Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucsfcgl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!arnold From: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Ken Arnold%CGL) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Why should YOU believe ... Message-ID: <441@ucsfcgl.UUCP> Date: Sat, 9-Feb-85 13:46:18 EST Article-I.D.: ucsfcgl.441 Posted: Sat Feb 9 13:46:18 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 11-Feb-85 05:16:39 EST References: <205@cmu-cs-gandalf.ARPA> <340@cybvax0.UUCP> Reply-To: arnold@ucsfcgl.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE) Organization: UCSF Computer Graphics Lab Lines: 32 Summary: >Here is why I believe God exists ... > >My body, including my brain, is a machine. A machine can't cause >itself to move (or think, in the case of the brain). A machine >needs an outside agent to cause it to move. Since I can't cause >my own thoughts or actions, my thoughts and actions must be caused >by an outside agent. That outside agent must be God, who must cause >all thoughts and actions as a result of Her/His First Cause or Big >Bang. God is a programmer, and the universe is a computer. This was brought up before. The response is: If God has thoughts and actions which motivate your thoughts and actions, where did God's thoughts and actions come from? Who is God's programmer? And who is God's programmer's programmer? And who is ... (ad nauseum) You can see this is an infinite regression. At SOME point you must (unless you belive the universe is a product of infinite regression) posit an intelligence which is self-sufficient, in this sense (the First Cause). However, once you do this, you must allow that it is POSSIBLE for some intelligence to exist without outside motivation, and then you loose your initial argument (which is that it is not possible). Since I have yet to hear of any religion which goes back more than God's God, I can not accept this as a logical argument for any existing religion's God. -- Ken Arnold ================================================================= Of COURSE we can implement your algorithm. We've got this Turing machine emulator...