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Whether it's useful is, of course, a matter of opinion and presuppositions. If one, for whatever reasons, thinks that there might be an afterlife, then nothing

Whether it's useful is, of course, a matter of opinion and presuppositions. If one, for whatever reasons, thinks that there might be an afterlife, then nothing could be more important. > You ask some good questions, in particular what is the purpose of our life. Does the existence of a prime mover help us decide this? I think we need something more. That depends on whether you believe the prime mover has communicated with us. If you do not, then there would not be much you could do with the knowledge of its existence, so it would not be very useful or relevant. But if you do, then it would surely help us decide, wouldn't it?

grzm 10y ago
"That depends on whether you believe the prime mover has communicated with us. If you do not, then there would not be much you could do with the knowledge of its existence." I think you've hit the nail on the head here. This brings us to the question is how do you move from the existence of a prime mover to the belief that the prime mover has communicated with us. It's not clear to me that existence implies such communication. And if it doesn't, it's not clear to me that the existence of the prime mover in and of itself is doing any useful work. On the other hand, proving that there is no prime mover is a well-known difficult problem as well :)
- alphapapa 10y ago
  > This brings us to the question is how do you move from the existence of a prime mover to the belief that the prime mover has communicated with us. It's not clear to me that existence implies such communication. I think you're basically right: it doesn't necessarily imply that. So, since there are so many claims in this world of evidence of the creator's communication with us, it's up to each person to examine the claims for himself--or to not do so: ignorance is bliss, until the moment of truth.

grzm 10y ago

"That depends on whether you believe the prime mover has communicated with us. If you do not, then there would not be much you could do with the knowledge of its existence." I think you've hit the nail on the head here. This brings us to the question is how do you move from the existence of a prime mover to the belief that the prime mover has communicated with us. It's not clear to me that existence implies such communication. And if it doesn't, it's not clear to me that the existence of the prime mover in and of itself is doing any useful work. On the other hand, proving that there is no prime mover is a well-known difficult problem as well :)

alphapapa 10y ago
> This brings us to the question is how do you move from the existence of a prime mover to the belief that the prime mover has communicated with us. It's not clear to me that existence implies such communication. I think you're basically right: it doesn't necessarily imply that. So, since there are so many claims in this world of evidence of the creator's communication with us, it's up to each person to examine the claims for himself--or to not do so: ignorance is bliss, until the moment of truth.