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The statement that every effect must have a cause is, in itself, a denial of a first cause. ------

In debating the origin of the universe, you will invariably come to the conclusion that something is eternal. Mass and energy are convertible, so basically, the universe is made of energy. The first law of thermodynamics says that energy is eternal. So the Universe is eternal. Thus, the chain of cause and effect is eternal, no first cause.

TommyMeador 7 Dec 25
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Thank Goodness you didn't tell him to have 'faith' - the weapon of the religious to explain anything unexplainable.

PEGUS Level 5 Dec 31, 2017
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First law of thermo dynamics says that the total energy in a closed system is constant. The energy can change form but energy cannot be created or destroyed.

Yes. But what was your point? Were you agreeing with me or trying to point out a flaw in my reasoning? Please elaborate.

@TommyMeador its the use of the word eternal.
There is no evidence that the universe is eternal, there appears to be a T0 according to my understanding.
You appear to be arguing for an infinite regress.

If something exists and cannot be created or destroyed, then it has always existed and always will. Is that not eternal? Yes,infinite in time, forwards and backwards. What is a "TO"?

@TommyMeador T0 time zero, start point if you like, a term I heard somewhere
The energy contained in our universe is not eternal. It came from something or somewhere (if those terms have meaning in this circumstance) then at the other end we have the expansion of the universe and it's eventual heat death. The universe will reach an even temperature, all that energy will be unable to do any work and the universe will become more and more diffuse, nothing will be able to happen, the universe will all but end, almost like cosmic homeopathy. So no, I disagree that the universe is eternal.
Where I may agree is that positing a first cause may be redundant as spacetime came into existence with the birth of the universe so there was no before for the first cause to do the causing.

It came from something or somewhere What would that something or somewhere be? It would be the universe. In the case of heat death, all the energy still exists.

@TommyMeador don't know what the something/somewhere would be, I'm not a cosmologist, but, current ideas about the universe supplanted the notion that the universe is eternal, the steady state hypothesis.
So no, it wouldn't be the universe itself, that was the point I was making.
As regards the heat death, yes the energy would still be there, but, the energy density would become increasingly dilute with time and as far as I am aware the expansion will go on for ever, a cold dead universe, where nothing could happen. With nothing happening how would time be measured?. Time would effectively cease.

@Generalusage --- I think we may be using the word Universe differently. To me the Universe means every thing that exists. And I was talking about a steady state universe. After heat death all the energy still exists, and that is the universe, no matter how scattered it is. Before the Big Bang, whatever caused it was the universe. And if expansion goes on forever, time would be measured by the expansion. Of course there would be nobody to measure it but it would still exist.

Correction = I was NOT talking about a steady state universe.

@TommyMeador To be honest, I think I need to do a whole lot of reading if I want to continue this discussion.
I'm not ducking out and claiming pwnage, I'm not 100% sure if some of the things I've said are correct. Like I said, I'm not a cosmologist.
I think that I agree that there was no first cause, maybe for slightly different reasons.

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