In theoretical physics it has been speculated space-time is fundamentally discrete. Reality, at its smallest scale, would act somewhat like Conway's Game of Life. I am curious: How would this affect the First Way? Because space and time would not be continuous, a stick could not continuously push a stone. Things would not truly be in motion. Instead, they would teleport from place to place. Do you think this would cast Aquinas' distinction between essentially ordered and accidentally ordered causal series into doubt? I would like to know your thoughts.

Of course, space time has not been proven to be discrete, and the data presently favors continuous space and time. However, many physicists consider this a legitimate possibility. I think it is best that we are able to defend the First Way under a wide variety of speculative theoretical models, in the event that any one of them is empirically proven to be true.

Last edited by Cosmyk (11/01/2018 9:25 am)