Posted: Apr 30, 2019 10:23 am
Pridefel Knowitelz wrote:Right so the universe always existed, for no particular reason. It was just there. That makes a lot of sense.
Perhaps it exists for the same reason the altenative you are so desperate to find a way to conclude does. By necessity of it's own nature? If you can simply define that to be a property of God, we can define that to be a property of the universe.
But you see you're asking a different question now. Rather than try to find out why the universe came into existence out of nothing, which is what you thought this problem was about, you're now asking why something exists at all rather than not existing? Those are not the same problem.
How did something begin to exist from nothing?
Why does something exist rather than not existing?
Answering the first question by pointing out that we don't have to believe that such a transition ever took place, does not answer the second question and it doesn't purport to. We don't know why something exists rather than not existing. It might exist for no reason, because that is the "default state of affairs". Or it might exist because it's existence is necessary, which is the answer theists insist is true about their God. I don't claim to know, and I don't see how anyone could.
But surely, just insisting that God is by definition necessary should impress anyone no more than it should impress them to hear that the universe is defined to be necessary. Either way, it's just a made up definition.