Cosmological Argument

Question 1

What is the key question asked by the cosmological argument?

Answer 1

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Question 2

What does the cosmological argument seek to explain?

Answer 2

The existence of the universe

Question 3

What does the cosmological argument suggest is needed to explain the existence of the universe?

Answer 3

A cause or explanation that transcends the natural world

Question 4

What is the basic premise of the cosmological argument?

Answer 4

Everything that exists has a cause or explanation for its existence

Question 5

What is the principle that states that everything must have a reason or cause for its existence?

Answer 5

The principle of sufficient reason

Question 6

Who was the philosopher associated with the cosmological argument?

Answer 6

Thomas Aquinas

Question 7

What are the five ways of the cosmological argument put forward by Aquinas?

Answer 7

1) The argument from motion
2) The argument from causation
3) The argument from contingency
4) The argument from degree
5) The argument from finality

Question 8

The argument from motion

Answer 8

– Objects are in motion
– Everything in motion was put in motion by something else
– There cannot be an infinite regress of movers
– There must be a first mover itself unmoved
– This is God

Question 9

What does the argument from motion suggest?

Answer 9

It argues that everything in motion must have been set in motion by something else, leading to a first mover or unmoved mover

Question 10

The argument from causation

Answer 10

– Some things are caused
– Anything that is caused must be caused by something else
– There cannot be an infinite regress of causes
– There must be a first causer itself uncaused
– This is God

Question 11

What does the argument from causation propose?

Answer 11

It claims that everything in existence is caused by something else, necessitating an uncaused cause

Question 12

Argument from contingency

Answer 12

– There are contingent things
– Contingent things can cause other contingent things but there cannot only be contingent things
– Because that would mean that there is an infinite regress of contingency and a possibility that nothing might have existed
– An infinite regress is impossible so there must be at least one necessary thing
– This is God

Question 13

What does the argument from contingency argue?

Answer 13

It posits that contingent beings (things that could have not existed) require a necessary being (a being that exists by its own nature)

Question 14

Argument from degree

Answer 14

– Properties come in degrees
– In order for there to be degrees of perfections there must be something perfect against which everything else in measured
– God is the pinnacle of perfection

Question 15

What does the argument from degree state?

Answer 15

It asserts that things in the universe possess different levels of perfection and there must be a being of maximum perfection (God) for these degrees to be meaningful

Question 16

What does the argument from finality propose?

Answer 16

It suggests that natural objects display purpose and order – indicating the existence of an intelligent being (God) who directs them towards their goals

Question 17

What is an infinite regress?

Answer 17

An endless series of causes or explanations with no ultimate or original cause

Question 18

Hume’s Criticisms of the Cosmological Argument (quote)

Answer 18

“If the material world rests upon a similar ideal world, this ideal world must rest upon some other; and so on without out. It were better therefore never to look beyond the present material world.”

(Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion)

Question 19

What does Hume say the cosmological argument commits?

Answer 19

The cosmological argument commits the fallacy of composition

Question 20

What is the fallacy of composition?

Answer 20

The fallacy of composition is an informal fallacy that arises when one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole

Question 21

What did Hume reject?

Answer 21

The idea of necessary existence - every being according to Hume is contingent

Question 22

What does Hume question?

Answer 22

Why motion needs to have a starting point - in other words why infinite regression is impossible

Surely if there can be an understanding of a prime mover there can be an understanding of perpetual motion?

Question 23

What did Bertrand Russel famously state?

Answer 23

That the universe is “just there, and that’s all”

Question 24

What is a brute fact?

Answer 24

A brute fact is a fact or reality that exists without any further explanation or cause

Question 25

Russell concludes that the universe is “just there, and that’s all” – it could exist without reason or cause or explanation. This has often referred to as…

Answer 25

the universe being a “brute fact”

Question 26

Hume points out that in order for something to be impossible it must be…

Answer 26

self-contradictory

Question 27

Give an example of something being self-contradictory

Answer 27

A four sided triangle is impossible because a triangle having four sides is contradicts the definition of a triangle as a three sided shape

Question 28

The possibility of an infinite series (Hume)

Answer 28

There doesn’t appear to be anything self-contradictory about the infinite regress

Therefore it is possible and so the cosmological argument rests on an assumption that the infinite regress is false when it could possibly be true

Question 29

Modern science’s rejection of the cosmological argument

Answer 29

The steady state theory

Question 30

What is the steady state theory?

Answer 30

A cosmological model suggesting that the universe is constantly expanding but maintains a constant average density with new matter continuously created to replace the expansion