1. THE COSMOLOGICAL
ARGUMENT

2. THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS HAVE 3 ELEMENTS:
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.
KEY IDEAS
The existence of the universe needs an explanation, and the only adequate explanation of its existence is that it was created by God.
Everything that exists in the universe is caused by something else.
SIMILAR TO TELEOLOGICAL:
Both are concerned with finding an explanation for the universe.
Both believe that the explanation must lie outside of the universe itself.
DIFFERENT TO TELEOLOGICAL:
The cosmological asks why the universe exists at all rather than just why it possesses the features that it does.
KEY CONCEPTS
CONTINGENT EXISTENCE
NECESSARY EXISTENCE
OCKHAM’S RAZOR
Something that depends on something else to exist, ie something that has a cause.
Something that does not depend on anything else to exist, ie it doesn’t have a cause.
The idea that the simplest explanation is USUALLY the best. Many philosophers believe that God creating the universe is a simpler (and therefore better) explanation than it all just being chance.

3. AQUINAS AND THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
1 - MOTION
2 - CAUSE
3 – NECESSITY AND CONTINGENCY
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.
To avoid an infinite regress, there must be a ‘first mover’ and Aquinas believed this to be God.
Everything that exists has a cause. Nothing can be its own cause and therefore must be caused by something else. To avoid an infinite regress, there must be a first cause and Aquinas believed this to be God.
Swinburne distinguished between different types of cause: inanimate and intentional. Intentional causation is personal and motivated by belief and purpose-this thinking helps theists understand the world in relation to humans.
God created the world for a purpose-the purpose was to sustain human life.
Contingent beings cannot come from nothing so there must be something outside of it all (a necessary being) that starts the whole thing off – theists believe that this is God.
The argument follows that if we can prove that God created the universe then we can prove that he does in fact exist.
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
Logical that something cannot come from nothing
Aquinas does not explain why there cannot be an infinite series of causes
We can verify through empirical observation that all effects have a cause
The chain may not lead back to a single cause (God), there is no reason why there are not many causes
There is no reason to believe that even if God did create the world, he is still in existence today – a parent creates a child and then dies without affecting the existence of their offspring

4. THE PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON
LEIBNIZ
Even if the universe had always existed we still need to explain why there is something rather than nothing. The universe is not self-explanatory and therefore if it is not able to explain itself, the reason for itself existence must lie outside of it.
SWINBURNE
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.
INFINITE REGRESS
The explanation of the universe cannot include and infinite regress as this would not be a complete explanation – there would always be something that we could not explain, ie what was the starting point.
THE BIG BANG THEORY
The Big Bang theory, although typically seen as offering a challenge to religious interpretations of the universe actually supports the cosmological argument to a degree as both suggest that there is a finite history to the universe. Some scholars believe that God set the Big Bang in motion.
F.C. COPLESTON
Contingent beings rely on something else to exist and therefore cannot bring themselves into existence.
The existence of contingent beings cannot just be the contingent beings that came before them – there must be a necessary being that is the cause of contingent beings.

5. THE PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON

6. PLATO AND ARISTOTLE ARISTOTLE PLATO SHARED KEY IDEAS
The universe is in motion and motion can only be caused by something that is already in motion itself. 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.
This first mover would not depend on anything else for its existence.
ARISTOTLE
PLATO
FIRST CAUSE
Plato argued that the power to produce motion is logically prior to the power to receive it and pass it on, so there must be a first cause-itself uncaused, that originates that movement.
Plato believed that the first cause was not a physical being, it was a soul that was more powerful than a human soul.
Plato did not claim that the first cause created the universe but rather was the source of activity that is in the world.
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
The idea of everything having a caused is supported by empirical observation.
Aristotle states that the prime mover is non-spatial. Hume would argue that we need to find an explanation for the universe that is found within the universe otherwise we need to stop looking for explanations.
Does not depend on the cause being the God of classical theism and so is exempt from the criticisms attached such as why an omnibenevolent God would create a universe that allowed/caused suffering.
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.
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.
All things are encouraged towards the ultimate good, whose effects can be felt and offer a model for other beings to follow.
His ideas are considered to be the basis for monotheism.

7. WILLIAM LANE CRAIG 1
It is mathematically impossible that the universe has an infinite past. 2
There is evidence to suggest that the universe began as the result of the Big Bang. 3
There had to be a cosmic beginning. 4
There had to be ‘something’ that caused the universe as nothing can only cause nothing. 5
Because the cause created time and space, it must be timeless and immaterial. 6
The cause must be personal in its nature to make a choice from there being nothing to deciding to bring something into existence. 7
The Big Bang could be used to prove that God created the universe. 8
Objection to William Lane Craig– there are particles in space that go in and out of existence by themselves thus challenging the idea that something cannot come from nothing.

8. THE KALAM ARUGMENT STRENGTH
The first premise is supported by empirical evidence – we can observe that things only exist if they are caused.
WEAKNESS
It is a big leap from identifying that there must be a cause to concluding that this cause must be God.

9. Logical – Logical that contingent beings cannot come from nothing.
STRENGTHS
Logical – Logical that contingent beings cannot come from nothing.
Sufficient Reason – Provides an explanation not just for how the universe got here but also why.
Works with Big Bang – Theists do not have to disregard the wealth of evidence for the Big Bang as the argument uses it to prove the existence of God rather than as an alternative.
Ockham’s Razor – Easier to believe that the universe was made by God, out of love than merely through an explosion that just happened, by chance, to create the perfect conditions for human life.
Inductive – Based on something that we can observe, ie that everything that exists has been caused by something else.

10. WEAKNESSES
Russell - Denies that the universe needs an explanation; it just is. The universe is “just there, and that's all” – it is a brute fact.
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?
Russell - Fallacy of Composition: arises 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).
The cosmological argument suggests that since the parts have a certain property, the whole likewise has that property. Russell states where we can ask for the cause of particular things, we cannot ask for the cause of the universe or the set of all contingent beings.
In relation to Aquinas - there is no reason to believe that even if God did create the world, he is still in existence today – a parent creates a child and then dies without affecting the existence of their offspring
In relation to William Lane Craig - there are particles in space that go in and out of existence by themselves thus challenging the idea that something cannot come from nothing.
In relation to the Kalam argument – leap from there needing to be a cause to the cause having to be God.