: : Why must you?; it's something logic cannot address and never will be able to. You can't use logic to prove that it will rain tomorrow; you can only express a statistical likelihood.: I can logically deduce from the observable evidence that I believe it will rain tomorrow, not prove it, mind you, but believe it to be so.
And *this* is far as you can take it. Even if you're an expert, you can only ever say that you *think* it will rain tomorrow. You cannot prove it, as you said.
: Same goes with my deduction that a God, or Prime Mover, or what have you, started it all.
It's not a deduction; "deduction" is a logical term. "Conclusion" would probably be a better word here.
: That is what I believe.
Fine.
: It can be proved or disproved
No it can't. I can't prove that God doesn't exist any more than you can prove that God does exist.
:, but it's a belief which flows from my logical deduction of the facts as I know them.
Belief cannot arise from logic. Logic gives rise to proof, not belief. Proof and belief are mutually exclusive; you can't believe something to be true if you've already proved that it is; you've gone beyond belief.
: You'll say I can't use logic to deduce something which can never be disproved, but I disagree.
Then use logic to justify your disagreement. Logic arises from physical first principles; thus you cannot use logic to derive something that doesn't arise from physical first principles; logic cannot address the existence of God unless logic contains and limits God; and any God restricted and defined by logic is not omnipotent.
: I'm using my power of reasoning here, and in fact it is very logical for me to conclude that the stuff of the universe must have come somewhere
Not at all. You're trying to use physical logic to prove the existence of something that is non-physical and alogical. If a God is not bound and limited by (logical) causality, you cannot try to use causal logic to define your God.
(Well, you can *try*; even if you are wasting your time in so doing.)
:, and that "somewhere" is best described as "God." This is my belief based upon logical deduction, which is not a contradiction in terms. It's my theory of the origins of the Universe.
No; it's based upon your belief in God, not logic. If you plug the initial axiom "God exists" into your logical framework, you come out with a logical conclusion that God exists; however, this entire logical framework is built on a faulty foundation, since you are building your logic around a non-logical axiom.
Similarly, if you plug the initial axiom "God doesn't exist" into your framework, you come out with the logical conclusion that God doesn't exist; but again, you are basing your logical construct on an unprovable first principle.
Garbage in, garbage out.
Logic cannot address God; therefore God cannot be justified using logical methods.
Gideon.
