Does God Exist? w/ Alex Plato

Alex Plato and Matt talk about proofs for God's existence.
Video sponsored by Hallow: hallow.com/mattfradd
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[@PintsWithAquinas]

🚨 Get exclusive content by supporting me on Locals: mattfradd.locals.com/support

[@martinarooney6102]

Hope to for sure when I have some spare pennies, financially can't do at the mo, in minus stormy weather, but will pray for you, your family and team xxx

[@MyMy-tv7fd]

an actual plilosopher named Plato? Does not get any better than that

[@kazumakiryu157]

To be fair, there's already been at least one.

[@Epiousios18]

Any video with this in the title always brings out the most "interesting" people in the comments, pretty much instantly too. I find it fascinating how consistent the types of things you see said are as well. Always enjoy these talks with Dr. Plato though.

[@theoe354]

For real. I've definitely noticed that as well.

[@bookishbrendan8875]

Was an angry atheist once. Can confirm that there’s this conviction to be *extra* attentive to claims like “God is real” or titles like “Is God real?” For people that purportedly think the very idea is ridiculous, they certainly make much ado about nothing. 😅

[@kazumakiryu157]

​@@bookishbrendan8875haha. My sentiments exactly. Like, if you really believed that there is no God(which I don't doubt that you do, I mean, I was an angry atheist once), then why would you waste so much time trying to 1. Argue, which wastes you and other people's time 2. Make people not believe in something that gives them comfort. Like, it just doesn't compute unless you're 1. An idiot or 2. Just a bad person.

[@EspadaKing777]

I cannot stress enough how much I loved the section about "volition dependent evidence", and the idea of a "devotional experiment". In a few words you managed to summarize *precisely* the stage in which I find myself. I started trying to swallow the feeling of ridiculousness at praying the rosary and begin to do that, and I have made a concerted effort to go with my girlfriend to Mass when I can (she's a confirmed Catholic and is in the Choir). I feel like I've gotten to the point where the depth of the Philosophical arguments that have been raging for some millenia now have only grown in sophistication and I am looking for that thing that others on this show have said, that experience of something that (in their mind at least) could only be God. I know some atheists would discount any personal experience as evidence (Hume argued that the odds of an experience being supernatural is, by definition, less likely than it being natural), and at certain points (and in certain moods) I might agree, but at this point I'd take what I can get, hypocrisy be damned. I'm not saying 1 profound experience would have be jumping in the baptismal font the same day; but i'm after literally anything that just makes me go "wow..what was that feeling?!", if that makes sense.

[@dbsketch1]

Well done to you for sticking with it despite feeling, at times, silly. I can empathize with this experience during my formation before joining the Church. If you have not already, I highly recommend reading anything by C.S. Lewis, especially Mere Christianity. God bless, will be praying for you!

[@RandomGuy1606]

Great Episode. I’m at a point in my life where I am at the point mentioned where Pascal’s wager is usually brought up - I find when looking at the evidence no way that sways me. I’m open to the idea but lack the belief. In other words I have an absence of belief, not a belief in absence. The core issue I have with Pascal’s wager is that I’m not sure it’s possible to make yourself believe. I’m open to belief but I don’t know how to make myself believe. To engage in things like prayer or go to church feels fraudulent and I can’t shake that feeling so that path does not seem to help. All I can do is remain open, continue to engage with podcasts like this, authors like Lewis and Chesterton and maybe one day I’ll get there.

[@theoe354]

Great video as always lads

[@PintsWithAquinas]

Thanks 👍

[@avilesluissolano]

You have once again chosen violence with that lime button up

[@JW_______]

This is worth a rewatch

[@bookishbrendan8875]

Bring this man back again, Matt!

[@cristiancaiola9588]

Matt: "Does God exist?" Dr. Plato: "Yes." *Star Wars Theme Plays* WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY GEORGE LUCAS

[@martinarmbrust3606]

Thanks for this, guys 😊 Question: Is the Hallow deal still valid? If I follow the link in the description, I get a 404 page.

[@michaelwilson3133]

My favorite of all your guests

[@johnnyjordan9305]

What is the book Dr. Plato keeps referring to?

[@adamstevens2134]

If anyone knows the name of the book that Dr. Plato is drawing from, please provide the title. Thanks!

[@gonzaloolmedo9845]

The Three-Stage Argument for the Existence of God Dallas Willard

[@Kehvo_exe]

Really good video

[@riskonic]

What was the name of the book that Plato was getting the three levels of evidence from?

[@gonzaloolmedo9845]

The Three-Stage Argument for the Existence of God Dallas Willard

[@donaldkeith139]

This guy needs to be on Joe Rogan...

[@StJosephLovesBabyJesus]

Make a clip channel. Can't stand all the waste on my yt front page and then I have to dig around your channel to try find the latest podcasts

[@MarcyMMM]

Can you get Cliffe Knechtle from Give Me An Answer on the show? He’s not catholic but he speaks to real young people outside of universities and has some really great thought provoking conversation. I love listening to him speak to people.

[@evanfield4202]

Love that guy! I live in the town next to him and used to attend his church

[@MarcyMMM]

@@evanfield4202 I’m in stamford! Lol! small world!

[@mongooseman3744]

Yea

[@blakemorris7]

Anybody know any books which provide good historical and cultural context for the bible?

[@oldmovieman7550]

I am not against natural theology nor it’s use in apologetics. But it seems to me that it needs to be used in a presuppositional manner. One thing I dislike about classical or evidential apologetics is it begins as an argument for a generic theism rather than arguing that the triune God of the Bible is necessary for even the beginning of knowledge.

[@nicholassoen3708]

35:00 Pascal's wager

[@random_person6041]

💚💚💚💚

[@RealAtheology]

Great episode. Really apreciated the discussion on cumulative cases and abductive reasoning when it comes to making the case for Theism. Would love Dr. Plato's thoughts on the some of the strong abductive cases for Atheism made by people like Paul Draper, Graham Oppy, J.H. Sobel, and many others.

[@edh.9584]

A person won't believe in God until he or she meets God.

[@edh.9584]

IMHO, that's the way it seems to go.

[@edh.9584]

Our job is to make them ready for the meeting.

[@Jay_in_Japan]

And you haven't truly met God until you've experienced 5-MEO-DMT

[@edh.9584]

@@Jay_in_Japan You'll meet someone, probably not God.

[@UnremarkableMarx]

@@Jay_in_Japan you'll meet familiar spirits (fallen angels). It's a shiny and visually compelling "deep" experience. So "telling" and "introspective". I believe it's a shallow distraction. DMT is honestly just crap

[@albertito77]

What's he book Alex keeps mentioning? I missed it and he continues referring to a "he/him" but doesn't say his name

[@Jay_in_Japan]

What is "God"? And is our modern idea of it the same thing as what the ancient authors of the Bible had in mind? I ask rhetorically, because consider how much of the universe's explanation was previously the sole domain of this "God" thing, but now is sufficiently explained by naturalism. How much does the gap shrink before what little remains of this "God" idea stops being the same "God" that was written about? 🤔

[@bearistotle2820]

Let us suppose that the way we would explain who God is substantially different than the way the ancients would. What would that change about the being we are referring to? On what grounds do you suppose that the ancients thought of "God" exclusively in terms of being a "God of the gaps"? Do you believe in scientific naturalism, or the idea that the natural sciences are the only way to attain true knowledge?

[@antpassalacqua]

What specifically do you think was previously the sole the domain of God to the inspired of authors of scripture which is now explained by naturalism? I think you'll find close to an empty set.

[@edgarbergmann6581]

Have you ever read the new testament?

[@chriscoke2505]

Recycled and microwaved Dawkins

[@martinarooney6102]

Pray often for God to reveal Himself to you. If you repent (some sins at least, you know what they are as every human does), He might speak to you faster than deserved, if not seek more, even out of curiousity. HE is real and when you know and feel His presence then your life changes and you'll never be the same, and happily. 🙏 HE is wonderful if confusing in our understanding. Please God.

[@NontraditionalCatholic]

At 9:49 , Dr Plato says that, and I am paraphrasing, that "the nature of reality as we understand it is dependent". This is not a settled view, and, as far as I can tell, the majority of scientists are determinists, meaning that they would reject the idea that there are multiple modes of being. They would rather say that there is only one mode of being. at 19:41 , Dr Plato makes the claim that "A mind can put order out", and I am not really sure what Dr Plato means by that. As far as I can tell, non-minds can make order as well. Consider a planet cooling down, that planet becomes more ordered as liquids freeze and as gasses liquidize. Additionally, the phrase that "minds make order" seems only somewhat true? In a closed system, this appears to be possible, but in a closed system without a mind, this is likewise possible? But in the universe, this is not possible, with or without minds.

[@EspadaKing777]

wow damn, you beat me to not one but *both* the points I was going to raise xD further to this, it is important to point out that the current best explanation for the birth of the universe shares many of the same properties as a putative god. It is the source of all energy, thereby being omnipotent. It encompasses all of space and time, thereby being omnipresent. It exists before time and as such isn't bound to our conception of causation and is, to that extent, un-caused. Additionally, there are examples of not just "chaotic" systems (things that appear random but are actually just extremely sensitive to alterations in initial conditions), like throwing paint at a canvas; but truly random events like the spontaneous emergence of "virtual" particles from the zero-point energy of empty space or the decay of radioactive nucleii. like the good Dr Plato said, this gets extremely complicated; so complicated in fact that you have to bring in faith in order to tip you over the edge. If you don't have faith, the universe is totally explicable without ever needing to posit a higher being.

[@bearistotle2820]

So from whence comes the order, not in your closed system, but in our system where we have beings that have minds?

[@NontraditionalCatholic]

@@bearistotle2820 Actually, in the entire universe, things are getting more and more "disordered" over time! No new order is being generated. Within a closed system, order can increase, but only at the expense of order in another closed system. And taken in full, order is constantly decreasing in the universe.

[@NontraditionalCatholic]

@@EspadaKing777 I am agnostic myself, but I do hesitate to say that the "universe if totally explicable without ever needing to posit a higher being". I would say that this appears to be true given our current level of understanding, but there are so many things that we do not know or cannot explain yet, so I think it would be premature to call the universe "totally explicable". But otherwise, great points made above 👍

[@bearistotle2820]

@@NontraditionalCatholic What do you mean by "order is decreasing"? I know the universe is expanding, but how is that "disorder"?

[@jamescawley1244]

STOP SAYING RIGHT

[@jdlc903]

From contingency argument, I'm pretty sure " God " exists.... The idea that your messiah was also God and he was resurrected ,is quite challenging. Edit: threatening hellfire isn't an argument

[@hillcatrogers9086]

Interesting conversation but I am a Lutheran and resist proving or objectifying God, as all proof is a vain attempt to poses the define. God needs no proof but the Kerygma alone from the mouth of a preacher. Natural theology is a theology of glory not a theology of the cross.

[@Quekksilber]

Would you criticize Paul for what he wrote in Romans 1, then?

[@martinarooney6102]

Perhaps, if you haven't already read the catholic catechism. As a catholic who had left for 30 yrs until Jesus intervened personally last year and my life changed overnight, I haven't until recently. Jesus didn't say to read it but He did 4 months later lead me to a beautiful church, long story...Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light...No to mention the Peace!!