Unit AS 7 - An Introduction to Philosophy of Religion
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The cosmological argument summary
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Unit AS 7 - An Introduction to Philosophy of Religion
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CCEA
These cosmological argument notes summarise the background to the cosmological argument, Aquinas’ 3 ways, the Kalam cosmological argument, counter argument and supportive arguments for the cosmological argument, and scholarly quotes relating to the topic.
Unit AS 7 - An Introduction to Philosophy of Religion
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The cosmological argument
THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
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, The cosmological argument
The cosmological argument scholarly quotes –
Leibniz – “why is there something rather than nothing?”
Peter Vardy – the goldfish in a pond analogy
Aquinas – “a reconcilia on of faith and reason”
Aquinas – the domino analogy
Aquinas – “it is therefore impossible that… a thing should be both moved and mover”
Reid – “neither existence nor any mode of existence can begin without efficient cause”
Aquinas “nothing can come from nothing”
Davis – “if the beginning of the universe had a cause, then it cannot have been a material
one. For material objects are part of thr universe and cannot, therefore, account for the
universe beginning to exist”
Aquinas – mo on is described as “the reduc on of something from a state of poten ality to a
a state of actuality”
Al-Ghazali – “every being which begins has a cause”
Moore – the poten al infinite is a “fundamental feature of reality”
Craig – “the cause of the universe must be a person being who freely chooses to create the
world”
Mackie – the railway carriage analogy
Copleston – a necessary being is described as “a being that must exist and cannot not-exist”
Russell – “I should say that the universe is just there, and that is all”
Swinburne – “it is extraordinary that there should exist anything at all” he believes that there
ought more reasonably to be nothing rather than something
Kant – believes that the cosmological argument contains “invalid assump ons which prove
nothing”
Flew – if everything needs an explana on then God needs one too according to Flew
Neilsen – “if the series were literally infinite, there would be no need for a first cause”
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