The Cosmological argument

Cosmological from the word ‘cosmos’ meaning universe

• The Cosmological Argument is one of the oldest arguments to prove the existence of God.

• Cosmological Argument is based on the idea of cause and effect ( remember the dominoes)

Posteriori and A Priori

• The Cosmological argument is an a posteriori argument as opposed to an a priori one.

• A Posteriori arguments are ones based on evidence ie posterior ( your behind, what is behind us)in the case of the Cosmological Argument it is the existence of the universe.

• An a Priori argument is one that does not depend on evidence but on reason alone.

Plato and Aristotle

• Plato and Aristotle both put forward ideas relating to a First Cause.

• Plato (427–347 BCE) refers to a demiurge of supreme wisdom and intelligence as the creator of the Cosmos in his work Timeaus.

• Aristotle ( 384–322 BCE) also put forth the idea of a First Cause, often referred to as the "Prime Mover" or "Unmoved Mover" in his work Metaphysics.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

• St Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) believed that the Natural World provided a lot of evidence for God’s existence.

• In his work Summa Theologica he set out Five Ways of prooving God’s existence from this evidence.These proofs were concerned with the things people observed and experienced every day ( a posteriori)

The Five Ways

• The first three of the five are Cosmological, the fourth of the five arguments is Ontological and the fifth Teleological.

• The first three ways are as follows:MotionCauseContingency

The First Way - Motion

• The First Way is based on Motion. In the world there are things that are in motion, and whatever is in motion must have been moved by something else.

• According to Aquinas this chain cannot go back to Infinity (we cannot have infinite regression),there must have been a First or Prime Mover which was itself unmoved.

• The Unmoved Mover began the movement in everything. Aquinas argued that the Prime Mover is God.

The Second Way - Cause

• The Second Way has the same structure as the First Way, but it replaces the word Motion with Cause

• Aquinas argued that every effect has a cause. Nothing can cause itself because it doesn’t exist before it was caused

• There must be a Cause for the universe since something cannot come from nothing.The Universe cannot just have created itself.It is therefore logical to think that God caused the universe to come into existence.

• Again Aquinas said we cannot have infinite regression, therefore we need an Uncaused Causer which has to be God

The Third Way - Contingency

• The Third Way is the argument from Contingency. Matter in the universe is contingent –it comes into being and it perishes

• There must be a point in history in which nothing existed• The Necessary being that brought things into existence

was God.He concluded that if God did not exist nothing would exist.

• He concluded that if God did not exist nothing could exist.