an example of passing the buck. When God says, “let there be light,” light is created — which means there are laws that apply to God’s actions. But if the existence of natural laws requires an explanation, why doesn’t the existence of divine laws do so as well? 

Most theists who become aware of this problem will of course attempt to avoid it by claiming that God is an exception, a necessary being who requires no explanation, and so on. But all they are really doing is introducing the concept of a necessary being (whatever that means) along with baseless claims regarding that being (that it is omnipotent, that it is loving, and so on). The fact is that when it comes to ultimate questions, theists and atheists are in exactly the same boat. Things exist, and they have certain properties. Whether the fundamental nature of things is physical or mental makes no difference: Either way there is something that must be accepted as brute fact. Some theists admit as much. Richard Swinburne, for example, says that “Not everything will have an explanation. But… if we can explain the many bits of the universe by one simple being which keeps them in existence, we should do so — even if inevitably we cannot explain the existence of that simple being.” (Is There a God?, p. 49.) 

We don’t have evidence that God exists. Nor do we have evidence that there is some simple being (even without all of God’s traditional properties) that is the cause of the rest of existence. What we do have clear evidence of is that the physical universe exists — and that it has certain properties rather than others. If there is nothing “deeper” that underlies that fact, then there is no explanation for it. If there is something deeper, we don’t know it yet. And if we do eventually find the “deepest level,” then that will have no explanation. 

Swinburne is wrong, but at least he recognizes we’re all in the same boat. Turek and most theists don't even realize that. They are out at sea, yet believe they’re on solid ground.


[Originally published at Debunking Christianity]

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STEALING FROM GOD: CAUSALITY, PART 1

4/18/2018

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Note: This is my second post on Frank Turek’s book, Stealing from God and the first one on his chapter on causality. Since he covers a lot of ground in this chapter, I’ll only deal with his major points.

As we saw last time, Turek conflates atheism with materialism. He therefore claims that atheists must say everything is physical. This of course includes every cause — and from that it follows either that the cause of the physical universe is itself physical, or that the universe doesn’t have a cause. 

The first one can’t be true, however, since there would in that case have to be something physical before there was anything physical. And the second can’t be either, he says, since it makes no sense for the entire universe to just appear causelessly out of nothing. The only option that makes sense is the one atheists reject, namely, that the universe has a non-physical cause. 

Moreover, he continues, atheists’ rejection of non-physical causes is self-defeating. Why? Because their own arguments contain non-physical causes. In case you're wondering what the hell he's talking about (and you should be), he explains what he means with the following jaw-dropping claim: 

“...there is a causal relationship between the premises and the conclusion [of an argument]. In other words, true premises result in valid conclusions.” 

Yes, he actually confuses logical implication with causation. He goes on: “If the law of causality only applied to physical things, then no argument would work because premises and conclusions are not physical things. For any argument to work — including any arguments against God — the law of causality must apply to the immaterial realm because the components of arguments are immaterial.” 

But let’s return to the main argument above. Has Turek succeeded in demonstrating that the universe has a non-physical cause? Of course not. 

Turek maintains that there are only two options here, either that “no one created something out of nothing, which is the atheist’s view," or that "Someone created something out of nothing, which is the theist’s view.” 

But to begin with, it isn’t certain that the universe had a beginning — which it would need to have in order to be created. (It is important to realize that in this context, “universe” means all of reality other than God, if there is a God. That is why the question of a beginning is supposed to be a problem for atheism. Thus, if there is a multiverse, then that is the universe.) Furthermore, even if it did have a beginning, the “atheist’s view” isn’t that the universe was created out of nothing. It is true that some atheists believe that. But that doesn’t make it the view of atheism — nor does it make it right. 

According to atheism, the universe is everything that exists, has ever existed, or ever will exist. Thus, unless self-causation is possible, the universe cannot have a cause. Nor can it come from anything else (as there isn’t anything else). The universe just is. And that’s the case whether or not it had a beginning. 

Moreover, the same thing applies in the case of the theist’s worldview. The totality of existence (whether that’s just the universe or is God plus the universe) cannot have a cause. It did not come from anything. 

But to say it did not come from anything is not to say that it came from nothing, if by the latter one means that it "popped into existence" from a prior state of nothingness, as Turek and many other apologists like to say. The very idea that something came from, or was created out of, nothingness is actually nonsensical, for the very simple reason that nothingness isn’t something — and therefore isn’t something from which anything can come! And note that only in the case of "coming from nothingness" does the universe come into being at all; to say that the universe did not come from anything is to say it simply exists — even if there is a first moment to that existence. 

Those like Turek, who confuse the claim that the universe did not come from anything with the claim that it arose out of nothingness, are making the same mistake as the King in Through the Looking Glass, who, when Alice said she saw “nobody on the road,” replied: “I only wish I had such eyes. To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it's as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!” 

For more on the mistake Turek is making here, see: 

The Reification of Nothing and Follow-Up to Previous Post




[This is a slightly revised version of a post originally published at Debunking Christianity]
 


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STEALING FROM GOD?

4/11/2018

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Picture
A while back, I was told by a religious critic that I really needed to read Frank Turek’s Stealing from God. Well, I’ve finally accepted the challenge (even if it isn’t much of a challenge) — and thought it might be interesting to write a series of posts as a sort of running commentary on it.

​Turek, though he doesn’t come right out and say so, is a presuppositionalist — he believes that, in order to make any meaningful claims, atheists have to appropriate concepts that only make sense if there is a God. That is why we “steal” from God — and why on his view atheism is self-defeating. 

But even though presuppositionalism strikes me as rather desperate, I have to admit that the idea behind Turek’s book is pretty clever. In six chapters, he considers six areas in which the atheist supposedly steals from the Christian worldview: causality, reason, information and intentionality, morality, evil, and science. These six form (well, almost) the acronym CRIMES – the crimes against theism. 

The problem is that Turek is a very bad judge of the evidence, and that that’s the case is obvious right from the start. In the introduction, he claims that atheists “must make a positive case that only material things exist” — something that would come as a surprise to such atheistic critics of materialism as David Chalmers and Thomas Nagel. Worse, he then lists eleven things that, according to atheism, must be “caused by materials and consists only of materials”: 

The beginning of the universe 
The fine-tuning of the universe 
The laws of nature 
The laws of logic 
The laws of mathematics 
Information (the genetic code) 
Life 
Mind and consciousness 
Free will 
Objective morality 
Evil 

The idea that materialists (much less atheists) must claim that all of these things are caused by, and composed out of, matter is so confused that it’s hard to know how to respond. But since we'll be covering these things in greater detail later, for now I’ll just stick to a few simple points. 

To begin with, materialists don’t have to accept all of the above as real, and many do not. But if there is no such thing as, for instance, objective morality, then obviously objective morality doesn’t have to be explained. 

In the second place, several of the above can in fact be explained in physical terms. The genetic code and life certainly are physical. Presumably, Turek is merely claiming that they cannot have a physical cause. But that, too, is wrong. 

Finally, the idea that given materialism, such things as the laws of logic or of mathematics must be caused by, and be made of, matter is so off base, it’s laughable. But that’s a topic for a future post. 

So far, not a very good start for Turek’s book. 

Next time: Causality. 


​
​[Originally published at Debunking Christianity]



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BAD ARGUMENTS IN THE BIBLE

4/4/2018

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In The Truth about God, I discussed three kinds of problem in the Bible: its internal inconsistencies, its falsehoods, and its immorality. But bad arguments should perhaps be regarded as a fourth category — smaller than the other three (there aren’t many arguments in scripture), but nevertheless just as problematic. For why would God’s inspired word contain bad logic — especially when the topic is of the highest importance? 

Here are three bad arguments, all supposedly from Paul.

1. The resurrection proves that a day of judgment is coming:

In Acts 17:30-31, Paul tells the Athenians that “While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead [emphasis added].”

But even supposing the resurrection took place, would that give assurance to all that Jesus was God’s appointee? Would that mean that we are no longer living in times of human ignorance and therefore have no excuse? Obviously not. The resurrection isn’t sufficient; it must also be the case that we all have clear evidence of it. Since we do not, it is simply wrong to claim that the resurrection provided “assurance to all” of anything whatsoever. But you don’t need to take my word for it. Paul himself did not believe in Jesus until the road to Damascus episode. So why didn’t God’s raising Jesus from the dead provide him with the assurance that he later claimed others had?

2. The resurrection proves we all have an afterlife:

This one’s even worse. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul asks, “how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? … If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.”

But of course even if Jesus was raised, that says nothing about the rest of us. In fact, the original idea of the resurrection was to set Jesus apart, as someone who was able to defy death itself — thus supposedly proving he was divine. And most Christians still claim this.

It is true, as Paul also implies, that if no one has been raised from the dead, "then Christ has not been raised." But it doesn’t follow that if Christ was, it is because everyone is. A little bit of Aristotelian logic would have helped Paul’s muddled mind.

3. Nature demonstrates there is a God:

Romans 1:20 declares that “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature… have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So [non-believers] are without excuse…”

This is the design argument, of course, and even though it isn’t quite as bad as the first two, it is still a bad argument — and even many believers admit as much. So once again, why is it in scripture?



[Originally published at Debunking Christianity. All quotations are from the NRSV.] 

 

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