The Cosmological Argument

Imagine a domino

Now a domino rally

What’s going to happen next?

What caused them to fall?

The effect?

The science

Science tells us that nothing can happen unless something makes it happen.

For example

What does this have to do with God?

The theist's view

Nothing can happen unless something makes it happen.

The world would not exist unless something made it happen.

What does science say?

The Big Bang

The science

At some point 12 to 14 billion years ago, the universe we can see today was only a few millimetres across. It has since expanded from this into the huge universe we are now part of.

Big Bang or Big Bloom?

• Many people prefer the term Big Bloom as it was a slow process over millions of years rather than a short, sharp explosion.

So what about God?

Cause and effect

Theists will remind us that nothing can happen unless something makes it happen.

What was the cause?

What caused the Big Bang to happen?

First Cause

• This is known as the First Cause argument. A scholar called Thomas

Aquinas came up with this idea a long time ago. He said that

everything can be traced back to a first cause and in the case of the universe the first cause was God.

Can science and religion go hand in hand?

• Many theist accept the Big Bang Theory but say SOMETHING must have caused it to happen in the first place and that something was GOD.

What do you think?

The Cosmological Argument

(for the existence of God)

Cosmology is the study of the nature and the order of the

universe

St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1275)

• Influential philosopher and theologian, particularly for Roman Catholics

• C13th showed a renewed interest in Aristotle, and how philosophy could be useful for religion

• Aquinas’ philosophy is often referred to as ‘Thomism’

• Aquinas was a prolific author.

• ‘Summa Theologica’ is over 4000 pages long, however only two pages relate to arguments for the existence of God

Aquinas was not the first person to come up with a form of the cosmological argument.

He is famous for the argument as his version is a comprehensive (and Christian) one

Cosmological Argument

The Universe Exists

Nothing can cause itself to exist

Everything is caused by something other

than itself

The universe was causedby the Big Bang

What caused the Big Bang?

Cannot have aninfinite series of

causes

Cannot have caused itself

Caused by something

external to it

Something thatis outside the

universe

Something thathas caused itself

That somethingis GOD

The Big Bang Supports the Existence of GodProves the universe is finite-

means it had a beginning

Can’t have an infinite chain of causes-

The universe has order- provesthat something was behind it

Laws of nature pre-existed theBig BangDeviser of laws required

God is the cause of theBig Bang

Things cannot cause themselvesThe Big Bang was caused by

something- GOD

To infinity, and

beyond…