Zain's Guide to Overthinking Everything

Proving the God Hypothesis: Aquinas and Al Kindi     The quest to prove the existence of God has inspired profound philosophical reflections throughout history. Among the notable thinkers who engaged in this pursuit, Thomas Aquinas stands as a prominent figure in Christian theology and Al Kindi in the Islamic tradition. This blog post will present their arguments for God however without explanation. For an in-depth explanation of Al Kindi’s argument read William Lane Craig’s The Kalām Cosmological Argument , and for Aquinas read his Summa Theologica : First Part, Question 2, Article 3 and A History of Philosophy, Vol. 2: Medieval Philosophy - From Augustine to Duns Scotus by Frederick Copleston.   Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE):   The First Way – Argument From Motion   P1. Our senses prove that some things are in motion. P2. Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion. P3. Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion. P4...

Ibn Taymiyyah's Critique of Polytheism In the seminal work Dalail Tawhid al-Rububiyah , Ibn Taymiyyah embarks on a rigorous intellectual journey, dissecting and critiquing the very foundations of polytheism. Ibn Taymiyyah’s argument against polytheism, or the idea of multiple all-powerful Gods is as follows: If there exists two equal creators of the world, they must be equally powerful or have power to create. Furthermore, they must be either powerful on their own or powerful only with the other. Ibn Taymiyyah explains that the latter option is an impossibility because if neither has power when existing on their own then either something occurs when they exist together that does not occur when each is on their own or nothing occurs. The first possibility is impossible as,  “If some power that does not exist when each marker is on his own occurs when both are existing together, this power will either occur from the two makers themselves or occur from another. But both are impossible...