Empedocles Cosmology

The Scientific Revolution brought a new way of thinking about the universe, and brought an end to Europe’s medieval past. Many scientists have devoted their lives to creating new ideas about the physical universe. These scientists created the assumption that the universe and nature are governed by mathematical laws. Each of the three scientists, Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton contributed to the breakdown of the medieval world view. Nicolaus Copernicus thought past the idea of a geocentric universe, and established the idea of a heliocentric theory, or a sun-centered universe. Johannes Kepler presented the idea of an ellipse, otherwise known as the planets following an oval shaped orbit, and not a perfect circle. Finally,

Neil Degrasse Tyson points out in his article “Cosmic Perspective”, first published in the Natural Magazine in 2007, that if every human were to truly comprehend how stupendous and interraled the universe is to us, our perspective on humanity would shift from a focus on our distinctions to our connections. Tyson explores through many examples of the “cosmic perspective” to prove just how closely associated we are with the universe.

He used logic and reasoning to investigate the nature of the universe. Ptolemy’s model helped get people thinking about the universe being eternal, finite, and spherical. This document is most definitely not reliable because the conclusion was made without having all the needed information, and it was later disproved. A more accurate view could come from someone who does in depth studies of how the universe is actually laid out. As seen in Document 11, A Greek doctor by the name of Hippocrates became one of the first people that taught his belief that illnesses only had

Celebrated on October 31st, the festival of Halloween (also known as Samhain) includes dressing in costume, trick or treating, and decorating. Tracing back in history Halloween is considered to be one of America’s oldest holidays, and is still celebrated today. Halloween is believed to come from Celtic rituals. Celtics believed the cosmological myth of Saman (Lord of the Dead). Saman would call on the souls of the people that passed away that year to take them to the afterlife or underworld; the Celtic underworld identifies with the Christian Hell. In order for the spirits to believe they were on their own, the living would wear costumes and mask their identities, along with fairies, witches and demons. This functions as a cosmological myth because it provides a creation story and framework in which this universe occupies and includes many other realms of existence. Another tradition that followed was to give food to the Saman, to persuade him to be more tolerant while he judged the dead ancestors of the living, which he would chose to take to the underworld. In this essay I will further investigate what the origins of Halloween consist of and how it offers reasoning for trick-or-treating. Also I will examine how trick-or-treating, which is still continued today, is connected to ancient Celtic festivals.

Parmenides of Elea once presented the expression ex nihilo nihil fit, which translates to nothing comes from nothing for one of his many theses. The Cosmological Argument, an argument of the posteriori category, meaning that it requires data based on past experiences, argues for the existence of God with this type of expression at its core. By attempting to prove how the universe must be influenced by an independent being that has godlike qualities, cosmological arguments suggest that it is rational to believe in an omnipotent being and its accountability of creating the universe.

When writing an essay, different drafts are created that can change the original idea on what the essay should be about multiple times. The same is true for many different things; including the views on the structure of the universe and Earth’s place in it. Many different people have studied and come up with idea about the universe, but two people who challenged what they were told and changed everyone’s minds were Copernicus, and Galileo.

Cosmogonies play a part in the universe; it’s the creation of mankind and universe myths. These myths portray a part in culture today. “Cosmogonies --- stories about how the world began--- have been told by almost every culture in the world” (23). It affects the western culture and eastern culture and how social order is established. Social order is primary the basis of how humankind operate; it has links to behavior, morals, customs and values. It brings the foundation to mankind as a whole. Cosmogonies have established a lot of set beliefs, morals, and goals for humans.

To what extent does The Cosmological Argument prove the existence of God? There are many different arguments which attempt to help us understand more about the universe. One of these arguments is the Cosmological Argument which is essentially an argument which consists of 8 main arguments; things exist because of a cause, these things do not have to exist but they do, the chain of causes goes back to the beginning of time, time began when the universe was created, there must have been a first cause which is responsible for everything else including the universe, the first cause must have a necessary existence, only God has necessary existence, therefore God is the first cause of the universe's existence. The argument basically puts across

He stated that this was a mysterious force but never continued his research on it. Then in 460 B.C. there was a philosopher named Democritus. Democritus and his mentor Leocippus posed the question that if he broke bread into multiple pieces how many would breaks would it take until there was no more bread. He then was able to make a few theories being all matter was created of atoms and atoms are solid but not invisible. However, there was a man named Aristotle and many other philosophers who disagreed with Democritus and said matter was composed of four main elements. Earth, fire, air, and water. For example, a liquid was made of water and a stone was made of rock. Therefore, Democritus’s theory “ was rejected by Aristotle, one of the most influential philosophers of Ancient Greece; and the atomic theory was ignored for nearly 2,000 years.”(

The most common scientific explanation of how our universe came to be, is the Big Bang Theory. Around 13. 8 billion years ago there was no sign of anything apart from darkness. Until astronomer Edwin Hubble made a remarkable discovery about how the universe was created. Edwin Hubble hypothesised the matter and energy in the universe was initially condensed in a very small and infinitely hot mass. A huge explosion, known as the Big Bang, then sent matter and energy expanding in all directions (Howell, n.d.).

The cosmological argument is an a posteriori argument which intends to prove that there is an intelligent being that exists; the being is distinct from the universe, explains the existence of the universe, and is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and omnibenevolent. The basic notion of cosmological arguments is that the world and everything in it is dependent on something other than itself for its existence. It explains that everything has a cause, that there must have been a first cause, and that this first cause was itself uncaused.

To say that “something” is a proof one must understand that this “something” must have been tested and with sufficient evidence, in order to produce a belief in its truth. An argument on the other hand is not so. An argument can be a discussion involving differing points of view. Moreover, mainly an argument is a person’s attempt to persuade or present evidence from their point of view. Nevertheless, McCloskey makes claims from arguments as though they are proofs. He then gives reasons as to why these arguments are not adequate enough to be presented as proofs. But McCloskey has somehow in his mind attempted to present arguments as proofs in order to validate his personal argument and push his claims as opposition to the Cosmological and Teleological arguments. But these arguments were not meant to be used as proofs of Gods existence but to merely shed insight and to persuade or something one may consider as a basis for their belief. McCloskey does not allow himself to be persuaded because he is considering these arguments as proofs which

The following chapter, Cosmos: The Quest for Order, looks at the development of cosmology as it related to Christianity during the religion's early years. The Christian ideas on cosmology were heavily influenced by Stoicism and Platonism, two of the leading philosophic traditions of the time period (34.) Both schools of thought followed the belief that the universe exhibited clear signs of order in its design which were clearly the work of a creator.

The goal of the cosmological argument is to support the claim that God exists as the first cause of the universe. According to Nagel, the argument runs as following:

Chapter seven opens with the assumption of a cosmography concept of the universe from all history civilization. In particular, the perception of ANE society in terms of how they described the picture of the universe as a whole. Today, one can create a better map with the main features of the universe due to science and technology has evolved. At the same time, to have a better understanding of how the earth, the sun, and starts functioned within their area of operation.