Philosophical Arguments for God's Existence and Cosmology

Vocabulary flashcards covering key philosophical concepts, cosmological arguments, Aquinas's ways, and design arguments based on the lecture notes.

First Cause

The initial cause in a causal chain that brings about an event or the cosmos, which critics note does not automatically prove the existence of a single divine God.

Big Bang

A scientific concept proposed as a potential non-divine first cause of the universe, supported by evidence such as light and redshift observation.

Sound Argument

A deductive argument that is both logically valid and contains premises that are entirely true.

Argument for Motion

Aquinas's First Way, which states that moving things are caused to move by something outside themselves, requiring a first mover identified as God.

Aristotle's Physics

An ancient view of motion holding that moving objects require continuous pushing (such as air pushing the tail of an arrow) to maintain motion.

Contingent Object

An entity that relies on external factors or prior conditions for its existence, such as children depending on their parents.

Necessary Being

An entity that does not depend on anything else for its existence, posited in cosmological arguments as God.

Argument from Contingency

Aquinas's Third Way (related to the Kalam argument structure), claiming that if all things were contingent, nothing would exist now, necessitating a non-dependent being.

Argument from Degree

Aquinas's Fourth Way, based on Aristotle, which posits that varying degrees of characteristics in objects imply the existence of something possessing those features to the maximum degree.

Aristotle's Four Factors of Knowledge

The four components required to understand what an object is: what it is made of, how it is made, its form, and its purpose.

Watchmaker Analogy

A teleological design argument stating that finding a complex object like a watch with intricate gears on a heath implies a talented designer rather than random chance.