The Cosmological Argument

• The Cosmological Argument is known by two different names: The Cosmological argument and the First Cause Argument
• Cosmological


  Refers to the creation of the cosmos
• First Cause


  God is the First cause – the cause and creator of the universe
• The Cosmological argument


  1. Based on the belief that there is a first cause behind the existence of the universe (Cosmos)

  2. Claims that because the universe exists, someone or something must have 'caused' it to exist

  3. That someone or something must be God

  4. The basic cosmological argument is based on contingency
• 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
• Thomas Aquinas


  • An Italian Dominican friar and priest, who was an immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism
  • Unlike many currents in the Catholic Church of the time, Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity
  • Aquinas did not accept the statement 'God Exists' is self evident. He stated that it is a proposition that requires demonstration
  • He developed Five ways to prove the existence of God, basing his arguments on what he observed, and reached conclusions about the existence of God
  • The First three of his Five Ways form the Cosmological argument as a proof of the existence of God
• The First Way


  1. Based on motion. Aquinas included not only movement from one place to another, but also movement in the sense of change of quality or quantity

  2. An object only moved when an external force was applied to it

  3. This chain of movements or changes cannot go back to infinity

  4. There must have been a first mover, which itself was unmoved

  5. The 'unmoved mover' began the movement in everything, without actually being moved

  6. Fire when applied to wood changes the wood, and gives it the potential to become hot

  7. In order for a thing to change, it requires actuality. If it did not, a thing would have to initiate change in itself, which would require that it is both actual and potential at the same time

  8. Aquinas considered this to be a contradiction
• Potentiality


  The inherent but undeveloped capabilities and the possibilities of someone or something for development or change
• Actuality


  A state of being, the reality of something at this moment in time
• The Second Way


  1. Aquinas identified a series of causes and effects in the universe

  2. Aquinas observed that nothing could be the cause of itself, as this would mean that it had to exist before it existed

  3. Aquinas therefore believed there must have been a first, uncaused, cause

  4. The first cause started the chain reaction of causes that have caused all events to happen

  5. Aquinas argued that everything in the universe has a cause, that every event or action is the direct result of another

  6. He believed that there could not have been an infinitely long chain of cause and effect but that there must have been a first cause to start the whole process

  7. God is the first cause, according to Aquinas
• Domino analogy


  Used to describe the First Cause argument: Imagine a row of dominoes, each placed on its edge so that if one fell it would knock the rest of them over. The first domino falling is the first cause that sets off the chain reaction
• The Third Way


  1. Aquinas identified the contingency of matter in the universe

  2. Based on the fact that things come into existence and later cease to exist, Aquinas considered the possibility of infinite time

  3. If time is infinite, then there must have been a time when nothing existed

  4. This is because of contingency; the very fact that thing are contingent means that they cannot continue forever

  5. If there was a time when nothing existed, then there would still be nothing as nothing can bring itself into existence

  6. Therefore the Cause of the universe must external to it and must always have existed

  7. There must have been a 'necessary being' to bring everything else into existence

  8. Aquinas argued that this necessary being is God
• Contingency


  A future event or circumstance which is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty
• Infinite


  Limitless or endless in space, extent, or size; impossible to measure or calculate
• The Cosmological argument for the existence of God does have clear strengths for the religious believer. For example, this argument is consistent with the teaching found in the book of Genesis, that God created the universe out of nothing.
• Genesis 1:1-2: '"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty"'
• The Big Bang Theory and The First Cause argument

  1. The Big Bang theory is a scientific approach to answering the question of how the world began

  2. The theory states that around 14 billion years ago all matter and energy in the universe was at a point of infinite density and temperature, and then expanded rapidly

  3. The Big Bang theory removes the need for a creator

  4. The First Cause argument can still be supported by modern Christians who accept the Big Bang theory and who try to reconcile religious and scientific beliefs about the creation of the universe

  5. In 2014, Pope Francis declared that the Big Bang was not 'incompatible' with the existence of a creator

  6. It could be argued that God started the Big Bang and used it as His way of creation, this is shown the in the words of Genesis, "Let there be light"
• One of the key objections to what is also referred to as the cosmological argument is that there is no evidence for an 'uncaused cause' or God. Many philosophers reject the idea that the universe had to have a cause and that a divine being was this cause.
• God of The Gaps


  The flawed approach of implying that God must have been the cause of something just because we can't be absolutely certain about what the actual cause was
• Hume asked why we must conclude that the universe had to have a beginning: "How can anything that exists from eternity have a cause, since that relation implies a priority in time and in a beginning of existence? Even if the universe did begin, Hume continued, it does not mean anything caused it to come into existence.
• Immanuel Kant argued the idea that every event must have a first cause only applied to the world of sense experience. It cannot apply to something we have not experienced. Knowledge that God supposedly created the universe transcends our experience. It would be impossible for people to have any knowledge of what God created or of God himself.