1. The Cosmological Argument The idea that there is a first cause behind the existence of the universe

2. The classical argument Things come into existence because something has caused them to happen Things are caused to exist but they do not have to exist There is a chain of causes going back to the beginning of time Time began with the creation of the universe There must have been a first cause, which brought the universe into existence The first cause must have necessary existence to cause the contingent universe God has necessary existence Therefore God is the first cause of the contingent universe’s existence

3. Being Necessary being Something that has to exist The non-existence of a necessary being would be a contradiction Contingent being Something that comes into and will go out of existence Something that need not be

4. Thomas Aquinas Major work – Summa Theologica c1273 Five ways to prove the existence of god Unmoved mover Unmoved causer Possibility and necessity Goodness, Truth and Nobility Teleological

5. The First Way Based on the idea of motion or change An object only moves when an external force is applied Things are changed through a chain of movements These movements or changes cannot go back to infinity Therefore there must be a Prime Mover That prime mover must be God

6. The Second Way There are a series of causes Nothing can cause itself Therefore there must have been a first cause That fisrt cause is God

7. The Third Way We can observe that everything is contingent If time is infinite there must have been a point at which nothing existed If everything is contingent then nothing would exist as something cannot come from nothing Therefore there must have been a necessary being that brought about the contingent things That necessary being is God

8. Leibniz (1646 – 1716) Accepted cosmological argument Said there has to be ‘sufficient reason’ Imagine an eternal book, copies being made from earlier books. We can explain the present book as a copy of the previous book But we do not get to a full reason for the book Likewise an eternal world would not present sufficient reason for it’s existence Leibniz therefore rejected an infinite universe and concluded that God was the first cause

9. David Hume (1711-1776) All knowledge comes from sense experience We believe that we know more about the universe than is warranted Human mistake is to allow imagination to make connections between cause and effect What we observe are two separate events occurring at separate times – it is habit if mind that makes the connection

10. David Hume (1711-1776) Hume asks why we must assume a beginning – why not eternal? Further he questions why a universe that does have a beginning has to have a cause Ultimately this leads to questioning any need for a God.

11. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) The idea of cause and effect relates to the world of sense experience God is outside the world of sense experience We cannot apply the law of cause and effect to something that is not a part of our sense experience Therefore people cannot people cannot know God

12. Copleston and Russell Radio debate 1947 Copleston supported the idea of sufficient reason Russell argued against the idea of contingency and necessitity Russell concluded that just because humans have a mother it does not mean that the universe has to have one too.

13. Putting it altogether Write bullet points that show how you would go about answering the following exam question: a) Explain Aquinas’ version of the Cosmological argument. (33) b) ‘I should say that the universe is just there and that’s all.’ Discuss (17)