ImprobableJoe
New Member
I'll just take one, because I'm lazy, and I can't move myself to do any more, and there's no one here to move me.DonExodus said:Homework for the day! Rebuttals?
The First Way: Argument from Motion
1.
Our senses prove that some things are in motion.
2.
Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion.
3.
Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion.
4.
Nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality in the same respect (i.e., if both actual and potential, it is actual in one respect and potential in another).
5.
Therefore nothing can move itself.
6.
Therefore each thing in motion is moved by something else.
7.
The sequence of motion cannot extend ad infinitum.
8.
Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.
The whole thing is a mess. Even given that nothing can move itself (which I'm iffy about), you're stuck with a contradiction. If each thing must be moved by a previous action, then the sequence of motion would have to extend back infinitely. If it cannot extend back infinitely, then every thing does NOT need to be moved by something else. Some part of the reasoning is wrong, or some part of reality is misunderstood.
The theistic "solution" is to point to the contradiction, commit the special pleading fallacy, and label the exception to the contradiction "God". Except what they are really doing is labeling the contradiction itself... and you can't walk out of a logical dead end by painting a train tunnel on it. The world isn't a Road Runner cartoon.