The cosmological argument

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

PLAN

SECTION 1

Cosmos = universe

Aposteriori, inductive.

INTRO

KEY IDEAS Must accept universe is intelligible

Must question universe

God is supreme and requires no explanation, the universe does.

AQUINAS – WAY 1, 2 & 3 Motion = first mover

Cause = first cause

Contingency = creator.

LEIBNIZ Principle of sufficient reason

“Nothing takes place without a sufficient reason”

Known / unknown explanation for everything.

COPLESTON Some things in the world do not contain within

themselves the reason for their own existence

The explanation is separate and outside of the world

This is God.

KALAM / W. L. CRAIG Muslim scholars, 9th century

WLC: “The Kalam Cosmological Argument

Present cannot exist in an infinite universe.

SECTION 2

S - SCIENCE HAS NO ALTERNATIVE Science has not yet discovered an alternative explanation.

We live in a scientifically developed age…

S - LOGICAL AND COHERENT Each step builds in the previous

It is possible to either agree or disagree, not both.

S - RELATABLE We all experience the universe.

S - ANY / NO RELIGION The Kalam Argument proves this

This makes it even more relatable.

W – FIRST PREMISE FAILS If you don’t question the universe.

Bertrand Russell – “Ultimate Brute Fact,” “Just there, and that’s all,” C/R debate

W – NON-BELIEVERS? The argument raises more questions

It is logically flawed and contradictory.

W – BBT COULD BE WRONG It is only a theory

The entire argument would then be wrong

Oscillating universe.

W – DAVID HUME & I. KANT Hume – we never experience causation, it is an illusion

born out of habit

We cannot speculate about what we have never experienced

Kant – We cannot transcend the bounds of our experience.