September 9-1-11
Thursday, 01, 2011
12:32 PM
The cosmological Argument (for the existence of God): "takes the existence of the universe (or cosmos)
to entail the existence of a being that created it."
Universe: All existing matter, space, time, energy, etc., regarded collectively, esp. as constituting a
systematic or ordered whole; the whole of creation, the cosmos. (OED)
How it works:
1.
1.
Point out a way in which some things in the cosmos depend on others
Argue that there must be some basic item on which everything else depends in the
relevant way.
2.
They think of this basic item as outside of the cosmos and identify it as God.
Thomas's First Proof of the existence of God:
P1. Some things move.
P2. Nothing can move itself
Disproven; False Premise
C1. These things must have external movers.
P3. Some movers move things by in being motion
C2. These movers must have further movers
P4.The series of movers cannot be infinite.
C3. There must be some first, unmoved mover (whom we call God)
Bad inference: what reason is there for supposing that there is a single unmoved mover
instead of many? Why assume the mover is outside the cosmos instead of a basic prosaic part
of the cosmos (such as the nucleus of an atom)
Assumes truth of Aristotelian physics:
Objects in motion depend on external "movers"
Later disproven my Newtonian physics (objects in motion tend to stay in motion)
Thomas's Second Proof of the Existence of God
P1. Things in the world have efficient causes
P2. Some of these causes have efficient causes.
P3. The chain of efficient causes can't go back to infinity
C1. There must be some first efficient cause of all things, which we call God