the cosmological arguments
DESCRIPTION
The Cosmological Arguments. What The CA Does. Arguments do not [necessarily] point to God Argues for: An extremely powerful being A spaceless being A [at least one point] timeless being An immaterial being A personal being The argument works best in supplementation. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
The Cosmological Arguments
WHAT THE CA DOES• Arguments do not [necessarily] point to God• Argues for:
– An extremely powerful being– A spaceless being– A [at least one point] timeless being– An immaterial being– A personal being
• The argument works best in supplementation
LEIBNIZIAN COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
• Gottfied Wilhem Leibniz, “Why is there something rather than nothing?”1. Anything that exists has an explanation of its existence, either
in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause.2. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that
explanation is God.3. The universe exists.4. Therefore the universe has an explanation of its existence.
(from 1, 3)5. Therefore, the explanation of the existence of the universe is
God. (from 2, 4)
ARGUMENT FROM CONTINGENCY• Impossibility of an infinite regress of simultaneously
operating causes.1. What we observe in this universe is contingent.2. A sequence of causally related contingent things
cannot be infinite.3. The sequence of causally dependent contingent
things must be finite.4. There must be a first cause in the sequence of
contingent causes.
KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
• Al Ghazali1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.2. The universe began to exist.3. Therefore, the universe had a cause.
KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
“The most reasonable belief is that we came from nothing, by nothing, and for nothing.” -Quentin Smith
Quentin Smith, Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993), 135.
KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
• Is a chronological actual infinite possible?
KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
• Has our understanding of quantum mechanics made a universe from [literally] nothing possible?
KALAM COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
• Al Ghazali1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.2. The universe began to exist.3. Therefore, the universe had a cause.
CONCLUSION• Leibniz argues for a Sufficient Reason (what we call
God)• Aquinas argues for a First Mover and Cause• Al Ghazali argues for a temporal causal relationship
– An extremely powerful being– A spaceless being– A [at least one point] timeless being– An immaterial being– A personal being