Cosmological

Who made it

Aquinas

What is the general idea

Everything has a cause except for God as he is necessary

Point 1 of his logic

There are some things which exist contingently

Point 2 of his logic

If something exists only contingent, then there is some time at which it did not exist

point 3 of his logic

If everything exists contingently then at one time nothing existed

Point 4 of his logic

If at one time nothing existed then now nothing exists

Point 5

some things exist now

Point 6

It is not the case that at one point nothing existed

Point 7

It is not the case everything exists contingently

Point 8

There is something which does not exist contingently

How does Aquinas link point 8 to God

Only God has the power to be self-sufficient and uncaused

What type of argument is the cosmological

posteriori

Hume’s first crit

Nothing can be logically necessary unless its opposite implies a contradiction so God is not necessary

Fallacy of composition

Aquinas assumes that because everything within the universe is contingent, the universe as a whole must also be contingent

Why it proves God

aligns with big bang, removes infinite regress and only God has the power to be uncaused

Russel criticism

The universe may simply exist as a brute fact requiring no cause.

Russel’s mother analogy

Just because every individual thing in the universe has a cause, it does not mean that the universe as a whole has one single creator.

Evidence for Russel

Quantum events suggest that some things happen without a cause, which supports Russell’s premise that we cannot assume everything must have a cause.