ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD: The Cosmological Argument Flashcards
What are the characteristics of the cosmological argument?
A posteriori
Synthetic
Inductive
Who did Aquinas develop the argument from?
Aristotle’s ideas on the 4 actualised causes of existence (material, formal, final and efficient)
Through this Aristotle argues that behind the series of cause and effect in the world there must be an unmoved mover (efficient cause) who catalysed it
What are Aristotle’s 2 states of being?
Potentiality and actuality
God is pure actuality because he is perfect
Who is Aquinas?
Italian theologian and philosopher
Aristotle
Greek philosopher and scientist
Where is Aristotle’s prime mover?
Outside of space and time
Who is the prime mover in Aristotle?
That which creates movement as a final purpose by attraction
Who is the prime mover in aquinas?
The divine initiator of all change and motion
Who gave the name CA?
Kant to distinguish CA from OA
Where does Aquinas give his 5 ways for the existence of god (way 1,2, 3 make up the CA)?
Summa theologica
He claimed we can only get to god from evidence we find in the world
Aquinas quote from ‘summa theologica’ (way 1)
It is necessary to arrive at a first mover moved by no other
What is way 1 (prime mover)?
All that moves is moved by something else
Can’t have infinite regress as there’d be no reason for movement to get started at all
Must be an unmoved mover- producing movement in all but not being moved itself. People understand this to be god
What is Aquinas’ example for way 1?
Wood is potentially hot
For a piece of wood to become hot it has to be changed by fire
What is potentially x is not actually x
The actually x can only be produced by something that is actually x
What is moved must be moved by another
We must arrive at a first mover
Aquinas quote from Summa theologica (way 2)
It is necessary to admit a first efficient cause
What is way 2 (first cause)?
Everything has a cause
You can’t have an infinite series of causes
So there must be an uncaused cause, causing everything else but not being caused itself
This uncaused causer is what people understand to be god
Aquinas quote from summa theologica (way 3)
That which does not exist begins to exist only through something already existing
What does contingent mean?
We perish
We don’t exist necessarily
What is way 3 (necessity and contingency)?
Aquinas described everything with a property as a being
All beings are created and perish (are contingent)
If all beings are contingent there must have been a time when nothing existed
If nothing existed then nothing would exist now
It’s false to say nothing exists now
Must therefore be a necessary being who brought things into existence
Positive value of CA for religious faith
Reasonable argument as the idea is accessible for all
Supported by the DA
Negative value of CA for religious faith
Barth disagrees with trying to prove god through reason
Stephen Evans suggests the argument is limited because it doesn’t prove the god of classical theism
Who is Bertrand Russell?
Agnostic philosopher who criticised Aquinas’ CA in a 1948 BBC radio debate against a Jesuit priest (Copleston)
Russell quote
The human race hasn’t a mother
What did Copleston argue in the debate?
The chain of contingent beings must stop somewhere with a necessary being
What is a fallacy of composition?
Fallacy (failure in reasoning) of inferring that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true for part of the whole
How does Russell criticise way 2?
Calls it a fallacy of composition
No reason why Aquinas couldn’t have argued instead that every event in the universe has a cause/is contingent and that the universe is uncaused/necessary rather than that it too has a cause/is contingent
According to the Stanford encyclopaedia of philosophy, does way 3 commit the fallacy of composition?
The wall is built from bricks so the wall is brick
The universe is built from contingent things so the universe is contingent- the universe is no more/less than the sum total of its parts
A necessary being beyond the universe is a good explanation for the existence of a contingent universe
Who is David Hume?
Scottish philosopher and empiricist
What is Occam’s razor?
If there are competing hypotheses choose the one that makes the fewest assumptions
What does Hume suggest as a weakness of the CA?
The universe itself might be a necessarily existent being
Fits with Occam’s razor as it’s simpler to suggest matter rather than matter and mind
If something has to be necessary why can’t it be matter which makes up the universe instead of an unobservable god?
What would Aquinas’ response to Humes suggestion about necessary matter be?
Aquinas has no problem with the idea that matter might exist necessarily (once created by God it is everlasting)
For Aquinas matter would be a caused necessary being and so would still need god as an uncaused necessary being to cause its existence
Hume quote
Why not the material universe be the necessarily existent being?
Mackie quote
You wouldn’t expect a train with a number of carriages to move without an engine
What is a brute fact?
A fact that has no explanation
What does Russell suggest is the simplest explanation of why the universe exists?
There is no explanation
Exists as an unexplainable brute fact
But Science works on the assumption that there are no brute facts
If things in the universe aren’t brute fact why should the universe as a whole be brute fact?
What does Russell suggest about the necessary being?
God would have to be in a special category of his own; where would this category come from? A ‘necessary being’ has no meaning
Any being that exists can also not exist (not a contradiction to say god does not exist). When Aquinas way 3 requires a necessary god, this is false logic
How does Copleston respond to Russell’s idea on the necessary being?
You understand the meaning of necessary being because you’re talking about it
What does Hume suggest about synthetic statements?
When Aquinas talks about god as a necessary being he’s saying god is logically necessary
For Hume all statements about existence are synthetic (tested by sense experience). This means they can’t be logically true/analytic
The mind knows that objects don’t have to remain in existence so the words ‘necessary being’ have no meaning
What would Aquinas respond to Humes idea about the necessary being?
Aquinas’ idea of God is that of one who is a metaphysical necessity; just part of the way things are such as ‘water is H2O’
Counter argument for infinite regress and Occam’s razor?
If there was an infinite regress of contingent beings we still wouldn’t know why there’s something rather than nothing
The application of Occam’s razor supports the existence of a single being
What’s the principle of sufficient reason?
Everything must have a reason or a cause
Leibniz used the principle to ask why is there a universe and why is it the way it is?
He concluded God just exist as a necessary being
