Outline of the Cosmological Argument

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  • Created by: Carly B
  • Created on: 15-04-13 21:40

COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

Aquinas; First Way

  • Developed from Aristotle "everything that is in motion has been moved by something else"
  • You can't infinitly regress, so there must be a FIRST MOVER or PRIME MOVER
  • "UNMOVED MOVER"
  • Everything we see is in a state of motion or change, but can't get there by itself, it needs something else to move/change it.
  • Moving from a state of potentiallity to a state of actuallity by something already in a state of actuallity, called the efficient cause.
  • Block of marble + sculptor = statue

Aquinas; Second Way

  • Concept of cause and effect 
  • Everything has an efficient cause, intermediet cause and ultimate cause
  • You can't infititely regress and so there must be a FIRST CAUSE

Aquinas; Third Way

  • Concept of contingency
  • Everything we see has the possibility of not existing, and need something else to bring them into existance. They are CONTINGENT BEINGS
  • The universe would need a being that is uncaused and ultimate to bring it into existance, IE a NECESSARY BEING
  • This necessary being is God, he cannot not exist

Leibniz; Principle of Sufficent Reason

  • Took the phrase; "Ex nihilo, nihilo fit" // "Out of nothing, nothing comes"
  • As there is something rather than nothing, there must be a reason for existance. 
  • There have been PARTIAL REASONS but God is the only SUFFICIENT REASON
  • Previous editions of books are partial reasons for its existance, only the author is a sufficient reason

 Kalam Arguments; William Lane Craig

  • Four basic points
  • 1) Everything that began to exist, has a cause of existance
  • 2) the universe began to exist
  • 3) Therefore, the universe has a cause of existance
  • 4) And

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