Review of the 36 Arguments for the Existence of God #20. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE INTOLERABILITY OF INSIGNIFICANCE
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Pastor Jennifer v2
Feb 23, 2012, 11:39:35 AM2/23/12
to Evidence For God
20. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE INTOLERABILITY OF INSIGNIFICANCE
1. In a million years, nothing that happens now will matter.
2. By the same token, anything that happens at any point in time will
not matter from the point of view of a time a million years distant
from it in the future.
3. No point in time can confer mattering on any other point, for each
suffers from the same problem of not mattering itself (from 2).
4. It is intolerable (or inconceivable, or unacceptable) that in a
million years nothing that happens now will matter.
5. What happens now will matter in a million years (from 4).
6. It is only from the point of view of eternity that what happens now
will matter even in a million years (from 3).
7. Only God can inhabit the point of view of eternity.
8. God exists.
FLAW:
Premise 4 is illicit: it is of the form “This argument must be correct
because it is intolerable that this argument is not correct.” The
argument is either circular, or an example of the Fallacy of Wishful
Thinking. Maybe we won’t matter in a million years, and there’s just
nothing we can do about it. If that is the case, we shouldn’t declare
that it is intolerable—we just have to live with it. Another way of
putting it is: we should take ourselves seriously (being mindful of
what we do, and the world we leave our children and grandchildren),
but we shouldn’t take ourselves that seriously, arrogantly demanding
that we must matter in a million years.
R Goldstein
1. In a million years, nothing that happens now will matter.
2. By the same token, anything that happens at any point in time will
not matter from the point of view of a time a million years distant
from it in the future.
3. No point in time can confer mattering on any other point, for each
suffers from the same problem of not mattering itself (from 2).
4. It is intolerable (or inconceivable, or unacceptable) that in a
million years nothing that happens now will matter.
5. What happens now will matter in a million years (from 4).
6. It is only from the point of view of eternity that what happens now
will matter even in a million years (from 3).
7. Only God can inhabit the point of view of eternity.
8. God exists.
FLAW:
Premise 4 is illicit: it is of the form “This argument must be correct
because it is intolerable that this argument is not correct.” The
argument is either circular, or an example of the Fallacy of Wishful
Thinking. Maybe we won’t matter in a million years, and there’s just
nothing we can do about it. If that is the case, we shouldn’t declare
that it is intolerable—we just have to live with it. Another way of
putting it is: we should take ourselves seriously (being mindful of
what we do, and the world we leave our children and grandchildren),
but we shouldn’t take ourselves that seriously, arrogantly demanding
that we must matter in a million years.
R Goldstein
Brock
Feb 23, 2012, 6:21:27 PM2/23/12
to Evidence For God
On Feb 23, 11:39 am, Pastor Jennifer v2
<jennifer.s.jo...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> 20. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE INTOLERABILITY OF INSIGNIFICANCE
>
> 1. In a million years, nothing that happens now will matter.
> 2. By the same token, anything that happens at any point in time will
> not matter from the point of view of a time a million years distant
> from it in the future.
> 3. No point in time can confer mattering on any other point, for each
> suffers from the same problem of not mattering itself (from 2).
> 4. It is intolerable (or inconceivable, or unacceptable) that in a
> million years nothing that happens now will matter.
> 5. What happens now will matter in a million years (from 4).
> 6. It is only from the point of view of eternity that what happens now
> will matter even in a million years (from 3).
> 7. Only God can inhabit the point of view of eternity.
> 8. God exists.
Again, the same limitations apply to this treatment:
> 20. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE INTOLERABILITY OF INSIGNIFICANCE
>
> 1. In a million years, nothing that happens now will matter.
> 2. By the same token, anything that happens at any point in time will
> not matter from the point of view of a time a million years distant
> from it in the future.
> 3. No point in time can confer mattering on any other point, for each
> suffers from the same problem of not mattering itself (from 2).
> 4. It is intolerable (or inconceivable, or unacceptable) that in a
> million years nothing that happens now will matter.
> 5. What happens now will matter in a million years (from 4).
> 6. It is only from the point of view of eternity that what happens now
> will matter even in a million years (from 3).
> 7. Only God can inhabit the point of view of eternity.
> 8. God exists.
* there is no one "THE ARGUMENT ...", rather it refers to a general
category of arguments, thus to defeat one specific example is not
adequate to dismiss the category
* the argument, to the degree it is a paraphrase, doesn't adequately
represent (either intentionally or accidentally) the argument as put
forward by a proponent, and faces the danger of being simply a straw-
man
Regards,
Brock
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