Cosmological Argument
- Created by: Grace Lidgett
- Created on: 22-12-12 13:56
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- Cosmological argument
- Aquinas
- 1st way: MOTION - Everything is in motion and everything is moved by something else. Must be a prime mover [God]
- Aquinas believed that everything was changing from potentiality to actuality. e.g. a hot cup of coffee is ACTUALLY hot but is POTENTIALLYcold but cannot be both. This first efficient cause comes from Aristotle.
- 2nd way: CAUSE - Everything has a cause and there cannot be an infinite regress of causes. There must be a first cause that is not caused [God]
- 3rd way: NECESSITY - Something that is contingent relies on other factors for its existence whereas something necessary relies on itself, must be a necessary being [God]
- "ex nihilo, nihil fit" - nothing comes from nothing
- 1st way: MOTION - Everything is in motion and everything is moved by something else. Must be a prime mover [God]
- Hume (criticism)
- Human beings assume that every event has a cause but we cannot prove this and we make assumptions which may be mistaken [putting your hand out for the bus and the bus stopping]
- The Fallacy of Composition: Hume questioned whether it was necessary for the whole universe to have a cause because everything can be explained from the preceding cause
- Why is the prime mover associated with God? If we base our argument on human experience of cause and effect then surely it is more logical to suggest a world created by male and female gods who are born and die
- a posteriori - based on sensory experience
- J.L. Mackie also criticised saying that Aquinas regarded the causes as a series of hooks hanging off a wall. If the wall was taken away, the chain would fall apart. It is possible mackie believed for the chain to be infinite without a prime mover
- Aquinas
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