The Cosmological Argument

Key words & concepts:

• A posteriori
• Inductive
• Infinite regress – infinitely going back in time
• Contingent
• Necessary

Argues that the existence of the world and its observable state of order as evidence for the existence of a creator God.

References to Greek philosophy. Written by and for theists.

God is the ultimate, complete and adequate explanation for the universe.

• Motion/change – first way to prove the existence of God 
• Anything which is changing is being changed by something else
• ‘One is always bound to arrive at some first cause’ – God
• Rejects infinite regression as impossible
• The first Mover is independent of everything else (links to Aristotle’s Prime Mover) 

• Cause – second way to prove the existence of God 
• Every effect has a cause
• Nothing we experience is caused by itself
• Similarly to the First Way, there cannot be an infinite number of causes
• There must be a first cause – God      

• Contingency – third way to prove the existence of God 
• It is possible for something to not exist, then to exist, then to not exist (contingency)
• If everything was contingent then there must have been a time when nothing exists, and nothing can come nothing
• Therefore there must be a necessary being (one that is eternal/cannot die) who created the contingent ones – God
• If God did not exist then nothing could exist 

• Debate with Russell 
• To account for the existence of the contingent world, you need to look beyond the contingent world
• To support infinite regression does not give an explanation for where everything came from
• The world is a sum total of objects
• There are some things in the world that do not contain in themselves the reason for their existence
• To explain the reason for the existence of this sum total of objects, there must be something outside the world that created it
• The universe must have a cause and this cause must be external
• This cause is not contingent but necessary
• There is a being which is self-existent – which cannot not exist
• God is His own sufficient reason and He is a non-caused being 

• Supports Aquinas in that we cannot have infinite regression as we would not get a complete explanation
• There has to be a sufficient reason for the universe to exist (principle of sufficient reason) 
• God is the best and most sufficient reason for the existence of the universe  

• Debate with Copleston
• Refused to accept the idea of necessary beings
  • Rejects the terminology – universe is neither contingent nor non-contingent
• Cannot move from one theory to applying it to the whole universe (reductio ad absurdum)
  • We all have a mother (cause) so therefore does the human race have a mother?
• It is not necessary to look for a cause for the whole world
• The universe is ‘just there’
• Copleston might search for an explanation for the universe but he will not find one 

• Challenged Aquinas’ views
• Questions the idea that God is a necessary being – where is the proof of this?
• Aquinas produces an inductive leap of logic – he moves from the need of a first Mover to indentifying it as God when nothing in the leap leads to that conclusion.
• We know too little about God to claim he is the creator of he universe
• Just because we know a lot about the universe doesn’t mean we know a lot about God
• Why does the universe as a whole require an explanation?
• We cannot get out of the universe to see what caused it – we cannot experience God
• There is the possibility that the universe may be infinite and for the process of cause and effect to have always been in existence – there may not be a need for an external cause