Sunday, February 23, 2014

How Can We Make Sense of An Immaterial Mind Creating the Material Universe?

YouTube Description: On April 18th, 2012 William Lane Craig and Klemens Kappel debated the topic "Does God Exist?" in Copenhagen, Denmark. After the debate there was a lengthy question and answer period with the audience. In this clip, the question arises: How does an unembodied mind cause the universe to exist?

NOTES:
(0:00) How does a bodiless mind cause the universe to exist?  The events that God causes in nature are similar to the events we cause in our bodies with our minds called ‘basic actions.’  We will with our minds to lift our arms, so we do. 
(1:26) J.P. Moreland: ‘Consciousness and the Existence of God.’  He’s a dualist—minds are spritual/mental substances that possess causal control of bodies. 
(1:41) To search for a physical connection between mind and body is to reject the notion of a basic action.
(2:04) Doing this means rejecting free will, means we cannot affect our bodies in any way, but our bodies can affect us.

How did God actually bring about the universe’s existence?  Craig said how God did this is like a basic action in humans.  We want to lift our arms, and then we do so.  Craig seems to suggest that there’s no in between, somehow no corporeal linkage between cause and effect, at least regarding matters of spirit and consciousness.  How can there be no actual linkage between cause and effect when, in our universe at least, cause and effect seem to be so inextricably bound together? 

If Craig is right, part of the answer regarding cause and effect may lie in an examination of Zeno’s Paradox.  The Paradox says that, in theory, any action you perform can be broken down into an infinite series of sub-actions.  But if true, you would never be able to finish the action.  In fact, you could never start it.  In fact, nothing would even exist.  Yet, here we are.  Not sure where I’m going with this.

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