1. A universe that follows 'laws' implies a 'law giver'

Comment #147978 by Adam James Smith on March 21, 2008 at 5:38 pm

The statement "a universe that follows laws implies a law-giver" is an example of the logical fallacy of equivocation. It equivocates the term "law", i.e. it uses it in two different senses to arrive at an invalid conclusion. A man-made "law" protecting citizens against crime is a very different concept from a "law of nature", meaning a scientific principle explicating a causal relation between two or more variables. The two concepts happen to share the same word, that is all. A man-made law does indeed imply a law-giver, just as a watch implies a watch-maker. A natural causal relation requires no "maker", but follows from the identitites of interacting entities.

To see the fallacy clearly change the terms to remove the equivocation: "a universe that has causal relations amongst its components implies the existence of a legislature."