Allah and the Big Bang Theory. Standard Big-Bang Cosmology  The universe, including all of time, space and matter, began to exist in a cataclysmic event.

Slides:



Advertisements
Similar presentations
Register? If you would like to receive notes, updates, evaluation forms, etc. (no requests for money or time!) Link: tinyurl.com/gnr-sfu.
Advertisements

The Cosmological Argument
Philosophy and the proof of God's existence
Descartes’ cosmological argument
The Cosmological Argument by: Reid Goldsmith and Ben McAtee.
Foreknowledge and free will God is essentially omniscient. So assuming that there are facts about the future, then God knows them. And it’s impossible.
“… if (the best philosophy) doesn ’ t seem peculiar you haven ’ t understood it ” Edward Craig.
Philosophy 024: Big Ideas Prof. Robert DiSalle Talbot College 408, x85763 Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday.
Aquinas’s First Way – highlights It’s impossible for something to put itself into motion. Therefore, anything in motion is put into motion by something.
Kalām Cosmological Argument Victorian Atheist Society East Melbourne April 9, 2013 Victorian Atheist Society East Melbourne April 9, 2013.
The Existence of God and the Problem of Evil
Cosmological arguments for God’s existence.  Derived from the Greek terms cosmos (world or universe) and logos (reason or rational account).  First.
Proving the Existence of the ‘Necessary Existent’ Part 1 – Deductive Arguments.
The Cosmological Argument. Aquinas’s Cosmological Argument Cosmological Argument is ‘a posteriori’ Attempts to prove the existence of God There are three.
The Cosmological Argument St. Thomas Aquinas ( AD) Italian priest, philosopher.
The Cosmological Argument The idea that there is a first cause behind the existence of the universe.
Cosmological arguments from causation Michael Lacewing
The Cosmological Argument.
 The cosmological argument is, as it’s name sugessts (from the greek cosmos, meaning ‘universe’ or ‘world’). An a posteriori argument for the existence.
COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT 1
Phil 1000 Bradley Monton Class 2 The Cosmological Argument.
The Cosmological and Teleological Arguments for God.
Cosmological arguments from contingency Michael Lacewing
Creation Stories and the BIG BANG Theory
Quantum theory and Consciousness This is an interactive discussion. Please feel free to interrupt at any time with your questions and comments.
The Cosmological Argument (Causation or ‘first cause’ theory)
The Cosmological Argument ► Aquinas presents the argument in three “ways” but the argument is a single one. ► First – All things are moved by something.
Why Does Anything at all Exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? Leibniz - the principle of sufficient reason.
LECTURE 20 THE PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON: CAN IT BE SAVED?
Aquinas’ Proofs The five ways.
KALAM Cosmological Argument Did the universe begin to exist, and if so what caused it?
The Cosmological Proof (II) The previous Cosmological Proof we examined seeks to prove that, even if the spacio-temporal universe had no beginning in.
Big Bang Evidence Redshift of galaxies Background radiation Primordial elements Spread of galaxies Moving away from each other as if from an explosion.
Evidently the Cosmological argument as proposed by Aquinas is open to both interpretation and criticism. The Cosmological argument demands an explanation.
Why Does Anything at all Exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? Leibniz - the principle of sufficient reason.
Does God exist?. What’s new? If you go to your school every day and every day it looks the same do you think much about it? If one day you go there after.
Arguments for God’s existence.  What are we arguing for?
1.Everything which begins to exist has a cause. 2.The Universe exists so it must have a cause. 3.You cannot have infinite regress (i.e. An infinite number.
HUME ON THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT Text source: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, part 9.
The Cosmological Argument for God’s Existence or how come we all exist? Is there a rational basis for belief in God?
Anselm’s “1st” ontological argument Something than which nothing greater can be thought of cannot exist only as an idea in the mind because, in addition.
The Cosmological Argument Science can offer us explanations of things that are within the universe, but does the universe as a whole have an explanation?
WHY DO WE NEED BOTH? Scientific Theory and Scientific Law.
LECTURE 18 THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO PROVE THAT SOME THING NECESSSARILY EXISTS.
NOTES FOR THE “POP” QUIZ THAT WILL PROBABLY OCCUR ON FRIDAY!!
 To know and understand the Kalam Argument for the existence of God.  To evaluate the Kalam argument.
Chapter 1: The cosmological argument AQA Religious Studies: Philosophy of Religion AS Level © Nelson Thornes Ltd 2008 Revision.
 In 1917, Albert Einstein realized that his General Theory of Relativity pointed to a universe with a beginning at some point in the past. Instead of.
Aquinas’ Proofs The five ways. Thomas Aquinas ( ) Joined Dominican order against the wishes of his family; led peripatetic existence thereafter.
Introduction to Philosophy
Find Somebody who?? Can tell you about 4 proponents of the Cosmological argument. Can tell you who the 3 main critics were. Who the classic proponent is,
The Cosmological Argument
The Cosmological Argument for God’s Existence
Cosmological arguments from contingency
Explaining the universe
Cosmological Argument
The Cosmological Argument
Cosmological Argument: Philosophical Criticisms
THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
Cosmological Argument Essay planning
Kalam Cosmological Argument
Part 1: The Four Major Arguments
Or Can you?.
Or Can you?.
THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT.
The Kalam Cosmological Argument
Philosophy of Religion Arguments for the existence of God
God and Cosmology James Fodor, 13th Sept 2016.
Responding to Religious Apologetics
Presentation transcript:

Allah and the Big Bang Theory

Standard Big-Bang Cosmology  The universe, including all of time, space and matter, began to exist in a cataclysmic event – the ‘Big Bang’ – about 13.7 billion years ago

Cosmological Argument  Whatever begins to exist requires a cause of its beginning to exist  The universe began to exist  Therefore, the universe requires a cause of its beginning to exist  Since time, space and matter began to exist in the Big Bang, then whatever caused it must be timeless and non-physical  Therefore, the cause of the universe is supernatural

Counter-argument 1  Since there was no time before the Big Bang, it is meaningless to ask what happened before it  Response:  The relation between a cause and its effect need not be one of temporal priority – it could be one of causal priority. (Punching bag example.)  Thus, a timeless cause could have created the universe with time, rather than in time.

Counter-argument 2 – creation from nothing  It is not logically impossible for something to come from nothing, by nothing. We can certainly conceive of such a thing (it is not contradictory).  Response:  Logical impossibility is not the only sort of impossibility. (Physical impossibility, metaphysical/factual impossibility.)  If universes can pop into being uncaused, then why don’t we see anything and everything do so?

Counter-argument 2 continued  Rejoinder:  Things can come to exist without cause. Radioactive decay, virtual particles, other quantum mechanical events, are examples.  Response:  Fallacy of equivocation: Uncaused in the quantum mechanical context means that things occur at random times. It does not mean that there are no physical causes of their occurrence.

Counter-argument 3 – From nothing via physical causes  Krauss: Universe comes from the quantum vacuum – which is ‘nothing’ - via the operation of QM laws  Response:  1. How can laws operate on ‘nothing’?  2. The quantum vacuum is far from being ‘nothing’. (Barrow and Tipler.)

Counter-argument 4 – Big Bang not the absolute beginning  Alternative models such as the Hawking-Hartle model, and various ‘oscillating’, ‘quantum- fluctuation’ and ‘chaotic-inflationary’ models, all try to avoid the initial singularity (or beginning)  But none of these models has found wide acceptance in the scientific community, due to various internal problems.

Counter-argument 5 – A ‘gaps’ argument  Even though the preceding alternative models have not succeeded, a future model could still avoid the Big Bang singularity  Thus, appealing to a supernatural cause is just a ‘God of the Gaps’ argument  Response:  A supernatural cause is not being posited merely to fill a gap in our knowledge – rather, we think that natural causes can never explain the universe’s existence. They are in-principle impotent to do so. Why?

Only 3 ways to explain the cosmos  1. It began to exist.  2. It has always existed:  2A. It has existed for infinite time.  2B. It was once timeless, but then transitioned into its current state of motion and temporality.

2A. Infinite time  Impossibility of an actual infinite.  Set theory counter-argument inadequate.

2B. Timeless to temporal  If the things needed (the necessary and sufficient conditions) to cause the transition don’t exist within the system, the transition can’t occur  But if the things needed for the transition have existed eternally in the system, it becomes inexplicable why transition occurred a finite time in the past.  Response: A supernatural cause is in the same boat here.  But if the Cause has will, it can freely choose to go from existing changelessly, to then creating a physical world with time.  On an A-theory of time, this is in fact the only way to explain the temporal world.

Summary  If the Big Bang theory is right, the world needs a supernatural cause  Even if it’s not right, whatever theory replaces it must itself point to a beginning to the world, since an actual infinity is impossible  The cause must be timeless, and must possess will. It must therefore be living.

Divine Will  “…all [potential] obstacles in the creation of the universe and creatures cease being obstacles in the face of a manifestation of will and regard of the dominical command and become means of facility, eternal power creates the universe and all the species of creatures on the earth as easily as creating a single tree.” (Second Station of the Fifteenth Ray – The Shining Proof.)