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Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for GodThe Plantinga Project$
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Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project

Jerry L. Walls and Trent Dougherty

Print publication date: 2018

Print ISBN-13: 9780190842215

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2018

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190842215.001.0001

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The Argument from Simplicity and (M) The Argument from Induction

The Argument from Simplicity and (M) The Argument from Induction

Atheistic Induction by Boltzmann Brains

Chapter:
(L) The Argument from Simplicity and (M) The Argument from Induction
Source:
Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for God
Author(s):

Bradley Monton

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190842215.003.0012

This chapter presents a new thermodynamic argument for the existence of God. Naturalistic physics provides evidence for the failure of induction, because it provides evidence that the past is not at all what you think it is, and your existence is just a momentary fluctuation. The fact that you are not a momentary fluctuation thus provides evidence for the existence of God—God would ensure that the past is roughly what we think it is, and you have been in existence for roughly the amount of time you think you have. There is no definitive way for the atheist to refute this argument, but one suggestion is given that relies on physics-based simplicity considerations. The chapter closes with an epistemological discussion of self-undermining arguments.

Keywords:   thermodynamics, argument for the existence of God, induction, simplicity, naturalism, atheism, self-undermining arguments

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