Hinman’s Opening Argument for God

Joe Hinman has published his opening argument for God on his blog site:

http://metacrock.blogspot.com/2017/07/opening-argument-resolved-that-belief.html

Here is his argument in summary form:

1. All naturalistic phenomena are contingent and temporal.

2. Either some aspect of being is eternal and necessary unless or something came from nothing (creation ex nihilo)

3. Something did not come from nothing.

4. Some aspect of being is eternal and necessary [=GOB]. (from 2,and 3)

5. Some aspect of being does not consist of naturalistic phenomena. (from 1 and 4)

6. Some people experience a sense of the numinous [=SON].

7. The SON is not evoked by any naturalistic phenomena.

8. The SON experienced by some people is evoked by GOB.

9. GOB = God.

10. If 8 and 9, then some people are warranted in believing in God.

11. Therefore, some people are warranted in believing in God. (from 8, 9, and 10)

In future posts I will refer to this as Hinman’s ABEAN argument (some Aspect of Being is Eternal And Necessary).