[MD] The Quest for Quality

[Ham Priday]

Greetings, Craig --


[Ham, previously]:
> An uncreated absolute source has no beginning or ending by definition.

[Craig]:
> Two fallacies above:
> 1) If something is created then by definition it has a
> beginning.   But it doesn't follow that whatever is uncreated
> has no beginning.
> 2) If something is uncreated, it does not follow that its
> existence cannot end.

The adjective "uncreated" has no empirical reference, which makes any 
definition speculative.  Therefore, while you're correct in asserting that 
"it doesn't follow that whatever is uncreated has no beginning," it also 
doesn't follow that what is uncreated HAS a beginning OR an end.  In fact, 
the concept of God or Supreme Being in religious literature is characterized 
as "eternal" (i.e., without beginning or end)..

Moreover, the word "absolute" implies "free from imprfection", "having no 
restriction, exception, or qualification", "self-sufficient and free of 
external references or relationships" (Websters New Collegiate Dictionary). 
The terms used in mystical literature to describe the Uncreated God are: 
Tao, Nirvana, Brahman, AIN SOF, Void, Nothingness, Pristine Awareness and 
Absolute Trancendence.

Buddha spoke of this "profound truth":
"There is, O monks, an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed.  Were 
there not, O monks, this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, there 
would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed."

Good try, Craig.  But, again, absolute truth is inaccessible to the finite 
mind, so the fundamentals of metaphysics must be left to intuitive 
reasoning.

Thanks for the logical analysis.

Essentiallty yours,
Ham