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Cosmological Argument
The cosmological argument, from the Greek word ‘cosmos’ meaning ‘the universe’, is a
collection of arguments from natural theology which are ultimately concerned with finding an
explanation for the non self-explanatory universe, and in turn proving that God exists
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It states
that there exists a series of events, the series of events exists as caused and not as uncaused
(necessary), therefore, there must exist the necessary being that is the cause of all contingent
being and the whole series of beings
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The First of his ways, from motion, argues that everything we observe is in the process of
motion or change
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The same thing cannot be its potentiality and actuality at the same
time, for example, you cannot be hot and cold at the same time
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The Prime Mover causes the movement of other things, in
other words, it does not start off the movement by giving it some kind of push, but it is the
purpose, or end, or the teleology of the movement
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Aquinas said that a chain of movers ‘cannot go onto
infinity, because then there would be no first mover and consequently no other mover,’ therefore there must be something which sets off this chain of movements, an unmoved mover,
Prime Mover, God
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Aquinas believed that ultimately there
must have been an uncaused first cause (God) who began the chain of existence for all things
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Therefore, if there be no first cause
among efficient causes, there will be no ultimate, or intermediate, cause
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Each cause has a cause,
which has a cause and so on
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Aquinas’ third way is about contingency and necessary objects
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A contingent being is an object that cannot exist without a necessary being causing its existence
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All things are contingent; they rely on external things for their existence
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Nothing comes from nothing, so there must have been something to bring all contingent beings into existence, therefore, there exists ‘some being having
of itself its own necessity… this all men speak of as God
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He felt that the universe must have a cause
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He felt that God is the first uncaused cause on
which everything else depends
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For Leibniz and other
philosophers such as Richard Swinburne, an infinite regress is not a sufficient reason whereas
God is a more sufficient explanation
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L
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He says that ‘you wouldn’t expect a train with a number of carriages
to move without an engine
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’ In the Cosmological argument, God is the
‘engine’
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Copleston’s version of the Cosmological argument is similar in reasoning to that of Aquinas’
third way
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Copleston then claims that the universe, as a whole, can be seen as a collection of contingent
objects
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Since all things within the universe are
contingent beings, the ultimate explanation for their existence must be external to the universe
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God is a being which is external to the universe and is necessary, which means he does not depend on anything for his own existence
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The universe has a beginning of its existence, therefore, the universe has a cause
of its existence and if the universe has a cause of its existence then that cause is God
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The first premise of the argument is the claim that everything that begins to
exist has a cause of its existence
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The crucial premise of the kalam
cosmological argument is that ‘the universe has a beginning of its existence’
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In support of this claim, modern supporters of the argument often appeal to modern science, specifically to the Big Bang theory
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The cosmological argument is the argument that the existence of the world or universe is strong evidence for the existence of a God who created it
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According to David Hume in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion the problem with
the cosmological argument is that there is no need to seek an explanation of the universe once
we have explained the things that exist within the universe
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The cause of
the whole is sufficiently by explaining the cause of the parts
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However,
if we think of the universe as being an entity that exists independently of the things that exist
within it, then it is legitimate to enquire about its cause
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C
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He
argued as follow: ‘Every man who exists has a mother, and it seems to me your argument is
that therefore the human race must have a mother, but obviously the human race hasn’t a
mother- that’s a different logical sphere
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The problem is that the cosmological
argument is an example of the fallacy of composition- it is a mistake to think that the group
itself must possess property p simply because all the members of the group possess property
p
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For example, if a roof is constructed from tiles,
and each tile is made of slate, then it is right to say that the roof as a whole is made of slate
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However as Bruce Reichenbach points out, Aquinas’ conclusion is not that God
is logically necessary, but is, rather, one that ‘if it exists, it cannot not- exists; as self sufficient and self-sustaining, its inability to not exist flows from its nature
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If we can explain the existence of the universe satisfactorily without having to resort to another ‘kind-of-thing’ that exists outside the universe, then that explanation is the preferred
one as it is the most economical according to Ockham’s Razor
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’ Richard Swinburne
stated that there is nothing to be gained by pursuing alternative and more complex explanations if an uncomplicated one is to be found
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In his debate with Copleston, Russell described the existence of the universe as a ‘brute fact’a fact that does not require explanation
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Copleston thought that Russell was just trying to duck out of the debate, and accused
him of trying to avoid engaging with argument: ‘If one refuses to even sit down at the chess
board and make a move, one cannot, of course, be checkmated
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He accuses Copleston’s board as being ‘skewed’- if you follow the reasoning of the
cosmological argument, yes, you will end up with God, but we shouldn’t set off on the journey in the first place
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A man may look for gold without assuming that there is gold everywhere; if he finds gold, well and good, of he doesn’t he’s had bad luck
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’

COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT



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