Cosmological Argument Flashcards
What does the word cosmos actually mean
Refers to the world or universe as a perfect and well ordered system
What kind of argument is the cosmological argument
A posteriori - based on empirical evidence that already exists - post evidence
What claim is the cosmological argument based on
Everything in the universe already exists because it was caused by something else - something must have started this chain off, something unchangeable and itself was not created GOD
What are contingent things
Depend on something else for its existence and can be taken out of existence
What is a necessary being
Does not depend on anything else for its existence - has no cause and depends on nothing else for existence
In which book does aquinas talk about his five ways
Summa theologica
Explain aquinas first way
Motion -
things are evidently in a state of motion
Things that change must be being changed by something else
There cannot be an infinite chain/regression of movers and changers
There must be a first unmoved mover that causes motion and change in all things
We call this god
Explain aquinas second way
Nothing in this world is caused by itself, as this would suggest it had existed before it began, which is nonsensical
The chain of cause and effect cannot regress to infinity , must be a first cause - GOD
Explain aquinas third way
From contingency
The universe is made up of contingent things, nothing is permanent
Therefore at one point in time, there was nothing in existence. But nothing comes from nothing and we don’t have nothing, we have an amazing universe so something must
have made it
We therefore must accept the existence of a necessary being
What evidence is there for the Big Bang
- universe seems to be expanding, Edwin Hubble observed that the galaxies are moving away from us at speed
-scientists can detect radiation in the atmosphere which they believe is the result of the Big Bang - it is the remnant heat left over, called the CMB
Who detected such radiation in the atmosphere
Penzias and Wilson
- detected the radiation as it was acting as a source of excess noise in the receiver they wee building
Explain how scientists thought the Big Bang theory happened
-there must have been a time when the matter in the universe was tightly packed together, called a singularity
-approximately 14.5billion years ago, the Big Bang occurred because the conditions were just right for it to happen
What do Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins argue about the Big Bang
- the Big Bang is the first cause of the universe, not god
-science can offer better explanations because it is based on evidence
What do most modern Christians such as Kieth ward believe about the Big Bang
-embrace it and believe that science and religion are perfectly compatible
-god controlled the exact force of of the Big Bang to enable the universe to form
-‘let there be light’ in genesis could relate to the Big Bang
What is the anthropic principle
The universe seems to have been finely tuned for the Big Bang
what does John polkinghorne believe about the Big Bang
Believes in both the Big Bang and the theory of evolution
The conditions and constants which allow creation to develop cannot have been a happy accident, there must be a super intellect behind it all
Give the john polkinhorne quote about the Big Bang
One can perfectly believe in the Big Bang but believe in it as the will of god the creator
In the qu’ran, how does it refer to the cosmological argument
Refers to allah being the expander of the universe
What was Edwin Hubbles discovery
The universe is constantly expanding outwards by observing redshifts in the light wavelengths omitted by galaxies
When was the debate between copleston and russel
1948
Explain the copleston vs russel debate
-Copleston believed in contingent things that began with a necessary being
-Russell does not believe in necessary existence, something theists have made up
-Russell says we shouldn’t bother bringing up the question of the existence of the universe because we will never know. The universe is just there and that is it
-copleston argued that the universe makes no sense without the existence of god
-Russel says the whole human race does not have a mother even though we all individually have one. The universe is a handy word buyt it doesn’t stand for anything
Give some FOR arguments that god is the first cause
A posteriori - uses sense evidence
If everything is contingent, nothing can come from nothing
The Big Bang theory does not need to remove the idea of god
Give some AGAINST arguments for god being the first cause
Hume’s fallacy of composition - we cannot assume the universe has a cause just because everything in the created word has
There could be a number of first causes, not just one - maybe a team of gods
Big bang gives scientific evidence
What did Leibniz believe
The existence of an entire universe needed a complete explanation, which was to be found in god
The whole unioverse depends on god who is uncaused and has necessary existence
