Cosmological Argument

Question 1

What does the word cosmos actually mean

Answer 1

Refers to the world or universe as a perfect and well ordered system

Question 2

What kind of argument is the cosmological argument

Answer 2

A posteriori - based on empirical evidence that already exists - post evidence

Question 3

What claim is the cosmological argument based on

Answer 3

Everything in the universe already exists because it was caused by something else - something must have started this chain off, something unchangeable and itself was not created GOD

Question 4

What are contingent things

Answer 4

Depend on something else for its existence and can be taken out of existence

Question 5

What is a necessary being

Answer 5

Does not depend on anything else for its existence - has no cause and depends on nothing else for existence

Question 6

In which book does aquinas talk about his five ways

Answer 6

Summa theologica

Question 7

Explain aquinas first way

Answer 7

Motion -
things are evidently in a state of motion
Things that change must be being changed by something else
There cannot be an infinite chain/regression of movers and changers
There must be a first unmoved mover that causes motion and change in all things
We call this god

Question 8

Explain aquinas second way

Answer 8

Nothing in this world is caused by itself, as this would suggest it had existed before it began, which is nonsensical
The chain of cause and effect cannot regress to infinity , must be a first cause - GOD

Question 9

Explain aquinas third way

Answer 9

From contingency
The universe is made up of contingent things, nothing is permanent
Therefore at one point in time, there was nothing in existence. But nothing comes from nothing and we don’t have nothing, we have an amazing universe so something must
have made it
We therefore must accept the existence of a necessary being

Question 10

What evidence is there for the Big Bang

Answer 10

• universe seems to be expanding, Edwin Hubble observed that the galaxies are moving away from us at speed
  -scientists can detect radiation in the atmosphere which they believe is the result of the Big Bang - it is the remnant heat left over, called the CMB

Question 11

Who detected such radiation in the atmosphere

Answer 11

Penzias and Wilson
- detected the radiation as it was acting as a source of excess noise in the receiver they wee building

Question 12

Explain how scientists thought the Big Bang theory happened

Answer 12

-there must have been a time when the matter in the universe was tightly packed together, called a singularity
-approximately 14.5billion years ago, the Big Bang occurred because the conditions were just right for it to happen

Question 13

What do Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins argue about the Big Bang

Answer 13

• the Big Bang is the first cause of the universe, not god
  -science can offer better explanations because it is based on evidence

Question 14

What do most modern Christians such as Kieth ward believe about the Big Bang

Answer 14

-embrace it and believe that science and religion are perfectly compatible
-god controlled the exact force of of the Big Bang to enable the universe to form
-‘let there be light’ in genesis could relate to the Big Bang

Question 15

What is the anthropic principle

Answer 15

The universe seems to have been finely tuned for the Big Bang

Question 16

what does John polkinghorne believe about the Big Bang

Answer 16

Believes in both the Big Bang and the theory of evolution
The conditions and constants which allow creation to develop cannot have been a happy accident, there must be a super intellect behind it all

Question 17

Give the john polkinhorne quote about the Big Bang

Answer 17

One can perfectly believe in the Big Bang but believe in it as the will of god the creator

Question 18

In the qu’ran, how does it refer to the cosmological argument

Answer 18

Refers to allah being the expander of the universe

Question 19

What was Edwin Hubbles discovery

Answer 19

The universe is constantly expanding outwards by observing redshifts in the light wavelengths omitted by galaxies

Question 20

When was the debate between copleston and russel

Answer 20

1948

Question 21

Explain the copleston vs russel debate

Answer 21

-Copleston believed in contingent things that began with a necessary being
-Russell does not believe in necessary existence, something theists have made up
-Russell says we shouldn’t bother bringing up the question of the existence of the universe because we will never know. The universe is just there and that is it
-copleston argued that the universe makes no sense without the existence of god
-Russel says the whole human race does not have a mother even though we all individually have one. The universe is a handy word buyt it doesn’t stand for anything

Question 22

Give some FOR arguments that god is the first cause

Answer 22

A posteriori - uses sense evidence
If everything is contingent, nothing can come from nothing
The Big Bang theory does not need to remove the idea of god

Question 23

Give some AGAINST arguments for god being the first cause

Answer 23

Hume’s fallacy of composition - we cannot assume the universe has a cause just because everything in the created word has
There could be a number of first causes, not just one - maybe a team of gods
Big bang gives scientific evidence

Question 24

What did Leibniz believe

Answer 24

The existence of an entire universe needed a complete explanation, which was to be found in god
The whole unioverse depends on god who is uncaused and has necessary existence

Question 25

Explain the Islamic Kalam argument

Answer 25

Associated with al kindi and al ghazali
Everything that begins to exist must have a cause to make it come into existence
Must have been a point in time that the universe began, not an infinite regress
There was once a the possibility of a universe coming into existence or not coming into existence and there must have been something to make the choice between these two possibilities - an agent that exists outside of time and space

Question 26

Explain Hume’s fallacy of composition

Answer 26

you cannot infer from ‘every individual event has a cause’ to the conclusion that ‘the whole universe has a cause

Question 27

What possibilities does home raise

Answer 27

There could be an infinite chain of regression, just as it is believed there will be an infinite chain of progression
More than one cause? - a ship has many makers
Flaws in the natural world could suggest this god is lacking in powerm or a junior/ederly god
Could be self caused

Question 28

What book did Hume criticise the cosmological argument

Answer 28

Dialogues concerning natural religion