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The Cosmological Arguments

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.

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The Cosmological Arguments

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  1. The Cosmological Arguments

  2. 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

  3. Leibnizian Cosmological Argument • Gottfied Wilhem Leibniz, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” • Anything that exists has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause. • If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God. • The universe exists. • Therefore the universe has an explanation of its existence. (from 1, 3) • Therefore, the explanation of the existence of the universe is God. (from 2, 4)

  4. Argument From Contingency • Impossibility of an infinite regress of simultaneously operating causes. • What we observe in this universe is contingent. • A sequence of causally related contingent things cannot be infinite. • The sequence of causally dependent contingent things must be finite. • There must be a first cause in the sequence of contingent causes.

  5. Kalam Cosmological Argument • Al Ghazali • Whatever begins to exist has a cause. • The universe began to exist. • Therefore, the universe had a cause.

  6. Kalam Cosmological Argument • 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.

  7. Kalam Cosmological Argument • Is a chronological actual infinite possible?

  8. Kalam Cosmological Argument • Has our understanding of quantum mechanics made a universe from [literally] nothing possible?

  9. Kalam Cosmological Argument • Al Ghazali • Whatever begins to exist has a cause. • The universe began to exist. • Therefore, the universe had a cause.

  10. 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

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