Fw: Kalam Cosmological Argument 2
Brian Dean bridean@worldnet.att.net
Wed, 4 Mar 1998 22:55:27 -0500 (00889091727, 19980305034801.AAA6551@briandea)
>>RON
>>Sommers, please explain Fisher's point to me clearly, without reference
>>to airplanes, automobiles, or any other methods of transportation.
>>Perhaps you could put it in the form of a sentence, possibly even a
>>succinct (gee, I hope I spelled that correctly!) statement.
>>
>
>TILL
>Well, let me give it a try. Fisher pointed out that you are using the
>fallacy of composition in your argument. The fallacy of composition occurs
>when one argues that qualities or characteristics found in the parts of a
>whole must also be qualities or characteristics of the whole. He used the
>quality of weight as an example and showed that although the individual
>parts of a whole may be "light" in weight, it would not follow that the
>whole also possesses the characteristic of lightness in weight. The reason
>for this is simple. Although no individual part of a mechanism may weigh
>more than, say, 5 ounces, if enough individual parts were required to make
>the whole, it would not be true that the whole also possesses the
>characteristic of lightness in weight. Apply this to the universe. Any
>individual particle of matter would possess the characteristic of
>"lightness"; in fact, it would require special instrumentation to measure
>its weight. However, when all of the particles of matter in the universe
>are considered as a whole, it would be ridiculous to argue that the whole is
>light because the parts are light. What is so hard to understand about this?
>
>Let's apply this to a written essay. An essay would be made up of
>individual parts (words). Let's suppose that one word in the essay is
>"mean." No one could look just at that individual word and conclude
>anything specific about its meaning and certainly couldn't conclude anything
>about the meaning of the essay as a whole. It could signify the concept of
>cruelty, or it could signify the concept of definition or denotation, or it
>could signify the concept of average. So let's put it into a sentence: "I
>have no idea what you mean." Now we could determine that the word "mean"
>is being used in the second sense, i.e., definition or denotation. However,
>the entire sentence would not convey much coherence, because we have no
>idea of what context the sentence was used in the complete composition. We
>could, in fact, maybe take every individual sentence within the total
>composition and find that all of them considered in isolation don't
>communicate coherent ideas. That being true, would it be proper to say that
>the entire composition possesses the quality of incoherence, because the
>individual parts of the composition have this quality. Certainly not,
>because it would be possible that when all of the parts are put together,
>they would produce the quality of coherence and exactness in the whole.
RON
Please explain where I made such an argument? I seem to recall someone
rambling on about airplanes for some time. But that was not me. I'm
tired of atheists putting forth and destroying their own arguments. I
believe its what is known by we lay people as a "red herring" (straw
man?). I asked someone to explain (give evidence) how the universe
"popped" into existence without cause. All I got was a lecture on
airplanes being composed of light parts that add up to a heavy part. In
different ways you have said you don't know, its all theory. I
especially liked the "they just do!" answer. I never suggested that I
could prove the existence of God by scientific experiment or evidence.
Science only works on matter observable. Unfortunately for science the
universe is composed of more than matter. You on the other hand have
been unable to offer any evidence that God does not exist or that the
universe spontaneously generated. How can you ask me to provide evidence
that He does exist when you have not proven He does not? Where's the
beef!
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