Syllogisms

So, I was reading through Dr. Craig's book "Reasonable Faith" and in the first chapter, Dr. Craig has a brief discussion on the Syllogism. For those who don't know what a syllogism is, its a logical argument with this form

Major premise: All humans are mortal
Minor premise: Socrates is human
Conclusion: Socrates is mortal

Its a wonderful way of proving things, because the validity of a syllogism is so easy to check.
The first way to look for problems is to check the validity of the premises. For instance, if all men are not, in fact, mortal, then the Major premise is false, and therefore the conclusion is invalid (it may be true for other reasons, but that syllogism wouldn't prove it).

The second way to look for problems is to check that the Conclusion follows from the premises. For instance, a classic example of a flawed syllogism is:

Major premise: All cats are mortal
Minor premise: Socrates was mortal
Conclusion: Socrates was a cat

In this case, the linking term (i.e. mortality) is non-exclusive. There are things that are mortal that are not cats, so from the fact that Socrates was mortal the conclusion he was a cat does not follow.

The beauty of the syllogism is in the power and simplicity of the well-written syllogism, and its explanatory power. For instance, one of Dr. Craig's favorite syllogisms is one called the "Kalam Cosmological Argument" for the existence of God. It goes as follows:

Major premise: All things that have a beginning have a cause
Minor premise: The universe had a beginning
Conclusion: The universe had a cause

In fact, a syllogism does not need to stay in isolation, the conclusion of one may be a minor premise of another, for instance, the above syllogism only proves a "cause," not "God," but we can safely write this:

Major premise: Before the universe began, Time, matter, and space did not exist
Minor premise: The universe had a cause
Conclusion: The "Cause" exists outside of time, space, and matter.

At this point, we now have a "Transcendent" cause that exists outside the material world, we still have a long way to go to get to the God of the bible, but for many people, this is a huge step, and confirms a dualistic view of things (a material realm and a spiritual "transcendant" realm).

I was thinking recently about these ideas, and I've been able to start phrasing other things as syllogisms, and its been extremely helpful in seeing how things fit together. For instance, St. Augustine, in trying to figure out the Trinity, how One God can be Three persons, he came up with an argument based on the idea that "God is Love". He reasoned that if god is an eternal being, and he has always been love (i.e. He didnt start being "love" when he created the unvierse), he MUST have an equally eternal being to be the object of his love, His Son. In other words, the existence of a Loving God necessitates a co-eternal God to be loved, just as the existence of physics necessitates the existence of mathematics. I recently noticed that this line of thinking can be "syllogized" this way:

Major premise: Love Requires an Object to be Loved
Minor premise:God Is Love (1 John 4:16)
Conclusion: God must have an object of his Love

Major premise: God exists outside of space, time, and matter (See above Syllogism)
Minor premise: God must have an object of his love
Conclusion: God must have an object of his love outside of space, time, and matter

(The above syllogism works when you understand God Is Love is an eternal statement, i.e. God Is Love, not God Became Love)

We call this object of his love "Jesus," or the "Son of God". The existence of God the Father necessitates the existence of God the Son.