The Cosmological Argument

1. The Cosmological Argument The idea that there is a first cause behind the existence of the universe

2. The classical argument • Things come into existence because something has caused them to happen • Things are caused to exist but they do not have to exist • There is a chain of causes going back to the beginning of time • Time began with the creation of the universe • There must have been a first cause, which brought the universe into existence • The first cause must have necessary existence to cause the contingent universe • God has necessary existence • Therefore God is the first cause of the contingent universe’s existence

3. Being • Necessary being • Something that has to exist • The non-existence of a necessary being would be a contradiction • Contingent being • Something that comes into and will go out of existence • Something that need not be

4. Thomas Aquinas • Major work – Summa Theologica c1273 • Five ways to prove the existence of god • Unmoved mover • Unmoved causer • Possibility and necessity • Goodness, Truth and Nobility • Teleological

5. The First Way • Based on the idea of motion or change • An object only moves when an external force is applied • Things are changed through a chain of movements • These movements or changes cannot go back to infinity • Therefore there must be a Prime Mover • That prime mover must be God

6. The Second Way • There are a series of causes • Nothing can cause itself • Therefore there must have been a first cause • That fisrt cause is God

7. The Third Way • We can observe that everything is contingent • If time is infinite there must have been a point at which nothing existed • If everything is contingent then nothing would exist as something cannot come from nothing • Therefore there must have been a necessary being that brought about the contingent things • That necessary being is God

8. Leibniz (1646 – 1716) • Accepted cosmological argument • Said there has to be ‘sufficient reason’ • Imagine an eternal book, copies being made from earlier books. • We can explain the present book as a copy of the previous book • But we do not get to a full reason for the book • Likewise an eternal world would not present sufficient reason for it’s existence • Leibniz therefore rejected an infinite universe and concluded that God was the first cause

9. David Hume (1711-1776) • All knowledge comes from sense experience • We believe that we know more about the universe than is warranted • Human mistake is to allow imagination to make connections between cause and effect • What we observe are two separate events occurring at separate times – it is habit if mind that makes the connection

10. David Hume (1711-1776) • Hume asks why we must assume a beginning – why not eternal? • Further he questions why a universe that does have a beginning has to have a cause • Ultimately this leads to questioning any need for a God.

11. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) • The idea of cause and effect relates to the world of sense experience • God is outside the world of sense experience • We cannot apply the law of cause and effect to something that is not a part of our sense experience • Therefore people cannot people cannot know God

12. Copleston and Russell • Radio debate 1947 • Copleston supported the idea of sufficient reason • Russell argued against the idea of contingency and necessitity • Russell concluded that just because humans have a mother it does not mean that the universe has to have one too.

13. Putting it altogether • Write bullet points that show how you would go about answering the following exam question: • Explain Aquinas’ version of the Cosmological argument. (33) • ‘I should say that the universe is just there and that’s all.’ Discuss (17)