The Cosmological Argument

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The Cosmological Argument
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What is it about?

• Many religions in todays society make claims,
  such as
• There is a God and that
• God made the universe
• But, Philosophy of Religion helps us QUESTION
  these claims. So, we ask
• What EVIDENCE is there to back up these claims?
• Is this evidence convincing?

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Cosmological Argument Learning Intentions.

• By the end of the lesson you should be able
• To recognise that there is a debate about the
  existence of God.
• To understand that there are various points for
  and against this argument.
• To be able to discuss the different points that
  prove and disprove Gods existence.

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Who created you?
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Who created the Universe?
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Science can offer us explanations of things that
are within the universe, but does the universe as
a whole have an explanation?
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Cosmological Argument

• Is an argument which says that God has to exist
  because the world exists.
• The world couldnt exist without God because he
  created it

This argument is based on Cause and Effect.
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Have you ever wondered..
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What caused the universe to exist?
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Thats easy The big bang!!
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And what caused That cause?
What caused the big bang??
We need to take the scientific approach to this
Science tells us that everything has a cause. Let
that be your starting point.
And what caused that cause?
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Science teaches us that everything has a
cause. Make that your starting point.
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My name is St. Thomas Aquinas But right now I
am going to follow the scientists advice.
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Aquinas Cosmological Arguments

• Thomas Aquinas was probably the most important
  philosopher of the medieval period.
• Aquinas was trying to connect/join the Christian
  faith with the philosophy of Aristotle (an
  ancient Greek philosopher/scientist/mathematician)
  whose works had just been re-discovered and
  were being taught in the religious universities
  of Europe.

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Something must have caused the universe
Everything has a cause
Yes, the big bang
Something must have caused the big bang
Something must have caused that cause
Something must have caused that cause
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something must have caused that cause
Something must have caused that cause
something must have caused that cause
something must have caused that cause
something must have caused that cause
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something must have caused that cause
something must have.
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This is getting boring.
Its just silly
If we keep askingWhat caused that cause, Then
well never stop asking it! (Infinite
regress) And that just doesnt make sense
Yes I agree (Remember me? St Thomas Aquinas)
but I have a solution!!
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The only sensible explanation Is that there must
have been
a first cause uncaused by anything else !!!
Let me explain it in black and white
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At the beginning - a first cause, uncaused by
anything else.
That first cause was the creator God.
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The Cosmological Argument

• Everything has a cause.
• The Universe exists so it must have a cause.
• You cannot have infinite number of causes.
• Therefore there must be an uncaused cause, which
  causes everything to happen without itself being
  caused by anything else.
• Such an uncaused cause is what people understand
  by God.

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The Uncaused cause in simple talk means

• Everything has a cause even a cause has a
  cause.
• BUT
• Something had to make the first cause happen.
  That something is what we know as God.

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The strength of the argument Is that it is based
on the scientific principle that everything has a
cause.
The second strength of the argument is that it
starts off by saying, the universe exists.
That cant be denied, we are part of it.
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The argument has two weaknesses
Firstly, you may have proved a first cause but
that doesnt mean it still exists or that it was
God. It may have died or disappeared.
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The second weakness is this.
You start off by saying everything has a cause,
It doesnt make sense, and its not logical to
then say something has no cause.
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So, what is the main points of the Cosmological
Argument?
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Cosmological Argument

• Key Points
• Something must have set the world in motion.
• Something makes the sun and moon rise everyday.
• Something has created the universe and billions
  of galaxies.
• That SOMETHING God.

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What makes the first domino fall?
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The Domino Analogy

• Analogy?
• When you suggest something is like something. For
  example, a street light is like a star. Both
  provide light at night time.
• Key points
• The first domino will NOT fall on its own.
• SOMETHING has to start the chain reaction.
• What is that something?

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