1. Or Can you?

2. The Existence of the Universe
Aims:
In Philosophical terms, what do we mean by contingent and necessary?
Does the universe needs a creator?

3. Why does the universe need an explanation?
The need and the want for an explanation for the universe is key.
The need for a whole explanation, rather than partial ones is the quest of science.
Is it the quest of religion too or do we already posses a sufficient answer?

4. Consider the following
Why does the universe possess the form it does, and not some other form?
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Consider the following
How can the series of events that culminate in the universe be explained?
What kind of cause or agency is necessary for the universe to come into being?

5. Why does the universe need an explanation?
At which end of the spectrum do you think the scientific position sits?
Which position do you agree with?
There has to be an explanation for the cause of the universe. God is the cause of the universe and everything in it.
The universe must have a cause however this is not God but something other. It was created at some point in time and will eventually come to an end.
The universe has always existed eternally with no beginning or end.

6. Read the Extract in your booklet ‘Was There a Beginning?’
Task
Read the Extract in your booklet ‘Was There a Beginning?’
Take two colour pens
Highlight information that supports:
The universe had no beginning- Colour 1
Thinkers in support of this view:
The universe had a beginning - Colour 2

7. Why does the universe need an explanation?
Science is in agreement that there was a beginning to the universe.
There has to be an explanation for the cause of the universe. God is the cause of the universe and everything in it.
The universe must have a cause however this is not God but something other. It was created at some point in time and will eventually come to an end.
The universe has always existed eternally with no beginning or end.

8. Key Terms: Contingent vs. Necessary
Contingent – depends on something else for its existence/truth. It COULD be false.
e.g. If you sunbathe without sun protection, you will get sunburnt.
Necessary – does not depend on anything else to exist/be true. To deny it would be a contradiction. It COULD NOT be false.
e.g. 1+2=3

9. In the field of philosophy, existence is defined in two ways.
“It is commonly accepted that there are two sorts of existent entities: those that exist but could have failed to exist, and those that could not have failed to exist. Entities of the first sort are contingent beings; entities of the second sort are necessary beings.” Stanford encyclopaedia of Philosophy
Define these two terms in your booklet

10. Is the universe a contingent thing?

11. The Universe Exists
If the universe is CONTINGENT, then it relies on something else to exist.
That ‘something else’ must come before the universe.
If X causes Y – then X must exist first, or Y wouldn’t exist.
The universe cannot be self causing, as it is contingent.

12. If the universe is contingent, what caused it’s existence?

13. Consider…. St. Thomas Aquinas’ Cosmological Argument, can it give us an answer?
In a nutshell the Cosmological argument...
Tries to satisfy a need to explain the universe’s existence. Locates God beyond the universe.
Add these notes to your summary page
The argument is based on the claim that everything existing in the universe exists because it was caused by something else; that ‘something’ was itself also caused by something else. However, it is necessary for something to have started this all off – something which did not and was not itself caused/created. That ‘something’ is God.

14. Aquinas - the argument from contingency
There are things which are both possible to be and not to be.
Matter in the universe is contingent – it is caused and comes into being
Therefore, at one point in time, there was nothing in existence
Without an uncaused causer, it would be impossible for anything to start to exist, and even now there would be NOTHING
However, we know there is SOMETHING
We therefore need to accept a being whose existence is necessary (NOT contingent on anything else)
Without the necessary existence of this being, nothing would exist
This being whose existence is necessary is GOD.
Add these notes to your summary page
Does this sound like a scientific theory? Why or why not?

15. The Principle of sufficient reason.
Leibniz
The Principle of sufficient reason.
We require explanations and reasons (FULL, not partial) for things existing – to establish why there is something rather than nothing
Agrees with Aquinas that we cannot have ‘infinite regress’ as we wouldn’t get to a complete explanation
“If you suppose the world eternal, you will suppose nothing but a succession of states, and will not find in any of them a sufficient reason” Leibniz, Theodicy.
Man has not been able to find reason for the universe's existence within the universe itself – so the great cause must be outside of it.
The most logical answer is God
Add these notes to your summary page

16. So is the universe a contingent thing?
Read the challenges from David Hume, Bertrand Russell & Richard Dawkins to Aquinas’ Cosmological argument and weigh up the different positions.
Add these notes to your summary page and answer the questions

17. Modern Science
The universe created itself out of nothing – a vacuum. In doing so, it created all the material now in existence and the ‘space’ to expand into – space did not exist either! Before the universe there was no ‘space’ in to which the universe could expand. The cause of the universe was as a result of a quantum fluctuation, a short lived highly energetic spontaneous appearance and disappearance of some sort of imaginary ‘particle’. The existence of this particle is so short lived as to avoid detection. Lawrence Krauss (and Hawking) would argue that these fluctuations are the cause and start of the universe. Other universes may equally have been created in such a way suggesting that ‘our universe’ need not be so hard to imagine.
So……
did ‘something cause’ the initial quantum fluctuation?
A Catholic scientist might argue it was God.
An atheist with the same information and evidence would argue it just happened.
Which do you agree with? Which is more likely?
Add these notes to your summary page

18. Watch
Watch the following TED talk to hear how Jim Holt poses the problem.
Ted Talk - why does the universe exist?
Did he come up with an answer?

19. Evaluate So…… did ‘something cause’ the initial quantum fluctuation?
A Catholic scientist might argue it was God.
An atheist with the same information and evidence would argue it just happened.
Which do you agree with? Which is more likely
Evaluate these theories and conclude your own position on your notes page
Come to your own conclusion, can the Universe be the cause of its own self?
Do science and religion need to work together to find the answer?

20. Re-evaluate your position on the spectrum
Has your opinion changed over the course of the lesson?
Is there A scientific position?
The universe must have a cause however this is not God but something other. It was created at some point in time and will eventually come to an end.
There has to be an explanation for the cause of the universe. God is the cause of the universe and everything in it.
The universe has always existed eternally with no beginning or end.

21. Reflection