New Evidence that the Universe Began to Exist (with Dr. Rob Koons)

In this live interview, Dr. Rob Koons and I look at some very new arguments for the second premise of Kalam Cosmological Argument that the universe began to exist. In particular, we look at the Grim Reaper Paradox for causal finitism.

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#Kalam #Apologetics #God

[johnpate]

Love Dr. Koons! He and Alex Pruss are some of my biggest influences in my own Thomistic philosophy

[SKCLLC]

This reminds me of a logic problem I heard once. A man was told that he would be executed the following week, but he would not know on what day the execution would take place and would be surprised by it. He went to his prison cell and started thinking. He first realized that the execution cannot possibly be on Friday because then come Thursday he would no longer be surprised by a Friday execution. Now that Friday is eliminated, he could similarly eliminate Thursday since come Wednesday he would no longer be surprised by a Thursday execution. He similarly eliminated Wednesday, Tuesday, and finally Monday. On Sunday night the man slept easy, knowing that he had figured out his captor’s game and they could not surprise him with an execution.


Monday morning the man was surprised with an execution.

[flaze]

I think I'd need to watch this a few times before I really understand what the argument is! XD

[RadicOmega]

10:38 is where the new formulation starts

[joserivera]

Love you, Cameron. Keep it up brother.

[charlesvandenburgh]

The easiest solution to temporal paradoxes is to deny the reality of objective time, making time an irreducible subjective experience that only becomes contradictory when we attempt to give it a mind independent objective reality.

[multi-mason]

Just for sake of argument, assume that infinite regression is not possible, and thus reality was created by a creator. Then where did the creator come from, and what caused this creator to create reality? And if something caused that creator, then what was the cause of that cause? Infinite regression is both impossible, and yet inescapable...

[williamsmiley]

This video should have a lot more views

[briankayaker]

I really enjoyed this video and I'm subscribing now hoping to get more like this. One piece of advice/request- if you really care about the truth being known, be careful to not be condescending in your thinking. If you are, you will create another barrier for others to start believing like you, and it will cause you to disregard ideas that could be more truthful/useful to you than the ideas that you currently hold.

[patrickturner]

I like the library analogy that I've heard Braxton Hunter use to show that its impossible to traverse an infinite.

[benjamintoms]

I thought of an objection. The framework for the quilt in which the individual patches fit is a finite shape or boundary. Applying that to the infinite past doesn't match. So each of the grim messengers is a finite shape like the patch but then isn't fit into a framework because infinity doesn't have a shape.

[eliasarches]

I agree with the Kalam, but I’m not sure of the grim reaper paradox. The reason being is that an actual infinite doesn’t seem analogous to a potentially infinite division of a finite period/thing.

[matswessling]

that a specific infinite construct isnt possible does not refute actual impossibilities.

[abidd]

The answer to the messenger paradox: There would be an infinite number of messengers because there are an infinite number of numbers. Our number system itself disproved the need for a first number. Out number system goes backwards into infinity and goes forward into infinity. The number on the message would depend of at what point along the infinite number of messages a message was selected by an observer.

[Mythyval]

Wait. What would make the paper “blank or wonky”? Are you assuming it “starts out” blank? If so there’s your real contradiction. You’re assuming it’s an infinite series and yet assuming the paper has a beginning state. On the other hand, if it becomes blank at some point within the infinite series, then the next grim messenger will write his number on it and there would be no paradox.

[DrHowbeit]

A speculation – what if causality gets distorted and eventually breaks down if you go far enough into the infinite past? This would be similar to splitting particles and entering the quantum mechanics realm, which introduces physical laws that are different from classical Newtonian mechanics. Perhaps the causal rules stipulated for the Grim Messenger Paradox aren't applicable in the infinite past. We would be dealing with wholly different laws.

[samnes]

Great interview and I like how you keep explaining context but I felt you shouldn't keep interrupting RK.

[multi-mason]

Tolkien may not exist in the timeline of his novels, but something still did cause Tolkien to write his novels. A novel need not actually make sense either.

He said he was trying to reduce the concept of an infinite past to absurdity. Yet all he did is claim it was finite, but existed in another timeline, which he failed to define. Contradicting himself by insisting that things must have causes. If causation is a requirement, then infinite regression is unavoidable, if time exists. If time doesn't exist, then all this circular logic is meaningless.

[morlewen]

The paradox is no paradox. The time has a smallest quantity that is possible without violating the law of physics: the Planck-time. Therefore it is very easy to determine the death of the poor guy. It is 0:00 plus the Planck-time. You need a finite number of reapers to cover all time points between 0:00 and 1:00.

[multi-mason]

New evidence, that exists only in your mind...