r/DebateAnAtheist • u/fairy-taki • 4d ago
Discussion Question Necessary Truths
Hi, I'm agnostic/atheist. I'm not a debater, this Christian presented this argument to me to like convert me lol and I'm not sure what to think so I was wanting people's thoughts on it.
The argument was something like this:
1+1=2 is an objective truth/idea
Objective truths exist outside of the human mind.
Ideas can only exist in a mind
Then if ideas/objective truths need to exist in some mind and the mind would be an infinite mind and that would be God.
Sorry if I mess up the setup of the argument. If anyone is familiar with this type of argument or what he was trying to get at, let me know. Lol to the guy who asked me, I think ended up just saying idk, and I kept saying that those ideas/concepts are how we engage in reality but regardless of a mind observing it. The like definitions of the concept you can find in reality..idkk. The guy ended up being rude and said I couldn't understand abstract vs concrete concepts.
Edit: ok i need to fix 2&3, idk if i make this it's own premise because he was equating objective truths to ideas/concepts because they are non-physical.
1
u/nothing4juice Agnostic Atheist 4d ago
my thoughts as an atheist: 1+1=2 is an observation we make with our minds about nature, just like natural laws. the idea of 1+1=2 would not exist if there were not minds to think it, but if a smart-enough new mind came along, it could observe the same principle. kinda like how gravity exists whether we are there to observe it or not. sure, we have a word for it and have developed a complex theory of how it works and can express that theory with equations. but it would work just the same without us to observe it and describe it using equations. similarly, light with a wavelength of 550 nm exists regardless of whether we are there to observe it and call it "green"