ABOO- Cosmological Flashcards
What is the cosmological argument?
Use of observation of the universe to draw conclusions that it must have come about by God.
What is Aquinas’ book?
Summa Theologica.
Which of Aquinas’ Five Ways are Cosmological?
First three.
What is the First Way?
‘Unmoved Mover’
What is the Second Way?
The Uncaused Causer.
What is the Third Way?
Contingency.
Analyse the First Way:
- Everything in the world in constant motion.
- Aristotelean idea that everything is changing from potential to actual.
- Chain of movers cannot go back infinitely, cycle of motion had to start somewhere and it started with the unmoved mover (infinite regression impossible).
- He is unmoved because if he moved he would change and wouldn’t be perfect.
- God created process so cannot be a part of it.
Analyse the Second Way:
- ‘If you eliminate cause you also eliminate its effects’.
- Book needs beginning in order to have middle and end.
- God must be uncaused or we get the impossibility of infinite regression.
Analyse the Third Way:
- Everything is Contingent, relies on something else for existence. We rely on parents for existence.
- Infinite regression is impossible, so there must be a ‘necessary being’ that created it.
What is Hume’s book?
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
What is Hume’s first criticism of the Cosmological argument?
Fallacy of composition.
Just because the universe has segments that have cause, doesn’t mean we have to say that there is cause for the universe as a whole.
What is a fallacy?
A mistaken belief.
What example does Hume give of his fallacy of composition?
Twenty particles.
If you find explanation for eery single particle, you don’t need to explain them as a whole.
What is Hume’s second criticism:
We assume there is a relationship between cause and effect, but some things are just random and without cause.
As a ‘matter of logic’, not all effects have causes.
What is the name for Hume’s second criticism?
Fallacy of Affirmation of the Consequent.
What does Hume conclude?
We have not experienced the creation of the universe, so we cannot empirically prove there is a ‘necessary being’.
But we also cannot prove the Big Bang?
Which philosopher agrees with Hume?
Bertrand Russell.
What does Bertrand Russell say, supporting Hume?
Supports Hume’s argument.
Just because every man has a mother, this doesn’t mean that the human race has a mother.
Leap of logic.
Who questions the state of the necessary being?
J.L Mackie.
What does J.L Mackie say?
Why should we accept GOD as the necessary being?
We could argue instead, that it is a ‘permanent stock of matter’.
Not typical theistic God.
What is Bertrand Russell’s logical argument?
Two types of statement- analytical and synthetic.
Analytical-a priori. Necessary statements. All bachelors are unmarried men. Self-authenticating.
Synthetic- Herbert is a bachelor. When it has names or figures, not necessary as we have to prove it.
God is not necessary- God is a name.
What are the two scientific theories for the cause of the universe?
Big Bang
Steady State Theory
What happened in the Big Bang Theory?
Mass of energy exploded, concentrating into hot clumps, stars.
What is evidence for the Big Bang Theory?
- Redshift.
- The universe is constantly expanding.
Who came up with the steady state theory?
Bondi, Gold and Hoyle.
What is the Steady State Theory?
Energy cannot be created, energy within the universe collided to form the universe.
What does Leibniz come up with?
‘Principle of Sufficient Reason’.
Any existent thing in the universe requires cause/sufficient reason.
Must be a God.
Who agrees with the idea of Contingency?
Frederick Copleston.
William Lane Craig.
What does William Lane Craig believe in? Why?
Personal being.
Was converted during a debate.
