Quantum weirdness: materialism doesn't fit (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, April 18, 2018, 20:29 (2411 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Yes, acceptance of First Cause is a big step, but logical. "Why is there anything?". Whether theist or atheist something is eternal. What for the agnostic?

dhw: Some folk claim that the First Cause was the big bang, and there was nothing before it; others claim that an impersonal universe of unconscious, ever-changing energy and matter was the First Cause; theists claim that a conscious being was the First Cause. First Cause is whatever you want it to be, and consequently has absolutely no value in itself as an explanation.

DAVID: Then you have no concept that there must be a first cause?

dhw: Of course there has to be a first cause, and I have just given you three options. I mentioned First Cause as an example of “lofty labels and clever constructs” that explain nothing. Here is the context:
An excellent and illuminating presentation of one half of the story. The other half, of course, is that theism leaves theists to explain the unexplainable through a stranger-than-fiction narrative whereby, through lofty labels and clever constructs (First Cause springs to mind), an infinitely powerful and conscious being did not come from anywhere but has always existed.

Theists use “First Cause” as if it somehow supports their faith. It doesn’t.

Thank you for your view.