Recall the previous post concerning the possibility of nothing existing (http://honestsearchfortruth.blogspot.com/2011/12/is-it-possible-for-universe-to-not.html). Several people were confused about the point of that post. Some thought that I was trying to prove God’s existence with the use of logic. But nothing could be farther from the truth! That post had nothing to with the existence of God except to state a premise (that it is possible for God to exist). This premise was used to prove my philosophical (and metaphysical) point: that it is possible for the universe to not exist. Note- what I am saying has nothing to do with the likelihood of any of these statements. The likelihood of God existing could be 1%, it could be 99%. I’m just basing an argument off of the fact that the likelihood of God existing is not 0%.
Simply stated- the purpose of the post was to demonstrate that it is possible for the universe to NOT exist. This should be the point that readers walk away with!
And now, for the continuance of these philosophical thoughts (make sure you read the previous post first, or this probably won't make much sense! http://honestsearchfortruth.blogspot.com/2011/12/is-it-possible-for-universe-to-not.html)
Last night while contemplating I thought, ‘if it is possible for the universe to not exist based upon the possibility of God, what else would also be possible?’ It was not long before I realized that anything within God’s power would be possible (once again, not necessarily likely, I’m not saying that God exists, this is not an argument for God’s existence, I’m thinking about the nature of the universe, please just let me do philosophy!).
I realized that my thinking in the previous post can be taken much, much farther.
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Premise: It is possible for God to exist
Conclusion: Since it is possible for God to exist, anything within God’s power is within the realm of possibility for our universe.
As with the previous post:
If X is true, then Y is possible.
If it is possible for X to be true, then it is possible for Y to be possible.
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The question now becomes “What is within God’s power?”
Now, this could be anyone’s conception of ‘God.’ In The Judeo-Christian, Islamic, and Jewish beliefs, ‘God’ is omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, omniscient, and several more omni’s. Since it is possible for the God of any of these traditions to exist, any conception of God within these traditions is also within the realm of possibility.
Keep in mind that this line of reasoning also applies to other conceptions of God. The Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism’s idea of Brahman, in which all of reality is Brahman, would also be an example of what could be possible in our universe according to my line of reasoning. The Indian philosopher Shankara puts this branch of Hinduism’s ideology this way: “Brahman is the reality – the one existence, absolutely independent of human thought or idea. Because of the ignorance of our human minds, the universe seems to be composed of diverse forms. It is Brahman alone.” So, since it is possible for Brahman to exist, it is also possible for all of reality to be Brahman." Once again, I'm not advocating one conception of God over another, I'm just pointing out that the broad range of possibilities for the nature of God mean that there are a broad range of possibilities
Anyway, this line of thinking applies to any conception of God which cannot be proven false (if a certain idea of God can be proven 100% false, then this line of thinking does not apply). For now, I’m going to call this little bit of reasoning “Willmsian Possibility.” I would not be surprised at all if someone came up with this line of thinking before me- so if any of ya’ll know who that might be and what they called it, let me know and I’ll start calling it that! Until then, I feel that it is easier to give it a name and refer to it that way instead of explaining what it is every time I want to refer to it.
So, from now on, here is what I mean by Willmsian Possibility: Since it is possible for God to exist, it is possible for anything within any possible conception of God to be true. Be careful to include every “possible” in my definition. All of them are essential. If you take away even one of them, the statement becomes false!
I’m sure many of you are wondering “so what?” Or “what was the point of doing this philosophical exercise again?” I will be putting up a few posts concerning the practical applications of this ideology soon. Solely for the purpose of baiting you for these future posts I will say this: Willmsian Possibility proves that miracles are possible (once again, not necessarily likely- heck they may never happen at all), and, more importantly, weakens the worldview of Positivism. In addition, we will examine what things fall outside of Willmsian Possibility. At a glance, it may appear that everything would be Willmsianly possible, for what could be outside of the ability of God? In actuality, I think a strong argument can be made for certain things which are 100% impossible. I will be posting on what these things might be soon.
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