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…