Criticisms of motion and causation arguments Flashcards
Criticism:
First and second ways rest on a contradiction. Aquinas says that everything must have a cause , but he then concludes that something must exist that can be the cause of itself(God)
Defence:
This is what the’‘Reductio ad absurdum’’ is supposed to prove. There has to be at least one exception to the rule ‘ Everything must have a cause’.
If there was no exception , the universe would have no cause and would never exist.
Criticism:
If we take the Secular interpretation of causation then the Cosmological argument shows that a first cause(GOD), once existed.
It is crucial to believers that God is still present to act upon the world . This may satisfy deists , the God that acts once (domino) but Aquinas can not subscribe to this.
Defence:
The chain of causation could be interpreted in another way:
God , As the first cause, is acting on the world in the present. This sees causation in terms of the factors that sustain an event.
(God as the sustaining first cause)