1. Cosmological arguments from causation Michael Lacewing enquiries@alevelphilosophy.co.uk

2. The question Why does anything exist? Unless God exists, this question is unanswerable.

3. Aquinas’ argument from motion Some things in the world are in motion. Whatever is in motion is put into motion by something else. Nothing can move itself. If A is put into motion by B, and B is also in motion, then B must have been put into motion by something else again. If this goes on to infinity, then there is no first mover. If there is no first mover, then there is no other mover, and so nothing is in motion. Therefore, there must be a first mover. The first mover is God.

4. Aquinas’ argument from motion The argument can be understood as a special case of the argument from causation –The motion of A is an effect of some action of B, for instance B’s motion, which causes A’s motion.

5. Aquinas’ causal argument We find, in the world, causes and effects. Nothing can be the cause of itself. (If it were, it would have to exist before itself, which is impossible.) Causes follow in order: the first causes the second which causes the third, etc. If you remove a cause, you remove its effect. Therefore, if there is no first cause, there will be no later causes. Therefore, given that there are causes, there cannot be an infinite regress of causes. Therefore, there must be a first cause, which is not itself caused. God is the first cause.

6. Infinity Infinity is not a very large number –An infinite regress of causes never has a starting point –Therefore, there is no explanation of how it got started. We know this universe began just under 14 billion years ago –What caused the Big Bang?

7. The Kalam argument Of anything that begins to exist, something causes it to exist –Something can’t come out of nothing. The universe began to exist –The universe cannot have always existed. Therefore, there is a cause of the existence of the universe.

8. Actual infinities The universe must have a beginning, because it can’t be infinitely old. An actual infinity creates paradoxes –If the universe is infinitely old, it is not getting older as time passes –If the universe is infinitely old, it could never have reached the present, since an infinite time can’t pass.

9. Objection 1: the causal principle Is it true that everything has a cause? Hume: –It is not analytic, so it is not certain –Experience supports it, but can’t show that it holds universally. Could the existence of the universe be uncaused? –‘Something cannot come out of nothing’ is also not analytic –Can this principle be applied to the beginning of the universe?

10. Objection 2: infinity Hume: is an infinity of causes possible? –Something has always existed, and caused what existed next –It is not an analytic truth that an infinite regress is not possible. Does this make sense? –Hume needs to solve the paradoxes regarding an actual infinity. Causation occurs in time. Time came into existence with the universe. So whatever caused the universe can’t occur ‘before’ the universe. Reply: we cannot know the answer – we should draw no conclusions.

11. Objection 3: God Is the first cause God? Reply: what else could it be?

12. Swinburne’s inductive argument The versions from Aquinas and the Kalam are intended to be deductive. Hume’s objections cast doubt on the premises and the inference. Swinburne: an inductive version works better –The best explanation of the existence of the universe is that it is caused by God.

13. Advantages While it is not certain that everything has a cause, it is probable. While it is not certain that actual infinities can’t exist, they are problematic, and a better explanation can avoid them. But why God?

14. Science is inadequate Scientific explanation must always presuppose something that exists –E.g. if this universe is explained in terms of another universe, the problem repeats itself –And we have little evidence for the existence of other universes. So scientific explanation leads to an infinite regress of causes. Explanation in terms of God terminates with God.

15. But God? But the cosmological argument doesn’t show that the first cause is God as traditionally conceived –We only need a first cause with the powers to bring the universe into existence.