The Cosmological Argument

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The Cosmological Argument

• for the existence of God

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Background

• The Cosmological Argument attempts to infer the
  existence of God from the cosmos.
• As such it is an a posteriori argument
• It is a synthetic and a deductive type of
  argument

Cosmology is the study of the nature and the
order of the universe
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Aquinas was not the first person to come up with
a form of the cosmological argument. He is
famous for the argument as his version is a
comprehensive (and Christian) one
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Overview
In support

• Plato in Timaeus says that every
• created thing must be created by
• some cause
• Aristotle also talked of the need for a
• Creator as a cause
• Aquinas is best remembered for the
• popular form of the argument in the
• first three of his Five Ways
• Leibnitz in his 1710 book Theodicy
• argued that nothing takes place
• without sufficient reason
• Copleston famously supported the
• argument in a radio debate in 1947
• Swinburne is a modern supporter of
• the argument

Against

• David Hume proposed the classic
• criticisms in his Dialogues
• concerning Natural Religion
• Russell also criticised the argument

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St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1275)

• Influential philosopher and theologian,
  particularly for Roman Catholics
• C13th showed a renewed interest in Aristotle, and
  how philosophy could be useful for religion
• Aquinas philosophy is often referred to as
  Thomism
• Aquinas was a prolific author.
• Summa Theologica is over 4000 pages long,
  however only two pages relate to arguments for
  the existence of God

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Aquinas Five Ways

• In Summa Theologica Aquinas wrote about some of
  the arguments for the existence of God. They are
  fairly brief, and have come to be known as the
  Five Ways
• The Unmoved Mover
• The Uncaused Causer
• Possibility and Necessity
• Goodness, Truth and Nobility
• Teleological

These first three arguments are Variations of
the cosmological argument
All are a posteriori arguments as they have as
their starting point observation or experience of
the universe
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The First WayThe Unmoved Mover
aka The Prime Mover or The Unchanged Changer

• There are many types of motion (change)

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Change of size
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Change of place
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Change of state
Aquinas was most interested in changing state.
In changing state, movement is from potentiality
to actuality
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Example given by Aquinas

• Wood is potentially hot
• For a piece of wood to become hot it has to be
  changed by fire
• What is potentially x is not actually x
• The actually x can only be produced by something
  that is actually x
• What ever is moved (changed) must be moved
  (changed) by another, which was itself moved
• Tracing back, we must arrive at a first mover,
  moved by no other. This is what we understand to
  be God.
• Put formally, Everything that is in motion
  (change) is moved (changed) by something else.
  Infinite regress is impossible. Therefore there
  must be a first mover (changer).

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Sounds Like Aristotle to me..
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• Question

• Did Aquinas believe that the universe had
• a beginning?

• He thought it did but said that it could not be
  reasoned (it was revealed doctrine)

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• With this form of the argument the emphasis is on
  dependency.
• In the twentieth century Swinburne took up this
  argument
• That God sustains the universe is a common
  Christian belief. In other words, if God ceased
  to exist, so would the universe. Therefore there
  must be an initiator of change whose continued
  existence is depended upon. This is a causal
  relationship.

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The Second WayThe Uncaused Causer (The First
Cause Argument)

• This argument is similar to the previous one but
  cause is considered rather than motion.

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The argument runs as follows

• Every effect has a cause
• Infinite regress is not possible
• Therefore there must be a first cause, which is
  God

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The Third WayPossibility and Necessity
(Contingency)

• Aquinas described every thing that had a property
  as a being
• All beings (things) in this world are created and
  perish they are contingent items
• If all beings are contingent then there must have
  been a time when nothing existed
• All beings cannot be contingent there must be a
  necessary being God who brought things into
  existence

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To infinity, and beyond
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Read Aquinas own words

• Summa Theologica

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Terms to learn

• Cosmology
• Contingent/necessary
• Potentiality/actuality
• Big-Bang Theory
• Oscillating universe theory
• Kalam Argument

• Summa Theologica
• The Five Ways
• Creation ex nihilo
• Infinite regress

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Further Reading

• Peter Cole Philosophy of Religion chapter 3
• A Jordan, N Lockyer, E Tate Philosophy of
  Religion chapter 3
• Peter Vardy The Puzzle of God chapter 8