Jodie Bradshaw
Explain the key features of the Cosmological Argument
In this essay, I am going to explore the key features of the Cosmological Argument. The Cosmological Argument is an argument that states that the universe is not explicable without reference to causes and factors outside itself. Although the Cosmological Argument was famously expressed as one of Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways (arguments for the existence it is grounded in the Greek metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle. Both argued that the fact of motion requires a mover. Aristotle once said, “The series must start with something for nothing can come from nothing”. The key ideas are 'contingency' and 'necessity'. To say of something that it exists is to also point to other factors that have influenced, and caused, it to exist.
The major features of the Cosmological Argument are that; the universe is contingent, things come into existence because something has caused them to happen, things are caused to exist, but they do not have to exist, there is an infinite chain of causes, and time began with the creation of the universe. There must have been a first cause, which brought the universe into existence and therefore this first cause must have necessary existence to cause the contingent universe. It is considered that God has aseity and in turn concludes that God is the first cause of the contingent universe's existence The Cosmological Argument has taken many forms and has been presented in many ways. In each form, the argument focuses upon the causes that lead to the existence of things.
The Cosmological Argument is not just a Christian attempt to prove the existence of the classical theistic deity. Plato and Aristotle postulated the need for an artisan and a cause of all things. St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274); who was a theologian, Aristotelian scholar, and philosopher offered the most famous Christian application of the Cosmological Argument. Called the Doctor Angelicus (the Angelic Doctor,) Aquinas is considered one the greatest Christian philosophers to have ever lived. Thomas Aquinas proposed five ways that "proved" the existence of God, the first three ways are Cosmological Arguments the fourth is a form of ontological argument and the fifth is a form of a teleological argument. The first way, the unmoved mover is formally expressed as ‘everything that is in motion is moved by something else’ and therefore states that infinite regress is impossible. This provides the theory that there must be a first mover. Aquinas was speaking of motion in the broadest sense. He included not only movement from one place to another, but also movement in the sense of change of quality or quantity. According to Aquinas, an object only moved when an external force was applied to it. Aquinas wasn't arguing that the universe necessarily had a beginning. He thought it did, but said that you cannot reason that out as it was revealed doctrine. Rather his emphasis was on dependency. Swinburne took up the same argument of dependency in the twentieth century.