Cosmological

Question 0

Aquinas intro

Answer 0

Aquinas, five ways to prove God (first 3 are relevant)

“God’s effects are enough to prove that God exists, even if they may not be enough to tell us comprehend what He is”

Question 1

Intro

Answer 1

Also known as the first cause argument

A posteriori

Question 2

Aquinas 1st

Answer 2

(Motion and change)
Everything is moving and changing
Movement is constant (even from state to state)
E.g. fire making wood hot
This process of movement can’t go on forever, there must be a prime moved that started this off, for him this was God

Question 3

Aquinas 2nd

Answer 3

Second way: Causes and effects
Nothing can cause itself to exist as it would have to exist before it existed, logically no
Everything has to be caused by something
This cannot be an infinite series, there must have been a dirt cause to start the chain of causes that began the universe, his first cause is God

Question 4

Aquinas 3rd

Answer 4

Third way: a Contingency
Everything is contingent (not needed, brought in and removed from the universe)
The universe must also be contingent and so there must have been a time when the universe didn’t exist
There must have been a necessary being (eternal) to bring everything in to existence - God

Question 5

Kalam

Answer 5

Kalam version
From Al Kindi/Al Ghazali - Everything that exists has a cause
Al Ghazali rejected an actual infinity - illogical
Universe must have a cause
God was the first cause

Question 6

William Lane Craig

Answer 6

Developed Kalam argument - Rejected actual infinity (in actual infinity there are just as many of one event as there are total events - bookcase example)
We must be in a potential infinity where it’s possible to add one more to a series of events
If the universe is potential infinity, it must have a beginning

Question 7

Craig (part 2)

Answer 7

Since beginning, it must have been either by natural occurrence or personal choice. It was either caused or uncaused. Couldn’t be due to laws of nature because laws of nature didn’t exist - been choice of creator ex-nihilo
Necessary
God

Question 8

Leibniz

Answer 8

Leibniz - sufficient reason for the universe to exist. Did not accept uncaused and saying it was infinite as not sufficient reason, god was first uncaused cause

Question 9

Copleston

Answer 9

Copleston - All contingent things have an external cause for their existence. The universe must have an external cause for their existence, it must be necessary
God

Question 10

Convincing/un

Answer 10

A posteriori
Everything is a chain of causes and events, true
Everything is contingent, no evidence of anything being infinite.. must not be infinite, etc.
Simple, logical explanation through evidence
Lots of contributors

Anthony Kenny - Newton’s Laws of motion state that an object can be moving at a constant rate with no external force
Bertrand Russell debate with Copleston - Just because humans have a mother, why do we assume the universe to. It might just have been here, that is brute fact
Russell- Where does God’s special category come from?
Hume - We can’t speak meaningly about creation of the universe as we have no experience of universes being created
Everything is caused, except God (no sense)
If universe once didn’t exist, isn’t big bang theory still relevant (singularity)

Question 11

Scientific challenges

Answer 11

Kenny - Law’s of motion - Object can move at constant rate without external force
(Aquinas also meant state)
SST - Universe is a self-regulating mechanism that has always been here. It is expanding and self-sustaining
BBT- Singularity (easy)

Dawkins - science adds to our appreciation of the world. If God created the universe, there would be more evidence of his involvement