God’s existence may actually depend upon our belief in his existence but it is more plausible to believe that God exists using the different types of arguments such as the cosmological argument and ontological argument, Leibniz and the Principle of Sufficient Reason and the Problem of Evil, and the definition of basic belief as evidence. The Cosmological argument can be simplified into three reasons that everything that begins to exist has a cause; the universe began to exist, therefore the universe has a cause. Using the first proposition and the basis of metaphysics, something cannot come from nothing. If this were possible, everything and anything that comes into being emerges from nothing. Some may argue the quantum theory, which gives particles the ability to come into existence from nothing, but these particles do not materialize from nothing. Instead, they appeared from a quantum vacuum. So again, everything that exists has to have a cause. If everything were caused by something else though, then there would be no first cause, and if there were no first cause, then the first effect would not exist. Therefore, the ultimate cause of the universe then must be uncreated. A being that does not exist in time so therefore does not come into existence. In this case, God is the ultimate creator because he exists outside of time and has neither beginning nor end. This type of argument argues the existence of contingent things on the necessity of a God being the ultimate
The Cosmological argument asks the question Where did everything come from? For everything we live with today there is a time in history when it did not exist. If it did not exist at some point then it would need to be created by someone else or something else. Therefore, there would have to be something or someone that was existent first and did not need to be created. This someone or something that Saint Thomas Aquinas refers to is
1. The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God is based on the principle of cause and effect. What this basically means is that the universe was the effect of a cause, which was God. One of the oldest and most well known advocates of the Cosmological Argument was Thomas Aquinas who outlines his argument for the existence of God in his article entitled The Five Ways. The first way in his argument is deals with motion. Aquinas says that in order for something to be in motion something had to move it because it is impossible for something to move without the presence of some sort of outside force upon it. Therefore the world around us, nature, and our very existence could not have been put into motion without the influence of the
the existence of the world or universe is strong evidence for the existence of a God who
The famous William Paley has a different ontological argument within his text Natural Theology. The title of the reading gives insight to the theory, which focuses on something called natural design. The writing is based on an intricate and extensive analogy between the man made and the natural. For instance, Paley describes a man made watch in great detail. This intense detail sets the notion that each piece must have been put in place by someone, whom we can infer is a watchmaker. He then compares this to the intricacy of nature, which must have been made by a supreme diety. Such complexity could not have come about by chance. Only the most
Humans can never know for the certain why the universe was created or what caused it but, we can still create arguments and theories to best explain what might have created the universe. The cosmological argument is another idea to prove the existence of god. Many philosophers debate wheatear the cosmological argument is valid. The cosmological argument starts off quite simply: whatever exists must come from something else. Nothing is the source of its own existences, nothing is self-creating []. The cosmological argument states at some point, the cause and effect sequence must have a beginning. This unexpected phenomenal being is god. According to the argument, god is the initial start of the universe as we know it. Though nothing is
In order for a universe filled with creation, to be formed by anything other than an all-powerful being, is to say that you or I could construct the same creation. Some theorist believe the Big Bang Theory but this would constitute taking time, space and chance and exploding that into everything while subtracting your law of casualty (Wellman, 2012). Also if the universe had just exploded into the state of “being” then what was it before a “non-being” (Wellman, 2012)? The Big Bang Theory is lacking what the cosmological argument provides something had to exist you cannot just have existence from nothing. Therefore our universe in order to exist supports the existence of the uncaused all-powerful being.
The four classic arguments for the existence of God are the Cosmological Argument, the Teleological Argument, the Moral Argument, and the Ontological Argument. The Cosmological and Teleological arguments are a posteriori arguments, whereas the Moral and Ontological arguments are a priori arguments. The Cosmological Argument argues that the world had to have a first cause, and this first cause is an independent being, or God, that did not need a cause itself. The Teleological Argument argues that an intelligent creator or God designed the world in such a complex way. The Moral Argument cites God’s existence as the cause of morality.
The Cosmological argument finds its answer for the start of the universe through causes, meaning everything is caused by something, or everything
Theories have arisen from many different philosophers trying to explain the existence of God; the Cosmological Argument is one such theory. The Cosmological Argument has been changed and reviewed for years; however, the focus has always stayed the same. The universe is a prime example that there is a God. A simple Cosmological argument states that:
The formal reality of an idea accounts for the ideas existence. [Formal reality: accounts for existence]
The existence of the universe, the argument claims, stands in need of explanation, and the only adequate explanation of its existence is that it was created by God. The Problem of Evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of the evil in the world with the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent and perfectly good God. The argument from evil is the atheistic argument that the existence of such evil cannot be reconciled with, and so disproves, the existence of such a God. The evil in the world is not God’s fault, God gave us freedom of choice, and free agents sometimes choose to abuse their freedom, to do wrong. A generic statement of the cosmological argument is that everything that exists has a cause of its existence therefore, the evil that exists in the world must have a cause. Without God, we cannot explain the universe and there would still be evil in the
“All versions of the cosmological argument begin with the a posteriori assumptions that the universe exists and something outside the universe is required to explain its existence. That is, it is contingent, depending on something outside of itself for its existence.”(Pojman, p.20). The temporal or first cause argument by Kalam who discussed that the universe has a beginning, and it has a cause of its existence; therefore, there should be an uncaused at beginning in time which is God. As Aristotle and other thinkers support this by discussing a bout an infinite regress is not possible, and we cannot explain the existence of the universe by chain of contingent. There should be another type of being that is self –existent and he is the one who created all contingent being. Cosmological argument argues about the existence of God as the first and ultimate cause of the universe .This is a fact that universe did not created itself, it depend on a first caused or uncaused being who itself is the first cause and independent of anything else. When I think deeply about the universe and everything in that I cannot think that they have been created by themselves and there should be an infinite and powerful
A cosmological argument focuses on the notion of causation and that everything in the universe including us must have an initial cause, for nothing comes from nothing. Thomas
The existence of God is a question that has troubled and plagued mankind since it began to consider logic. Is there a God? How can we be sure that God exists? Can you prove to me that He is real? Does His existence, or lack thereof, make a significant difference? These loaded questions strike at the heart of human existence. But the real question is, can we answer any of them? These questions are answered in the arguments of St. Thomas Aquinas, Blaise Pascal and St. Anselm of Canterbury. For thousands of years, theologians, philosophers and scientists have been trying to prove or disprove God’s existence. Many, including the three mentioned above, have strong proofs and theories that attempt to confirm God’s existence. Although, without any scientific evidence, how can they be entirely sure? “Philosophical proofs can be good proofs, but they do not have to be scientific proofs,” (Kreeft). Gravity similar to God’s existence ; it cannot be seen nor explained, yet it still exists. With faith, reason, understanding and even some math, God’s existence can be verified rationally.
Throughout the course of this essay we shall examine two of the major philosophical arguments for the existence of God. The arguments that we are going to focus on shall be the Design argument and the Ontological argument. We shall compare, evaluate and discuss both the Design (or teleological) argument for the existence of God and the Ontological Argument for the existence of God, as well as highlighting philosophical criticisms of both theories too. By doing so, we shall attempt to draw a satisfactory conclusion and aim gain a greater understanding of the respective theories and their criticisms of each theory.