The cosmological argument

Key features
1. The argument comes from the Greek word 'cosmos' meaning universe.
2. It uses evidence from the physical world to prove that God exists.
3. The universe cannot be explained without reference to causes and factors outisde it.
4. Universe is contigent and only the existence of a first, necessary cause and mover can explain its orirign.
5. It is a posteriori because it is based on empiricle evidence.
6. God is the ultimate, complete explanation for the universe.
  1. There is something rather than nothing.
  2. The universe posses form and did bring itself into existence.
  3. Only God can explain the regularity and purpose in the universe.
  4. A cause was necessary for the universe to exist.
  5. The universe cannot go back forever, there must be a starting point.
7. Swinburne: "A may be explained by B and B by C, but in the end there will be some object upon whom all others depend"
The Five Ways of ST Thomas Aquinas
1. The first way - from motion
  1. "It is necessary to arrive at a first mover, moved by no other; and this everyone understands to be God."
  2. Nothing can move itself, it needs to be moved by something else.
  3. There cannot be an infinite chain of movers that has no begining
  4. There must be a first mover that causes motion in all things.
  5. This first mover we call God.
2. The second way - from cause
  1. "In a world of sensile things we find there is an order of sufficient causes"
  2. All things are cuased and nothing is its own cause.
  3. Therefor there must be a first cause (God) on which all others causes depend.
  4. God is therefore the fist cause of all things
3. The third way - from necessity and contingency
  1. "The third way is taken from possibility and necessity, we cannot but admit the existence of some being having of itself its own necessity.
  2. Everything in the universe is dependant upon factors beyond itself (contingent)
  3. Those factors themselves are dependant on other factors, e.g.humans depend on the availability of food.
  4. There must be a necessary being, dependant on nothing. God exists necessarily and not contingently
4. Potentuality and actuality
  1. Aquinas believed that motion was "the reduction of something from potentuality to actuality."
  2. Fire turns things that are potentually hot into actually being hot. A third party must start this off, e.g.lighting the fire. This is called an efficient cause.
Strength of the cosmological argument
1. Gottfried Leibnitz
  1. If the universe had always been in existence, it would still need a 'suffiicient reason'
  2. Infinite regress will never offer a complete explanation
  3. There is nothing in the universe to show why it exists, therfore the reason must exist outside it.
2. Richard Swinburne
  1. It is extraordinary that things should even exist
  2. The most natural state of affairs is nothing. But there are so many things.
  3. If we can explain the universe with reference to one simple being, we should do so.
  4. The Big Bang theory provides a begining point for the universe, not an infinite regress of events
3. The Kalam argument
  1. Everything that comes into existence must have a cause
  2. The universe came into being and must have a cause.
  3. This cause exists without having been caused by somethig else.
  4. The cause is a non-physical one and this is God.
Weaknesses of the cosmological argument
1. David Hume
  1. David Hume: "Did I show you the particular causes of each individual in a collection of twenty particles of matter, I should it very unreasonable should you afterwards ask me what was the cause of the whole twenty."
  2. There is no need to presume the need for a cause.
  3. There is no need to look for an explanation for the whole universe. It is sufficient to explain the parts of the universe rather than the whole thing.
  4. The concept of a necessary being does not make sense. Even if there were such a being, why does it need to be God?
  5. The universe is simply outside of ur experience and we cannot therefore, draw conclusions about it.
  6. There is no sufficient evidence to point without a doubt to God

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	Created by willo118_murphy almost 11 years ago