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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The conception of a temporally infinite universe, understood as a successive causal chain, is impossible.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.An actually infinite series need not be 'traversed' to exist; it simply is, without any member being infinitely distant from others.
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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Aristotle's own distinction between potential and actual infinity does not entail that an eternal series of causes constitutes a completed actual infinite.
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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Cantorian set theory demonstrates that a coherent formal treatment of completed infinities is possible, undermining the claim that actual infinities are categorically impossible.
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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Al-Ghazali's and Averroes's debate on eternal creation shows that an eternal causal series can be conceived as wholly dependent on a sustaining cause at each moment, not requiring a first temporal moment.
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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.The 'traversal' objection conflates the perspective of an external counter with the intrinsic structure of the series, committing a category error Aquinas himself implicitly acknowledged in the Summa Theologiae Ia, q.46.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.If the existence of something requires the preexistence of something else, then any one thing will not come to be without the prior existence of the other.
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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.An infinite number cannot exist in actuality, nor be traversed in counting, nor be increased.
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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Something cannot come into being if its existence requires the preexistence of an infinite number of other things, one arising out of the other.
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      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.