I saw one youtube video by him as well as other articles that he wrote. There is also a link to the lectures I want to view, but it does not work like the one I posted. Do the articles he wrote that Dr. Feser listed explain his view on philosophy of nature.

AKG wrote:

@Alexander,
Since William Wallace was also a masters degree in physics do you know if he wrote anything on the claim that the total net energy in the universe is zero therefore(as some atheist claim) the universe came from nothing? I'm skeptical about this as I think they might be redefining nothing, but I don't know a lot in order to retort that even if this was true, it would still not be the case the universe came from nothing.

Two things:

1. This is a claim it's impossible to even research empirically. If made in serious cosmology, it would be a theoretical posit only being so-called "confirmed" by research not discovered in that research.

2. The argument you're referencing tacitly assumes that God or God's creative activity requires the use of "energy" in the sense employed by physics. This amounts, in theological terms, to the presumption that God is a created thing, and philosophically it is a tacit scientism. It was long ago rejected in Christian theology and in Platonic thought. God and God's activity is not *dependant* upon the presence or use of anything outside God's being.

In non-theological terms we could put it this way:

1. God is non-finite.
2. Energy is discreet and bounded.
∴ God isn't energy.

1. God created everything that isn't himself.
2. Energy isn't god.
3. God created energy.
4. If god created energy, then energy can't have been used in that creation.
∴ Energy wasn't used in creation.

Last edited by iwpoe (12/03/2015 4:55 am)