- Cosmological: referring to the origin and structure of the universe.
- Creation: the act by which God brought the universe into being.
The argument from First Cause is fairly straightforward. It says:
- Everything that exists was caused to exist by something else.
- The universe exists, so the universe was was caused to exist by something else.
- This ‘chain of cause and effect’ cannot go on and on forever, there must be a starting point, or ‘first cause’.
- The only thing that this could be is God.
- So, God exists.
Strengths of the Argument:
- It starts with something that we can all agree on, that the universe does exist.
- It uses scientific principles (the law of cause and effect) to work to God.
- It is supported by some major Christian and Islam thinkers, such as Thomas Aquinas and Al Ghazali.
- It claims that everything must have a cause, and then says that God doesn’t.
- Even if we prove the universe does have a (first) cause it doesn’t prove this is the same God that Christians, Muslims and Jews all believe in.
- Scientists think the Big Bang (which started the universe) does not need a cause.
- It is based on a primitive understanding of science in which time existed before the big bang. Scientists think it did not.
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