THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

AQUINAS – CONTINGENT AND NECESSARY PRINCIPLE OF SUFFFICIENT REASON ESSENTIAL IDEAS A POSTERIORI Proven by reason KEY IDEAS Universe needs an explanation Nothing can be its own cause CONTINGENT A being that relies on something else to exist – it cannot be its own cause NECESSARY Something that does not rely on anything else to exist AQUINAS – MOTION There needs to be a first mover that is unmoved by anything else – God AQUINAS – CAUSE There needs to be a first cause that is uncaused by anything else - God AQUINAS – CONTINGENT AND NECESSARY Contingent beings cannot cause their own existence, therefore there must be a necessary being that caused contingent beings to exist PRINCIPLE OF SUFFFICIENT REASON A complete explanation, for theists, God creating the universe as an expression of perfect love is a complete explanation BIG BANG Many theists believe God and science can work together; they claim that God was responsible for the Big Bang INFINITE REGRESS Something that just goes back forever with no starting point. For theists this is an unsatisfactory explanation because it does not offer a complete explanation PLATO Need for a first cause but this was not God as such, more of a source of activity in the world ARISTOTLE Prime Mover - An intelligence that activates the world by its presence WILLIAM LANE CRAIG There had to be ‘something’ that caused the universe as nothing can only cause nothing. KALAM ARGUMENT Everything that exists has a cause. The universe exists and therefore must have a cause; the cause is God. STRENGTHS Logical that something cannot come from nothing Provides a complete explanation (God as an expression of perfect love) Works with Big Bang WEAKNESSES Fallacy of composition Particles in space go in and out of existence by themselves Kalam argument – big leap Hume – why make God the exception to ‘everything needs a cause’, why can’t the universe by the exception?

ESSENTIAL IDEAS – QUICK QUESTIONS A POSTERIORI Proven by reason KEY IDEAS Universe needs an explanation Nothing can be its own cause CONTINGENT A being that relies on something else to exist – it cannot be its own cause NECESSARY Something that does not rely on anything else to exist What is the difference between a priori and a posteriori? A’priori is based on logic and a’posteriori is based on evidence and observation What 3 elements do all cosmological arguments have? 1, There are things that exist and it would be possible for these things not to exist. 2, The existence of things that don’t have to exist needs an explanation. 3, The explanation of the existence of such things lies in something that is self caused and totally independent. How is the cosmological argument similar to the design argument? Both are concerned with finding an explanation for the universe. Both believe that the explanation must lie outside of the universe itself. How is the cosmological argument different to the design argument? The cosmological asks why the universe exists at all rather than just why it possesses the features that it does.

AQUINAS – CONTINGENT AND NECESSARY ESSENTIAL IDEAS – QUICK QUESTIONS AQUINAS – MOTION There needs to be a first mover that is unmoved by anything else – God AQUINAS – CAUSE There needs to be a first cause that is uncaused by anything else - God AQUINAS – CONTINGENT AND NECESSARY Contingent beings cannot cause their own existence, therefore there must be a necessary being that caused contingent beings to exist What did Aquinas say about motion? Everything in the universe is in motion. Something can only be in motion if it is first moved by something else that is already moving. What did Aquinas say about cause? Everything that exists has a cause. Nothing can be its own cause and therefore must be caused by something else. Why can’ contingent beings cause themselves? Because they rely upon something else to exist

PRINCIPLE OF SUFFFICIENT REASON ESSENTIAL IDEAS – QUICK QUESTIONS PRINCIPLE OF SUFFFICIENT REASON A complete explanation, for theists, God creating the universe as an expression of perfect love is a complete explanation BIG BANG Many theists believe God and science can work together; they claim that God was responsible for the Big Bang INFINITE REGRESS Something that just goes back forever with no starting point. For theists this is an unsatisfactory explanation because it does not offer a complete explanation Who is the main scholar associated with the Principle of Sufficient Reason? Liebniz What is an infinite regress? Something that goes back forever What did Swinburne say about an explanation for the universe? The real need for an explanation for the universe lies in the fact that it is more likely that there should be nothing rather than something. The fact that something does exist (despite all the odds being against it) suggests that there must a reason for it.

ESSENTIAL IDEAS – QUICK QUESTIONS PLATO Need for a first cause but this was not God as such, more of a source of activity in the world ARISTOTLE Prime Mover - An intelligence that activates the world by its presence What did Plato and Aristotle agree on? For the universe to begin there must have been a ‘craftsman’ , a first mover who did not need anything to set him in motion, ie a necessary and self actualising being. How does Plato avoid the problem of evil and suffering? He is not describing the God of classical theism and so does not have to deal with the issue of why an omnibenevolent God would allow evil to exist (because he doesn’t describe God as being omnibenevolent. What did Aristotle say about the prime mover? An intelligence that activates the world by its presence Non-spatial (Not in space or our understanding of time) and eternal. Good and perfect. What is contradictory about the idea of a prime mover? Like Aquinas this craftsman/prime mover is said to exist eternally and is self-actualising which is contradictory to the statement ‘motion needs a prior agency to motivate it’. The premise contradicts the conclusion.

ESSENTIAL IDEAS – QUICK QUESTIONS WILLIAM LANE CRAIG There had to be ‘something’ that caused the universe as nothing can only cause nothing. KALAM ARGUMENT Everything that exists has a cause. The universe exists and therefore must have a cause; the cause is God. What did William Lane Craig say about the beginning of the universe? It is mathematically impossible that the universe has an infinite past. There is evidence to suggest that the universe began as the result of the Big Bang. There had to be a cosmic beginning. There had to be ‘something’ that caused the universe as nothing can only cause nothing. What is the major weakness with William Lane Craig’s argument? There are particles in space that go in and out of existence by themselves thus challenging the idea that something cannot come from nothing. What is the major weakness with the Kalam Argument? It is a big leap from identifying that there must be a cause to concluding that this cause must be God.

ESSENTIAL IDEAS – QUICK QUESTIONS WEAKNESSES Fallacy of composition Particles in space go in and out of existence by themselves Kalam argument – big leap Hume – why make God the exception to ‘everything needs a cause’, why can’t the universe by the exception? What is the Fallacy of Composition? When one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole (or even of every proper part). In this case, to assume that just because everything in the universe has a cause, then the universe itself must also have a cause. Explain Hume’s point about exceptions. Hume – If we are going to allow exceptions to the rule that everything needs a cause, why make God the exception, why not let the universe itself be the exception Why is the discovery of particles in space that go in and out of existence by themselves so damaging for the argument? Because the whole argument rests upon the idea that something cannot come from nothing; and seemingly, these particles do.