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Cosmological Argument - Coggle Diagram
Cosmological Argument
Basis of the Argument
As with Paley's design argument, Way 3 is a posteriori and inductive so it is based on observation. It is based on the particular observation that all things we see in the universe are contingent: they are moved, changed and caused. From the observation of contingency Aquinas concluded that something must exist necessarily
Contingency = In the first part of the argument, the core of the argument is that if everything is contingent, then at some time there was nothing. No contingent being is everlasting so there must have been a time where nothing existed. If there was a time where nothing existed then nothing would exist now because "out of nothing, nothing can come" but of course vast numbers of contingent things now exist
Infinite Regress = In the second part of the argument Aquinas rejects the idea that there may be an infinite series of caused necessary beings. That would be absurd because then there would be no ultimate cause of the series. So there must be an uncaused necessary being who sustains all caused necessary beings and all contingent beings. This is God
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Evaluation
Some object that there could be a group of necessarily beings rather than just the one: however Aquinas argues that unless there is one being who contains within itself the reason for its own existence then the existence of anything is inexplicable
Some object that there could be a group of uncaused necessary beings, but Occam's Razor can be used to argue that this multiplies entities unnecessarily
Some object that there could be an infinite regress of contingent beings with no need for a first necessary being, but 1) this would still not explain why there is something rather than nothing, and 2) although we can have mathematical infinities, we have no evidence then an infinite past sequence can exist in the 'real' world
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