In his famous Sefer Chovos Halevavos Rabbeinu Bachya mentions one thing I would like to bring down here. Its a famous question we keep asking ourselves, does G-d really exist? How do we know G-d really exists, is blind faith really valid or do we believe because you are afraid of the opposite that no G-d exists etc...
To help with these doubts he brings 3 things that prove the world has a Creator.
1: Nothing creates itself
2: Causes are limited, since they limited they must therefore have a first cause in which no other cause comes before it.
3: Anything that is composite was brought into existence.
Let us now look at these 3 things closer to get a better understanding.
- Anything which exists after having not existed can't escape the reality of one of two things: either it created itself or something else created it. So to with anything that created itself, if it made itself before it existed or it made itself after it existed, of which both cases are impossible, if it existed already then creating itself is a repeat and not real, if it didn't exist, from nothing can come nor action or cessation of activity.
- Anything that has an end must have a start, what has no start has no end. It is not logical that an object that has no start could reach a point visible to man. Anything we as humans see we know has a first cause that has nothing before it. Also anything that has a part has a whole, the whole is just all the parts added up. It can't be said that the infinite has parts, as parts are but a portion of the whole(which here doesn't exist as its infinite). If we take something infinite and take a small piece away from it, its for sure smaller than the first piece, if it is still infinite then we must say that one infinite is smaller than the other infinite which is impossible. Since the world is finite therefore its cause have to be as well. This prove there must be a first cause which caused all other causes to come into existence.
- Anything which is a composite consists of one or more components. These components are prior to it in nature(since they caused it to come into being). So too the one that put together the composite must have come before it in nature and time. Anything eternal has no cause(since cause if finite), what has no cause has no start and what has a start is not eternal. Therefore anything which is a composite is not eternal and therefore was brought into existence.
1 comments:
This also what happens to be the opinion of Aristotle who called G-d the primary cause.
I think Rabbeinu Bachya quotes him in a few places and calls him the Philosopher.
Post a Comment