Objections to the Argument from Change

DEFENSE

None of these objections overturn the argument from change.

First, although modern physics commonly proposes time is another dimension, like the dimensions of space, and the future already exists, this does not make time or change illusory. Things are different at one moment in time than another, so change occurs across time, even if all history exists at once from God’s eternal perspective.

Second, apparent cases of self-motion disintegrate on close analysis. When an animal opens its eyes, the eye is not the cause of its own opening. The eyelids are moved by muscles, which are activated by neurons, which fire based on processes taking place on the subatomic level in the animal’s nervous system.

Third, Aquinas agrees there could be an infinite regress of prior historical states (ST I:46:2). However, we are discussing what causes a change at the moment it happens, not about the history leading up to that moment. If a painting is being made, an artist needs to be applying paint to canvas at that moment. There cannot be an infinite series of simultaneous causes of the painting any more than an infinitely long brush could paint by itself.

Fourth, although physicists have speculated about the possibility of events in the future producing effects in the past, at present we have no evidence this happens. Further, as in the previous example, we are not talking about events elsewhere in history (either the past or the future). We are discussing what causes the change at the moment it takes place. Even if an artist traveled from the future to make a painting, the painting is still being made in the present and requires a cause at that moment.

Fifth, God does not require a cause because, per the argument, God is changeless and the argument only proposes that things that change need causes.