Cosmological Argument

Question 1

What are the 5 ways to prove God exists?

Answer 1

Motion/change (actuality/potentiality)
Cosmological
Cause/effect (There must be a start point and that start point is God in the eyes of Christians)
Contingency (dependency)/necessity
Start point (something/someone has to cause everything)

Question 2

What are the origins of the argument?

Answer 2

ST Thomas Aquinas and his 3 ways

Question 3

Where did Aquinas get most of his ideas from?

Answer 3

Aristotle (Greek), Al kindi and Al Sazali (kalam argument-both Muslims) and Anslem

Question 4

What is Aquinas’s 3 ways?

Answer 4

Motion or change
Cause and effect
Contingency and necessity

Question 5

What type of argument is the cosmological argument?

Answer 5

Inductive: generalisation argument

Question 6

What are the 3 elements of the cosmological argument?

Answer 6

1. There are things that exist and it would be possible for these things to not 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.

Question 7

Contingent existence= ?

Answer 7

Something depends on something else to exist E.g. something that has a cause

Question 8

Necessary existence= ?

Answer 8

Something that does not depend on anything else to exist E.g. it doesn’t have a cause

Question 9

Ockham’s razor= ?

Answer 9

The idea that the simplest explanation it the best one usually. Many philosophical believe that god creating the universe is simpler then it happening by chance.

Question 10

Strengths of the cosmological argument?

Answer 10

-logical that something cannot come from nothing.
-we can verify through empirical observation that all effects have a cause.

Question 11

Weaknesses of the cosmological argument

Answer 11

-Aquinas doesn’t explain why there cannot be an infinite series of causes
-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 created the world, he is still in existence today- a parent creates a child and then dies without affecting the existence of their offspring.

Question 12

What is deism?

Answer 12

God created the universe but has now retired or died and so cannot affect the universe today.

Question 13

What are the key idea behind the cosmological argument?

Answer 13

The existence of God needs an explanation and the only adequate explanation of its existence is that God exists. (Not a strong argument as it’s inconclusive)

Everything that exists in the universe is caused by something else. (Quantum physics disproved this theory).

Question 14

What’s the easiest argument to include in an AO2 question on the cosmological argument?

Answer 14

Copleston VS Bertrand Russel

Question 15

What is the main weakness behind Aquinas

Answer 15

He got many of his ideas for other people who had different faiths and cultures to him. He tried to adapt his belief to these ideas. He was not original one but.

Question 16

Who was William Lane Craig?

Answer 16

An evangelical Christian who developed a modern version of the argument in his book-‘The kalam cosmological argument’ (1979). The book seeks to prove the at God was the first cause of the universe.

Question 17

What is the theory that God can create based off his energy?

Answer 17

If the universe has a cause of existence it must be God. God creates everything out of himself in theory this is possible as God can create matter through his infinite energy.

Question 18

What is the first part of the kalam-cosmological argument?

Answer 18

-The present would not exist in an actual infinite universe,
-This is because successive additions cannot be added to an actual infinite.
-There cannot be an actual infinite as it is impossible

Question 19

What has the universe got to be In the Kalam-cosmological argument?

Answer 19

The universe must be finite. A finite universe had a beginning. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. God must be that cause.

Question 20

What is the second part of the Kalam-Cosmological argument

Answer 20

The argument aims to prove that God as the personal creator of the universe. As the laws of nature cannot exist before the beginning of the universe, the universe cannot be the result of natural causes.

Question 21

What is the strength of the Kalam argument?

Answer 21

The first presence is supported by empirical evidence. We can observe that things only exist if they are caused.

Question 22

What is the weakness of the cosmological argument?

Answer 22

It is a big leap from identifying that there must be a cause to concluding that this cause must be God.

Question 23

What does Richard Swinburne think about the cosmological argument

Answer 23

-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

Question 24

What does F.P. Copleston say about the cosmological argument?

Answer 24

-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.

Question 25

What does Leibniz say about the cosmological argument?

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

What is infinite regress?

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

How does the Big Bang theory support the cosmological argument?

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

What is sufficient reason?

Answer 28

Provides an explanation not just for how the universe got here but also why.

Question 29

What does David Hume say about the cosmological argument?

Answer 29

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?

Question 30

What does Bertrand Russel say about the cosmological argument (part 1)

Answer 30

Denies that the universe needs an explanation; it just is. The universe is
“just there, and that’s all”- it is a brute fact.

Question 31

What does Bertrand Russel say about the cosmological argument (part 2)

Answer 31

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.