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Cosmological Argument Analysis

993 Words4 Pages

Alisa Perez Perez 1
PHI 233
25 October, 2015
Cosmological Argument The Cosmological argument states that everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence. Such that the universe began to exist therefore the universe has a cause of its existence. It uses a general pattern of argumentation (logos) that makes an inference from certain alleged facts about the world (cosmos) to the existence of a unique being. Who is generally identified or referred to as God. Including Bertram Russell’s argument that denies the universe needs an explanation. Another argument from David Hume who held the idea that when the parts are explained the whole is also explained. A third argument comes from Immanuel Kant and his concept of their being …show more content…

The first is advocated by Acquinas which says that based on the impossibility of an essentially ordered infinite regress. The second which Craig terms the Kalam argument holds that an infinite temporal regress is impossible because an actual infinite is impossible. The third espoused by both Leibniz and Clarke is overtly founded on the Principle of Sufficient Reason. They put that one way of distinguishing the versions of the argument is in terms of relevance of time. In Aquinas version consideration of the essential ordering of the cause and effect is treated as real but not temporal. Saying that the first cause is not a first cause in time but a sustaining …show more content…

Russell who was following Hume contends that “since we derive the concept of cause from our observation of particular things, we cannot ask about the cause of something like the universe that we cannot experience. The universe is just there and that’s all.” Russell also replies to the argument that the move from the contingency of the universe commits the Fallacy of Composition. He says which mistakenly concludes that since the parts have a certain property the whole likewise has that property. One example of the Fallacy of Composition Bertrand Russell says “that since all of the bricks in the wall are small, the wall is small is fallacious. Yet it is an informal fallacy of content, not

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Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence 2. The universe began to exist 3. Therefore, the universe has a cause of existence His defense of the Kalam Cosmological Argument revolves mostly around the second premise. This is mostly due to him finding the first premise as intuitively obvious, where he claims that “no one, seriously denies it”. From experience, we find that physical objects do not come into existence without causes.

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A Rogerian Argument takes a subject that two sides differ on and instead of arguing directly for one side without referring to the other, the author states the opposing view point. By taking a “your side is valid but my point is valid as well and here’s why” approach to the structuring of the essay or writing, the author takes a less aggressive approach and empathizes with the other side in order to reach a middle ground. This type of argument is a better approach to conflict resolution since the author sympathizes or recognizes the other side’s point of

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Comparing Hume’s Casual Doctrine In the Enquiry and the Treatise Modern Philosophical Texts MA Course 0364481   The first definition of cause Hume presents in his Enquiry is ontological, whereas the second definition is psychological. The key blunder of the skeptic’s interpretation of the Enquiry is the supposition that both definitions are equal, and also the critical error of the supposition that from merely one experiment, an association of ideas can be derived. The aim of this paper is to try to attempt to summarise Hume’s position on causality as it relates to his works throughout his life’s entirety, as well as secondary views on this matter.

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God 's existence has been a continuous debate certainly for centuries. The issue of God 's existence is debatable because of the different kind of controversies that can be raised from an "Atheist as being the non-believer of God" and a "Theist who is the believer of God". An atheist can raise different objections on the order of the universe by claiming that the science is a reason behind the perfection of the universe. In Aquinas 's fifth argument, he claims that the order of the universe cannot be explained by chance, but only by design and purpose. To explain this order of the universe he concludes that, there is an intelligent being whom we call "God".

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The first premise of my argument is, there has never been the case in our lives were a thing was the efficient cause of its self. This premise says that nothing can be the cause of itself and thus it cannot have existed before it has existed. An example is a cup made of plastic, the cup is not its first efficient cause since it cannot create its self. The cup was created by a human who is the first efficient cause, he used a machine and plastic which are intermediary causes leading to the ultimate cause, the plastic

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Beatty understands the way the world works in retrospect to the events leading up to the current situation of their government. As a fireman you must know what you are doing and how it benefits your society. Beatty explains the reason that books are banned to Montag, and doing so helps us understand the most important factor in the story. You must not offend anyone whatsoever. To maintain peace you must cease from reading or writing anything that could slightly be taken out of context.

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Additionally, metaphysical speculation underscores the complexity of existence and the limitations of human understanding, prompting contemplation beyond empirical observation and scientific inquiry. Thirdly, creation ex nihilo faces criticisms, including challenges related to causality, logical coherence, and the lack of empirical evidence. Critics argue that the concept violates the principle of causality by positing an origin point without any preceding factors or explanatory mechanisms. Moreover, some philosophers contend that creation ex nihilo is logically incoherent, as it seems to defy the principles of logic and reason. Additionally, the absence of empirical evidence supporting creation ex nihilo poses challenges to its validity as a scientifically viable explanation for the origins of the universe.

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So the first cause argument proves that God does not exist assuming the first cause argument is sound then there must be some other cause because it is not God. In summary the notion of omnipotent is a miss-name because it implies the potency, power, causality when in fact all that it does is imply logical entailment, it implies that if it wills something you can deduce from the statement that something exists, you do not need a causal step, it is a logical deduction and therefore the first cause argument argues from causes in the world

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The cosmological argument looks to the world to prove God’s existence rather than pure definitions. The proponent of the cosmological argument was St. Thomas Aquinas, a theologian in the eleventh century CE (Solomon). He proposed that everything that exists must have a cause, and that the cause was God (Aquinas). Aquinas’ first point was based off of motion, that nothing can be both the mover and moved. An item sitting in place has the potential to be moving, but cannot move unless something that is already moving imparts motion to it

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In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume makes a statement that is particularly jarring, especially when it is compared to the ideas of other philosophers. He says “the idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise, and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom” (pg. 318). This is the first time, out of the philosophers read in Integral Seminar, that the concept that there is no God, and that God is a human creation, has been presented. Previous to reading Hume, it has been said that humans have ideas of goodness, and wisdom, and all other noble attributes because of the existence of God, and Hume declares the exact opposite, and supports this claim with his explanations of cause and effect. He shows that human beings can never know the power behind cause, and it is only through effects and experiences with those effects, that humans can begin to infer as to what the causes may be.

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Descartes, and Paley suggest that we can know God and that he is within our understanding. Throughout the readings they describe and argue how we can now the existence of God and the attributes that are associated with him. However David Hume would refute these claims saying through his dialogues more specifically through a character named Philo that we cannot know the attributes or even for that matter the existence. During this paper I will analyze Descartes and Paley’s arguments in comparison with David Hume’s arguments that we cannot know these things. In Paley’s argument he says that if we saw a rock lying on the ground and someone said that rock had always been there that is conceivable, whereas if a watch were lying on the ground that answer would no longer be acceptable.

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Instead the belief revolves around the idea that natural causes are sufficient to explain everything that exists in the

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St. Anselm and Descartes are known for presenting the first ontological arguments on the existence of God. The word ontological is a compound word derived from ‘ont’ which means exists or being and ‘–ology’ which means the study of. Even though Anselm and Descartes’ arguments differ slightly, they both stem from the same reasoning. Unlike the other two arguments on God’s existence (teleological and cosmological), the ontological argument does not seek to use any empirical evidence but rather concentrates on pure reason. The rationale behind this school of thought

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I will start my points in this argument by, first, opposing the evidences and reasons why we should believe that God exists and second, by pointing one of many reasons why we should believe that God does not exist. In opposing

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In this argument we already assumed that there may be possibility that God exist and finally we reached where we started. So this argument does not give us the exact information about existence of God. There are many objections on this argument but still it is a powerful argument. In my opinion, this argument is not much satisfactory. It describes that existence is greater than imagination.

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