Thread: Start with Nothing

Originally Posted by Dianeva

There is no assumption that time had something before it. If I used the word 'before', what I meant was the cause. The cause and effect might happen simultaneously. The effect might even be eternal. That doesn't defeat my argument.

That's entirely distorting the concept of cause and effect. Cause and effect cannot happen simultaneously by definition. Einstein even assumed that causation could not be violated in his special relativity - causes must come before effects in all cases.

Yes existence is arbitrary and it must be arbitrary because it cannot be logically caused, but is that really something people didn't already know? The argument might fall down when it comes to the second point: 'anything has a cause'. You can't say that and then go onto say it can be traced back to something which doesn't have a cause/to something which doesn't exist. If it is the case that everything has a cause, then there is no 'first' cause, there can only be infinite regression. The very assertion that nothingness/non-existence can exist is a clear contradiction.

My point is that assuming things exist and those things require causes, there must be infinite regression - no first, no before. To talk about what comes last or after we have to assume everything has an effect which is another argument for another day I guess.