Find Somebody who??

1. Find Somebody who?? • Can tell you about 4 proponents of the Cosmological argument. • Can tell you who the 3 main critics were. • Who the classic proponent is, his book and what he is famous for. • Tell you about the first way. • Tell you about the second way • Tell you about the third way. • Tell you about the type of argument and why?? • Name 1 criticism of way 1,2 and 3. • Tell you the cosmological argument in terms of 2 premises and a conclusion. 3 mins prepare Given number know answer (teacher). Not quick look at 1 possible answer or place you might find the rest.

2. Lesson Aim • To learn about other forms of the design argument • The Kalam Argument, William Lane Craig (1949-present). • Gottfried Leibniz (1710).

3. Key Point • CA refers to a collection. • CA continually improved and developed.

4. The Kalam Argumental Ghazali (1058-1111) • This argument originated in Muslim scholarship – it is also called the beginning argument. • Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence. This includes the universe, which has to have a cause for its own existence • Infinity as an actual concept cannot exist. This means that the cause-effect sequence must have started somewhere. • The universe must have started somewhere.

5. There was a time when there was not a universe. • When there are two alternate, and equally possible, states (such as a universe existing or not existing) something has to will one or other of the possibilities to come into being. • Modern advocates appeal to modern science – the need of a 1st cause for the Big Bang theory.

6. William Lane Craig(1949 – present) Potential infinity: Like the future – events are constantly being added to the sum total Actual infinity: A mathematical concept referring to the idea of infinite numbers of parts within a set. Craig argued that the universe cannot be infinite, because you cannot add to an actual infinite amount. The past can be regarded as a series of events added one to another.

7. Since the universe is finite, it must have had a beginning. • Whatever exists must have a cause. • Therefore the universe had a cause to its existence.

8. If the world had a beginning, this beginning was either caused or uncaused. • It either came about naturally, or through a ‘personal choice’. • The laws of nature did not exist before the world came into being – there were no natural causes to bring the world about.

9. Therefore it cannot be that the world came about due to random forces of nature. There must have been some personal agency involved. • This personal agent must have existed outside space and time, since these came into being at the point of creation. Therefore the ‘personal agent’ is a transcendent being.

10. The cause of the universe must be a ‘personal being’ who freely chooses to create the world.

11. Notes – chart.

12. Homework • Tyler up to pg. 36 Quote Swinburne.

13. Ed Miller(1937- present) This adaptation of the Kalam argument centres on time: • An infinite universe would have an infinite number of days. • The end of an infinite number of days would never be reached. • This means that we would never reach today

14. Time began when the universe began. • Events are caused. • The beginning of the universe was an event. • Therefore there must have been a cause. • This first cause was God.