From: utzoo!decvax!duke!unc!tim Newsgroups: net.misc Title: Re: Religous Matters Article-I.D.: unc.4543 Posted: Thu Jan 20 16:58:17 1983 Received: Thu Feb 3 17:06:45 1983 References: ucbvax.629 we13.369 To rephrase the recent rephrasal of Kant, all that the argument says is "If there is a God, then It must exist." Saying things like this in a misleading way is the essence of most "proofs" of the existence of God. My favorite has always been Aquinas' Primum Mobile (First Mover, First Cause) argument. Cause and effect is the nature of events in this universe; every effect must have a cause. Taking this back, we get either an infinite regress (which he dismissed as obvious absurdity) or a first cause. Therefore, there is a God who was this first cause. This was one of the most popular arguments, and remains one of the easiest to debunk. It is no harder to imagine a Universe without a cause than to imagine a God without a cause. Tim Maroney