The Cosmological Argument has 2 premises. The first premise states that a being is either made by itself or is made by another, while the second premise states that not every being can be a dependent being. The reason for this second argument is that if each being is dependent on another being than there has to be a first being that was independent or the cause of the dependent being. I do not fully agree with the last premise because if every individual being is caused by the being before than that explains that beings come from other dependent beings. There does not have to be a independent being but a being that was dependent to create another being. Rowe also talks about the ideas of the Buddhist religion and what contingency is. They believe that God is a logical being and believe in a logical argument. However, they do not believe that there are always strict understandings and answers to every question. I believe that ,just as Buddha has taught, there are more complex ideas of God and logical reasoning that do not have strict, concrete answers. Is there a way to bring the idea of God into logical, black and white ideas that we have today, which are based mostly on science,that give more complex understandings of reason and ultimate reality?
Udayana states that there are seven ways to prove that God is in existence; effects, atomic combination, suspension, human skills, authoritative knowledge, Revelation, and atoms. He also calls Him the "all-knowing, imperishable God." He is imperishable God because he is the only one who could create atoms because humans are not able to. Also, humans can not break atoms or destroy them and he is stating that the only person that can do that is God because he created atoms. He mentions the difference between the cause and effect to validate if there is a God. He brings up the argument that "Things like the earth must have a cause, because they are produced by a body (101)." Some deity had to have made the earth for their pleasure. He also relies on objections to prove that God is real. Udayana does bring up good ideas to prove that God is real. The best argument to me is that he created atoms. Humans are unable to destroy atoms or to create them; so they had to be...
I appreciate your mentioning of Buddha's teachings of God as being a complex idea lacking concrete answers. I also question the necessity and even possibility of bringing these ideas into the logical, black and white structures we do apply in modern understanding.
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