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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...