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    42
    The world is not eternal. — Carmelics
    Home/Natural Theology
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    The world is not eternal.

    Natural Theology
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Every being whose existence is merely possible requires an external cause to actualize it, as al-Kindi and later Avicenna maintained.
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    • 2.A causally dependent series cannot regress infinitely without a first uncaused cause, since an infinite regress explains nothing.
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    • 3.Therefore, the cosmos, being contingent and causally dependent, must have originated at a finite point rather than existing eternally.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.An actually infinite series of past events cannot be traversed to reach the present moment, as Philoponus argued against Aristotle.
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    • 2.The present moment exists, so the series of past events must be finite, entailing a temporal beginning to the world.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Time is predicated of the body of the cosmos.
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    • 2.Nothing predicated of the body of the cosmos can be infinite.
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    • 3.If time is finite, the world is not eternal.
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    Topics

    Natural Theology

    Connections

    2 topics

    Causation1 linkedDivine Attributes1 linked

    Related

    A causally dependent series cannot regress infinitely without a first uncaused c...An actually infinite series of past events cannot be traversed to reach the pres...Every being whose existence is merely possible requires an external cause to act...If time is finite, the world is not eternal.
    +4 moreShow less
    Nothing predicated of the body of the cosmos can be infinite.The present moment exists, so the series of past events must be finite, entailin...Therefore, the cosmos, being contingent and causally dependent, must have origin...Time is predicated of the body of the cosmos.

    Similar

    If time is finite, the world is not eternal.88%The world cannot have existed eternally in the past.85%Arguments that an eternal world is impossible under the present dispen...83%If motion and time are eternal, there is no beginning to the universe.81%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: al-kindi
    View source passageHide passage
    When al-Kindi comes to argue explicitly against the eternity of the world, he uses Philoponus’ strategy of using Aristotle against himself. Aristotle famously held that there can be no such thing as an actual infinite. Thus, for instance, the body of the world cannot be infinitely large. Because the cosmos is finite in spatial magnitude, argues al-Kindi, nothing predicated of the body of the cosmos can be infinite. Since time is one of the things predicated of this body, time must be finite; the
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit