The Cosmological Argument

Question 0

How did Aquinas attempt to prove the existence of God?

Answer 0

a Posteriori

Question 1

Who was Aquinas (13th century) influenced by when proposing the CA?

Answer 1

Aristotle and his Prime Mover

Question 2

What does ‘Cosmos’ mean?

Answer 2

The universe

Question 3

Describe the argument from motion

Answer 3

• Everything in the world is moving or changing
• Nothing can do so by itself
• There cannot be an infinite regress of things changing other things
• There must be a Prime Mover (God)

Question 4

Describe the argument from causation

Answer 4

• Everything in the world has a cause
• Nothing is the cause of itself
• There cannot be an infinite regress of causes
• There must be a first cause (God)

Question 5

Describe the argument from contingency

Answer 5

• Everything in the world is contingent
• If it is possible for things not to exist, there must have been a time when they did not
• There must have been a time where nothing existed
• Things exist now so something must have brought them into existence (God)

Question 6

What did Copleston say about the CA?

Answer 6

• There are things that are contingent
• Nothing in the world is self-explanatory
• There must be a cause of the universe which is outside of it
• This being must be self-explanatory which contains within itself the reason for its own existence
• This necessary being is God

Question 7

How did Russell criticise Copleston?

Answer 7

• Refused to accept the notion of a necessary being
• “The universe is an unintelligible brute fact”
• “I should say the universe is just there and that’s all”

Question 8

How did Hume criticise the CA?

Answer 8

• We have no experience of creation so we cannot speak about it meaningfully
• To move from ‘everything we observe has a cause’ to ‘the universe has a cause’ is too big a leap in logic

Question 9

How did Kant criticise the CA?

Answer 9

Said that we cannot jump from the physical world to the metaphysical world