Philosophy of Religion: The Cosmological Argument

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  • Philosophy Of Religion: The Cosmological Argument
    • Thomas Aquinas
      • First Way: The unmoved mover
        • 1. Everything observes movement
          • 2. Movement must be caused by something else
            • To Avoid Infinite Regress, there must be an unmoved mover
              • This is what we call God.
      • Second Way: The uncaused Cause
        • Everything must have a cause (we are cause by our parents)
          • To avoid infinite regress there must be a being who wasn't cause but caused everything.
            • This is what we call God
      • Third Way: Argument from Contingency
        • Everything in the World is Contingent
          • If things exist there must be a time when nothing did.
            • Therefore, there must be a necessary being to bring things into existence
              • This is what we call God
    • Strengths
      • It doesn't try to "know" God
        • We do see movement and cause (trees leaves falling off)
          • Leads to a logical conclusion
            • Answers question "why something rather than nothing"
    • Weaknesses
      • Hume - Causation could be an illusion (bus wave)
        • Is infinite regress a problem?
          • It could lead back to multiple Gods, not the Judea - Christian God
            • Universe could be just brute Fact
    • Russell v Copleston
      • "just because humans have a mother does not mean the universe does"
        • The universe is just brute fact
          • The Causation argument has no sufficient reason
  • Bertrand Russell

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