MoG - Cosmological Arguments

Question 1

What do cosmological arguments aim to do?

Answer 1

Cosmological arguments claim that chains of causation and dependency can’t go on infinitely - there must be something that isn’t caused by or contingent on something else (God)

Question 2

What are cosmological arguments from contingency?

Answer 2

Things that exist contingently cannot be explained without reference to a necessary being, and the necessary being is God

Arguments: Aquinas’ 3rd way, Leibniz’s argument from sufficient reason

Question 3

What are cosmological arguments from causation?

Answer 3

Everything has a cause, therefore the universe itself must have a cause, and the cause is God

Arguments: Kalam argument, Aquinas’ 2nd way, Descartes’ argument from continued existence

Question 4

Outline the Kalam argument (argument from temporal causation)

Answer 4

Whatever begins to exist has a cause, and the universe began to exist, therefore the universe has a cause, and that cause is God (since nothing else is powerful enough to create a whole universe from nothing)

Question 5

Outline Aquinas’ first way (argument from motion - causation)

Answer 5

• Since some things in the world are in motion, something must have put them into motion
• something must’ve put that mover into motion, but that chain can’t go on infinitely since if there is no first mover, there can’t be any subsequent motion
• things are in motion, therefore there must be a first mover (God)

Question 6

Outline Aquinas’ second way (argument from atemporal causation)

Answer 6

• everything in the universe is subject to cause and effect
• C is caused by B, B is caused by A, etc.
• if this chain was infinite, there would be no first cause
• this chain can’t be infinite since there would be no subsequent causes or effects
• there are causes and effects, therefore there must’ve been a first cause
• the first cause is god

Question 7

Outline Descartes’ cosmological argument (from causation)

Answer 7

If i caused my own existence i would give myself all perfections
However i don’t have all perfections
So i am not the cause of my own existence, and whatever caused me to exist must either have caused its own existence or been caused by something else
There can’t be an infinite chain of causes so something must’ve caused its own existence (god)

Question 8

Outline the criticism to arguments from causation that an infinite series may be possible

Answer 8

Why must there be a first cause? Could it not be possible that there has been an infinite chain of causes, and that the universe never ‘began’ but simply has been for infinity?

Question 9

Outline the response to the possibility of an infinite chain of causes

Answer 9

• An infinite chain of causes would mean an infinite amount of time has passed prior to the present moment,
• If an infinite amount of time has passed, then the universe can’t get any older (you can’t have more than infinity)
• However the universe is getting older (years progress), therefore an infinite amount of time has not passed
• So there has not been an infinite chain of causes

Question 10

Outline the criticism to arguments from causation, where Hume objects the ‘causal principle’

Answer 10

Hume claims “everything has a cause” is not an analytic truth; it’s logically possible for something to exist without a cause for its existence
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