Fundamentalism

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Igzy

The fact is you cannot state anything is true without presupposing something that you cannot prove. You are doing it yourself above. All proof is based on first principles that are presupposed and cannot be proved. So the question is: what is the first Presupposition that ever other idea either springs from or is a perversion of? Everyone has one (or more) and none of them can be proved, including God. Just some make more sense that others.

So if all our systems of thought are based on ideas that cannot be proved, then it follows that the universe itself is based on something that cannot be proved. We cannot even come up with a theory of reality that is based on a provable first principle. Try. It cannot be done. Because, to say the least, the idea that your reasoning ability actually accurately corresponds to reality is a presupposition. So right from the get-go you are depending on presuppositions.

So the question is, which presuppositions are you going to embrace? Because everyone chooses some. No one lives by only what can be proved.



We can make statements about the material universe that we cannot make about something outside of it, because we live in the universe and can observe its laws. The laws of something beyond our universe are not naturally observable to us. So we cannot say that it is limited by the laws of time as we know them. All we can say is there is evidence of its existence because the physical universe can neither have caused itself nor have been here forever.

But we can make more confident statements about the material universe. And one thing we can say is that logic and the nature of the universe tell us that time cannot regress infinitely into the past. So time had to have a beginning. Therefore the universe had to have a beginning.

Here are the basic choices:

The material universe has always been here -- Not possible because time cannot regress infinitely into the past.

The material universe appeared without cause -- Not possible because everything physical has a cause.

Something above and apart (i.e. "supernatural") from the physical universe caused it -- Possible, if not entirely understandable.

There are no absolutes!