The Problem of Denying the Action of Proper Causes Acting Now Associated with Atheism.

The monotheist uses the notion of proper cause to arrive at the existence of the first, uncaused cause. The proper cause is that cause, which has an immediate and direct proper effect derived from the proper cause. For example, a proper cause of the man building the house has the proper effect of the house being built.

The series of proper causes and effects is immediate, without any time delay. When the man builds the house, at the same time, the house is being built.

If then the atheist denies the notion of proper cause to arrive at the conclusion of the uncaused cause, the atheist must use another notion of cause and effect that has the effect occur at a time after the cause. For it is from the nature of proper cause that the effect be immediate and not delayed. Therefore, if say a common cause is posited to account for an effect, the common cause may occur at one time and the effect at a later time. For example, a man may water the plant, and later the water grows from the water. The water is then a common cause of the plant's growth along with other causes, such as the soil and the sun.

If then the atheist denies the notion of proper cause, an infinite series does not occur all together now, but must occur with an infinite delay. For if one cause has a delayed effect, then the same causes within the same infinite series will also have delays. As each delay is within an infinite series then the total delay must be infinite. But an infinite delay infers there is no observable effect of the infinite series. For an observation is within time, which itself does not occur at some moment which presupposes an infinite prior delay.

For the universe is posited by the academy to be of finite age. Yet so, if the age of the universe is infinite, still no effect would be observed for an infinite delay always remains in the infinite series of causes posited by the atheist to account for the existence of any contingent substance. Therefore, if the notion of proper cause is denied by the atheist, no good reason exists to account for the observation of any creatures as effects of the infinite series of causes.

Conclusion - if the notion of proper cause is denied by the atheist the existence of any substance cannot be accounted for. If the atheist accepts the notion of proper cause, there is an infinite series of ontologically prior causes acting now (always in the present) to cause the one contingent substance. The ontological priority of an infinite number of causes has its own problems discussed on other posts, such as the 1) inability of an infinite multitude to exist now, 2) the being within the series is uncaused, 3) and no creature can cause the being of another creature. Both affirmation and denial of the notion of proper causes in an infinite series concludes to the falsity of the series. Therefore atheism is false.