Cosmological argument
- Created by: audreyhorne123
- Created on: 26-01-20 15:33
View mindmap
- Cosmological argument
- Summary
- Developed by Aquinas
- A posteriori Synthetic Inductive
- Based on observation of the world
- 1st Way- MOTION (kinetological)
- Everything in the world is moving or changing. Nothing can move or change by itself. There cannot be an infinite regress of things changing other things. Therefore there must be a Prime Mover (or changer). This is called God
- 2nd Way- CAUSATION
- Everything in the world has a cause. Nothing is the cause of itself. There cannot be an infinite regress of causes. Therefore there has to be a first cause to start the chain of causes. This first cause we call God
- 3rd Way- CONTINGENCY
- P1) Everything has a cause P2) Nothing is its own cause P3) Chain of causes cannot be infinite P4) Must be a 'first cause' C1) This is God
- Reductio ad absurdum
- P1 and P4= contradiction
- Therefore logical to reject P1 and accept P4
- Otherwise P3 and C wouldn't link
- Therefore logical to reject P1 and accept P4
- P1 and P4= contradiction
- Coppleston
- 1) There are things in this world that are contingent – they might not have existed 2)Everything depends on something else for it's existence 3)Therefore there must be a cause of everything in the universe that exists outside of it 4)This cause must be a necessary being 5)= God
- Fredrick Copleston reformulated Aquinas' argument by concentrating on contingency. He proposed his argument in a BBC radio debate in 1947
- Summary
Comments
No comments have yet been made