essay: “there must be a reason to account for the existence of the universe.”

scholars and theories to include:

• Aquinas

  • 3 ways

• Leibniz

  • the Principle of Sufficient Reason

• Hume

• Dawkins

• Aristotle

key terminology to include:

• cosmological argument - P: everything that exists has a cause

  P: the universe must have a cause

  C: that cause is God

• infinite regress - the idea of a process going back into the past with no beginning - a chain of events going backward forever

• contingency - dependence upon something else for its existence

• efficient cause

• necessary - a being that has no cause and depends on nothing else for its continued existence

• uncaused causer

• unmoved mover

introduction:

• important coz some need a reason to believe their existence is worthy or there must be a reason behind someone/something even deciding to start the universe - Thomas Aquinas, Gottfried Leibniz

• unimportant to others eg Richard Dawkins > believe that one may give their own life meaning, but there is none predestined, and that supposed fact also means that the universe does not inherently need a reason to exist, like a human may not, David Hume

• yes, there must be a reason to…

para1:

• Richard Dawkins vs Thomas Aquinas - worksheet

• Richard Dawkins:.

  • ethologist, evolutionary biologist, author

  • believes that:

    • everything is a result of natural selection

    • life has no meaning/purpose, other than to reproduce

    • natural selection is blind and has no long-term goal/telos

    • the watch analogy does not clearly represent God creating the universe

para2:

• Leibniz vs Hume

para3:

conclusion: