cosmological argument

Question 1

cosmological argument overview

Answer 1

• argument for God’s existence
• Three versions:motion,causation and contingency
• based on claim that God must exist due to the fact the universe needs a cause

Question 2

first way of the argument

Answer 2

• motion//change
• everything that happens in the world is caused by something else
• must be a first mover who causes movement in other things, thus beginning a chain of movement
• first mover must be different from other things as he cannot be moved, must be God

Question 3

second way

Answer 3

• causation
• everything has a cause
• cannot have an infinite amount of causes
• must be an uncaused cause which causes everything to happen without itself being caused
• this is God

Question 4

third way

Answer 4

• contingency
• ordinary things start to exist and later stop existing
• at some time no ordinary thing in existence
• something only comes into existence by being caused by something else that already exists
• must be a being who’s existence is necessary and not limited by time
• not dependant on anyone else- this is God

-this is god

Question 5

Hume

Answer 5

-fundamental principles of the argument can not be proved or established, as we have no dirext experience of the creation of the universe we could not speak meaningfully about it.

Question 6

Aj Ayer

Answer 6

statements are meaningless if not able to be verified

Question 7

John stuart mill

Answer 7

“nearly all the things which men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one another are nature’s everyday performances”

-posion, freezing, starvation and wild animals

Question 8

Schliermacher

Answer 8

-logical contradiction in believing in a world designed by a perfect cause that could go wrong

Question 9

swinburne

Answer 9

• believes that the argument is strong indicitve argument as it leads to conclusion that is likely the God of classical theism
• swinburne believes ockham razor higlights the universe needs to be explained
• ockham’s razor “when you have two competing theories which make exactly the same predictions, the one that is simpler is better”
• argument is simple therefore good

Question 10

scientific theories

Answer 10

newtons first law of motion, the steady state theory and the big bang theory indicate that the universe is a result if a spontaneous event

Question 11

Kant

Answer 11

-cosmological argument appeals to our experiences of this world and concludes with something outside the universe

Question 12

Betrand Russell

Answer 12

-fallacy of composition by assuming that just because humans have mothers than the entire universe must have a mother