The Cosmological Argument

1. The Cosmological Argument

2. Science can offer us explanations of things that are within the universe, but does the universe as a whole have an explanation?

3. Cosmological Argument Is an argument which says that God has to exist because the world exists. The world couldn’t exist without God because he created it This argument is based on Cause and Effect.

4. Have you ever wondered…..

5. “What caused the universe to exist?”

6. “That’s easy The big bang!!”

7. And what caused That cause? What caused the big bang?? We need to take the scientific approach to this Science tells us that everything has a cause. Let that be your starting point. And what caused that cause?

8. Science teaches us that everything has a cause. Make that your starting point.

9. My name is St. Thomas Aquinas But right now I am going to follow the scientists advice.

10. Aquinas’ Cosmological Arguments • Thomas Aquinas was probably the most important philosopher of the medieval period. • Aquinas was trying to connect/join the Christian faith with the philosophy of Aristotle (an ancient Greek philosopher/scientist/mathematician) whose works had just been ‘re-discovered’ and were being taught in the religious universities of Europe.

11. Something must have caused the universe Everything has a cause Yes, the big bang Something must have caused the big bang Something must have caused that cause Something must have caused that cause

12. something must have caused that cause Something must have caused that cause something must have caused that cause something must have caused that cause something must have caused that cause

13. something must have caused that cause something must have……….

14. This is getting boring. It’s just silly If we keep asking“What caused that cause,” Then we’ll never stop asking it! (Infinite regress) And that just doesn’t make sense Yes I agree (Remember me? St Thomas Aquinas) but I have a solution!!

15. The only sensible explanation Is that there must have been………… a first cause uncaused by anything else !!! Let me explain it in black and white……

17. At the beginning - a first cause, uncaused by anything else. That first cause was the creator God.

18. The Cosmological Argument • Everything has a cause. • The Universe exists so it must have a cause. • You cannot have infinite number of causes. • Therefore there must be an uncaused cause, which causes everything to happen without itself being caused by anything else. • Such an uncaused cause is what people understand by ‘God’.

19. Cosmological Argument The Universe Exists Nothing can cause itself to exist Everything is caused by something other than itself The universe was caused by the Big Bang What caused the Big Bang? Cannot have an infinite series of causes Cannot have caused itself Caused by something external to it Something that is outside the universe That something is GOD Something that has caused itself

20. The Uncaused cause in simple talk means… Everything has a cause… even a cause has a cause. BUT Something had to make the first cause happen. That something is what we know as ‘God’.

21. The strength of the argument Is that it is based on the scientific principle that everything has a cause. The second strength of the argument is that it starts off by saying, “the universe exists.” That can’t be denied, we are part of it.

22. The argument has two weaknesses Firstly, you may have proved a “first cause” but that doesn’t mean it still exists or that it was God. It may have died or disappeared.

23. The second weakness is this. You start off by saying “everything has a cause,” It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not logical to then say “something has no cause.”

25. How did Aquinas claim that God was the First Cause of the universe? 4KU • What are the weaknesses of the First Cause argument? 4KU