@SammDickens,
xris;95972 wrote:This is the one occasion when science can not dictate the possibilities or deny any possibility. It has no authority nor conviction to dictate or act by its advocates a superior view. Even the atheists sarcastic pink elephant has just as much claim to a cause as any faith driven scientific mandate. Logic can be used, but only if it has value to the evidence that is provided, so multi verses ,parallel universes,vibrating strings or any new theoretical mumbo jumbo are just as irrelevant, as there is not one ounce of proof for any of these proposals.
So lets not be so superior or dismissive of any philosophical reasoning, as all are relevant and have equal authority.
Samm;96030 wrote:vectorcube, that was the worst possible response I think I could have gotten to my post. You refuse to accept any idea that doesn't fit into your preconceptions of this debate, and you call ideas you don't like by unflattering names. You are not practicing philosophy when you do such things. I recognize and consider the ideas you are postulating, and while I know they are as speculative as my own ideas, I accept that some infinite regression of universes, each causing the next and caused by the previous universe is a valid idea to be considered. I'm not fond of infinite regressions because no element in such a regression is truly explained until all the elements are explained, and its impossible to explain an infinite number of elements.
Would you like to take another shot at my previous post, and this time maybe actually respond to what I'm saying?
Samm
look, i am not trying to insult you, so you really have to put your pride away.
I am telling you your solution is bad. In fact, you solution of postulating an entity that is timeless and spaceless is "weird". Why? Because there are so many other options. In fact, "Every" well known "modern" philosophers that i can think of have try to explain the ultimate "why" question. In all cases, they take up something like a multiverse, or some sort of possible world realism. Just to name a few:
Max tagmark` s level 4 multiverse.
Robert Nozick `s Principle of fecundity
David lewis ` s possible world realism.
Derick Parfit` s selector for selecting all possible worlds.
John ****** ` s ethical requirement.
In case you are wondering. There is a common theme. All of these philosophers( and one physicist) advocate something like a multiverse so that the contingent nature of our universe is less surprising. None of them try to find a transcendent cause for the universe, because they would have to:
1) postulate something that is completely mysterious, while other less mysterious options are available( ie : multiverses)
2) The conviction that the big bang is a natural event that can be understood. ( ie: a conviction that nothing is mysterious)
What is wrong about your solution is that you postulate something is that complete weird while there are more plausible solutions. Postulating a timeless being is fine, but that is not a satisfying explanation for the bb, because this timeless being would simply be way more complicate, and infinitly less comprehensible than the bb itself. Your substitute one mystery with another. How great!
The "majority" solution among modern philosophers that ask this ultimate question is that our bb is nothing special, and in fact, it is less mysterious if we suppose the existence of infinite many universes.