format_quote Originally Posted by
jubal
Let me first begin by asking if the world was without shape or form (no space or time) then how can you derive knowledge of God? It is literally impossible to imagine a image of God without relying on a spacial framework. ... So how do you justify belief?
From within a universe, looking back in timespace at its origin, we can only approach it from the right, i.e. from points in time that come after the beginning. It is indeed not possible to approach the origin from the left, i.e. points in time that would come before the beginning, because negative times are not defined and not possible to define within the existing universe.
Hence, we can approach the original and originating event of the universe, by moving back in time, and claim that it is the attraction point for the repeated application of the causality function.
Say that we have a causality function that maps a consequence onto its causes. We also axiomatize the following statements:
[1] Time is finite.
[2] For every consequential event, there is always at least one event that is its cause ("generalized causality").
[3] A cause always strictly precedes its consequence.
[4] Supertasks do not exist, i.e. it is not possible to traverse an infinite number of events in a finite amount of time, since that would expend an infinite amount of energy.
Given these axioms, we will end up with exactly one attraction point in time point zero, at the beginning of the universe. This is actually, exactly what Aristotle claimed in
Physics, book VIII, part 5:
If then everything that is caused must be caused by something, and the cause must either itself be caused by something else or not, and in the former case there must be some first cause that is not itself caused by anything else, while in the case of the immediate cause being of this kind there is no need of an intermediate cause that is also caused (for it is impossible that there should be an infinite series of causes, each of which is itself caused by something else, since in an infinite series there is no first term)-if then everything that is caused is caused by something, and the first cause is caused but not by anything else, it much be caused by itself.
Aristotle also claims that if the first cause is an attraction point for the repeated application of the causality function for any possible event, it is also the attraction point for itself. This is a claim that clearly rest on the principle of least surprise.
In
Physics, book VIII, part 6, Aristotle further claims that there is only one such attraction point:
It is sufficient to assume only one cause, the first of uncaused things, which being eternal will be the principle of causality to everything else.
Under the assumption of generalized causality, there cannot be two original causes, because one of both will have preceded the other, and hence will be its cause, invalidating the idea that it would also be an original cause. Hence, in the given axiomatization, there is indeed only one first cause possible.
Therefore we can conclude that
the belief in a First Cause is equivalent to
the belief in the finitude of time, generalized causality, strictly-ordered consequentiality, and the impossibility of supertasks. These beliefs are equivalent. Someone who believes the one, automatically believes the other, because these beliefs can be derived trivially from each other.