Cosmological Argument Flashcards
What is Aquinas’ first way from motion?
- Nothing can be mover and moved. And things are in motion.
- infinite chain of movers cannot have an ultimate mover
- Must be a first mover = god
What is Aquinas’ second way from cause?
- Everything in existence has a cause and the universe is in constant flux
- A chain of causes and effect cannot regresa to infinity
- There must be a 1st cause which is not itself an effect- God.
What is Aquinas’ third way from necessity and contingency?
- All things in nature are subject to change- not to be, come into existence and then cease to exist
- If so, then at sometime there was nothing at all
- Then therefore there must be something that brings all things into existence
- There must be a necessary being to bring the contingent world into being- God.
What is Aquinas’ fourth way from excellence?
- Everything in the world is more or less good
2. There cannot be an infinite scale of good so there must be perfection- God.
What is Aquinas’ fifth way from purpose?
- There is purpose to everything, even irrational things
2. They must be directed by an external intelligent power- god
What is the kalam argument?
- Everything has a cause for its existence
- Infinity as a concept can’t exist
- There was a time when there was no universe and it must have started somewhere
- When there are 2 alternate and equally possible states something has to will one or the other to come into being
What was William Lane Craig’s cosmological argument?
- the world either came about ‘naturally’ or through ‘personal choice’
- The laws of nature did not exist before the world came about and therefore it cannot be that the world came about due to random forces- personal agency- God
What is Ed Miller’s adaptation of the kalam argument?
- An infinite universe would have an infinite number of days
- The end of an infinite series of days would never be reached
- That means we would never reach today- must be a cause- God
What is copleston’s view on the Cosmological argument?
The universe is the sum of all things that exist and these objects rely on things beyond themselves for existence. Since the universe consists on everything that there is and none of its contents can be the cause of existence, that must be external- God.
How does Russel criticise the cosmological argument?
The concept of a cause is derived from our observation of particular things- not applicable to the whole in total. Claiming that the universe has a cause because everything in it does is like saying because every human being has a mother, the whole human race has a mother.
What does Hume say about the cosmological argument?
We have no experience of universes being made so cannot speak meaningfully about the creation of the universe- leap in logic.
How does John L Mackie argue for the cosmological argument?
- there is no infinite regression just as there is no railway train with an infinite number of coaches. There needs to be an engine.
How does Anthony Kenny criticise the cosmological argument?
- Newton’s laws of motion prove it is possible for an object to be in one of two states- stationary or moving at a constant rate- without any external force acting on it.
- particles have been observed to disappear and reappear without any apparent cause
- big bang did not mark the beginning of the universe but the beginning of this particular phase- oscillating universe
What are strengths of the cosmological argument?
- 1st cause has always existed- eternal
- everything that begins to exist has to have a cause
- god can be both static and dynamic as he is all powerful
- there could be a 3rd state that we can’t even comprehend.
What are weaknesses of the cosmological argument?
- the eternal thing would need to be both static and dynamic- static means it would be unable to cause anything and dynamic means it would have to have a cause
- why does the 1st cause have to be God?
- is cause and effect even a truth or is it just in mind
