Sabitlenmiş Tweet
📌 What is "Contingency Argument"?
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The Most popular Atheist of the subcontinent, Javed Akhtar, is unaware of one of the key arguments of Theism.
I will try to present the Contingency Argument in a way that even our Desi Atheist and an ordinary layperson can grasp it.
●When we see a plant, it has a specific shape, size, and colour. The reason for this is that its environment and conditions made it the way it is.
So when we see something with specific characteristics, we naturally demand an explanation for why the thing is "the way it is".
🔰Science is based on a principle known as PSR, the "Principle of Sufficient Reason".
When scientists saw a ball falling to the ground, they began searching for an explanation: why did the ball fall that way, why did it go downward and not in any other direction, and so on.
This is what PSR means: when we observe something with specific features or behavior, we try to find the explanation behind why it is "the way it is".
Another example is the human being. When scientists reflected on the fact that humans have a specific shape, height, and size, they concluded that there must be an explanation or reason behind it. As a result, they proposed various theories.
Anything that has specification, or that could have been otherwise, requires an External explanation. This principle is called PSR.
When we observe a new event in our galaxy, we do not abandon our reasoning and say there must be no explanation behind it. Instead, we believe that there is an explanation, based on PSR.
Therefore, science itself is grounded in PSR, as it generates curiosity and the search for answers.
Anyone who denies PSR would ultimately have to reject science as a whole.
So, If things could have been different but are the way they are, then there must be a reason and an explanation for why they are the way they are.
🔰So, a thing that has specification (Susceptible to Disassemble) or could have been otherwise is known as a Contingent thing.
Contingent things require an explanation for their specification and existence, since they could have been non-existent.
Therefore, contingent things require an explanation.
📗Academically, Contingent things are "Susceptible to Disassembly," meaning they can be taken apart, and they have "Arbitrary Limits".
🔰Now let us consider the universe.
Does it have specific characteristics? Can it be rearranged in a different way? Is it possible that it might not have existed? The answer is YES.
Hence, the universe is CONTINGENT, and using PSR, it requires an explanation for "the way it is".
📛Now one may say that there are infinite contingent things.
🔰1. The Problem of Infinite Regress
Imagine you want to shoot a bird. You ask permission from your brother to shoot it. Similarly, your brother asks his elder brother, the elder brother asks another brother, and this continues infinitely.
Would the you ever be able to shoot the bird? The answer is NO, because the chain of permission would be infinite.
But if he does shoot, then it would entail that the chain stops somewhere; there must be a first permission giver.
■Now applying this logic to the universe:
If the universe has a cause, and that cause has a cause, and that cause also has a cause, and this continues infinitely, will the universe exist?
The answer is NO, because the chain of causes would be infinite.
But the universe does exist; therefore, it entails that there must be a first cause.
■ Applying this to contingency:
A plant depends for its specifications on its atmosphere; the atmosphere depends for its specification on the Earth; the Earth depends on the solar system; the solar system depends on the galaxy; the galaxy depends on the universe; the universe depends on the multiverse. If this chain were infinite, the plant would not have existed, because the chain of dependency would be infinite.
📒Part 1/3....
Català
