Cosmological Argument Flashcards
What type of argument is the cosmological argument?
A Posteriori.
What is an A posteriori argument?
Relying on experience of the world and perception& interpretation of the design in it.
What is the Kalam argument?
Islamic form of the argument.
What are the six premises of the Kalam argument?
1- World must have a cause, just as everything has a cause.
2- World can’t have been created out of nothing.
3- World must have been created at a certain point in time.
4- Cause of world must be something which isn’t causes itself.
5- This being must be God.
6- Therefore, God exists.
What are the first three cosmological ways of Aquinas’ Summa Theologica?
1- Argument from motion.
2- Argument from efficient cause.
3- Argument from possibility (contingency) and necessity.
What is the argument from motion?
Things are in motion and can’t move themselves. This forms the chain of “moved” and “moving”. This cannot go on forever (infinite regress).
There must be an unmoved mover- this is God.
What is the argument from efficient cause?
Nothing can be self-causing, so everyone must have a cause. There must be a necessary cause- this is God.
What is the argument from possibility and necessity.
The world is made up of contingent beings. There has to be a necessary being to create contingent beings. Only the existence of a necessary being can explain existence of contingent beings. The necessary being is God.
What does Leibniz argue?
There needs to be an explanation for why the world exists instead of nothing. Even if the world always existed, explanation would still be needed.
This reason cannot be gained from the world itself, so it must be gained from something outside the world.
This is the Principle of Sufficient reasoning.
What did William Lane Craig argue?
No scientific explanation that can provide a sufficient explanation for the cause of the universe, therefore cause of universe must be God.
What did Bertrand Russel point out?
The logic in the argument means God must have a cause which contradicts idea of necessary existence.
There is a possibility the world always existed and has no cause. The universe is a brute fact.
What does Kant argue?
- Argument from motion is flawed as it is not universal.
- Infinite regress is not necessarily illogical.
- May point to a cause, but why must this be the God of classical theism?
