Posted by Philosopher on February 10, 19100 at 13:17:35:
In Reply to: Caused first cause? posted by Malarky Mark on February 08, 19100 at 23:20:47:
: According to the uncaused cause, something cannot come from nothing. why is God the exception? i believe in God and everything but i just dont get this one.
The argument from the uncaused caused does not hold that something cannot come from nothing; rather, it says that something cannot cause itself. Now you must understand what is meant by "cause." Cause means to move from potency to act--that is from potentially being to actually being. Water--the philosopher's favorite example--is potentially hot or potentially cold, but it cannot cause itself to become actually hot or actually cold--something else must do the heating or cooling.
Now in a sense God is the exception--although exception probably isn't the best word to use--because it is plain to our reason that there must be one thing (and only one; more on this later) that has its being without being caused, because otherwise nothing would exist since the whole process of causation would never have started; and since I'm here typing and you're here reading, we may safely conclude causation has taken place. The key is that this thing--the uncaused cause--did not COME INTO being, but has always had existed. To put it another way, the uncaused cause has no potency; it is pure act; therefore, it has always existed, since if there were a time when it did not exist then that would have been a time when its existence was in potency not act. Finally, since it has never moved from potency to act, it uncaused. In this sense God is an exception because everything else does have potency.
Ultimately, this is the best description of God. In the Bible, God says to Moses, "I am who Am." We're used to saying God is merciful, God is vengeful, God is this or that; however, the only really accurate expression we can make is simply: God is.
Finally, there must only be one uncaused cause--one God--because if there were more than one then each of these "Gods" would have a potency, namely, being the other "God." And whatever has a potency must have a cuase to bring it to act, so the uncaused cause wouldn't be the uncaused cause if there's more than one. Simple, Right?
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