UNIT 1 (TCA) Necessary existence (Aseity)

Cards (17)

  • The Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) implies

    God is a Necessary Being because God has no beginning
  • Necessary Being
    • If it does not exist, it cannot come into existence in the future
    • If it exists, it exists forever
    • A being that neither comes into existence nor ceases to exist
    • Would count as a sufficient explanation for the entire universe because it is self-explanatory (Principle of Sufficient Reason)
  • The existence of a Necessary Being
    Is needed to 'guarantee' the existence of all the other contingent things (Argument from Contingency)
  • Aseity
    A perfectly simple entity whose attributes (omnipotence, creativity, goodness) are identical with its essence
  • J. L. Mackie argues that there is always the logical possibility that God might not exist; even if God does in fact exist, there is the possibility that he might not have existed
  • The Argument from Motion is about things changing state, not things being created
  • Religious believers claim God is changeless ("impassible"), which is part of God's definition
  • The Kalam Cosmological Argument clearly says only things with a beginning need to have a cause, and brings in God which doesn't have a beginning as part of God's definition, not just something invented
  • The Argument from Contingency brings in God because He is supposed to have the characteristic of necessary existence, which is needed to explain a contingent universe
  • A necessary being either exists for all time or never exists
  • Treating the universe as necessary is treating it as a brute fact
  • The Principle of Sufficient Reason doesn't involve causes or beginnings but does involve explanations, and Leibniz argues a necessary being would be self-explanatory
  • The Argument from Causation says nothing causes itself, and brings in God as a first cause that doesn't need a cause, but this doesn't mean the whole argument is invalid
  • David Hume pointed out that the universe itself could be uncaused
  • The Argument from Causation is not saying everything needs a cause, only everything in the world does, leaving open the possibility that there are things out of this world that don't need a cause because they are perfect and self-sufficient
  • The biblical God is different from the necessary being described in the cosmological arguments, as the biblical God loves his creation, intervenes, reveals himself, and judges moral behaviour, which the necessary being does not necessarily do
  • Some philosophers embraced the cosmological arguments and developed a belief called deism, which is a non-interventionist view of God