The Cosmological Argument is a philosophical argument for the existence of God and can basically be summed up by the following logical form:
Premise 1: Everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence.
Premise 2: The universe began to exist.
Conclusion: Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.
Premise 1: States that for everything that has a definite point in time where it begins to exist, there must be a cause or another entity that brings forth that existence. For instance, if you have a seedling growing in your front yard there must have been another plant that initiated that seed that is spouting. Things in our universe just don’t pop into existence from nothing, it is contrary to the reality that we know.
Premise 2: States that our universe has a definite beginning point where it began to exist. We know this by many reasons. First, the Big Bang Theory is evidence that points to this conclusion. Second, one can point to the increasing entropy of the universe, where the universe will eventually run out of usable energy making and infinite past is impossible because entropy would have run out an infinite time ago and we would not be here. Lastly, you can use the argument that Aquinas used in his Second Way that an infinite regression is absurd and doesn’t make sense.
The conclusion ties premise 1 and 2 together. The universe had a beginning, thus it had a cause. Some people take this part as an objection to the Cosmological Argument. They will say that it doesn’t prove the existence of the Judeo-Christian God. Yes, they would be right, it doesn’t. It is not meant to prove there is a God, only a cause sufficient to create the universe. Now, that cause would have some of the attributes of the Judeo-Christian God like all-powerful, timeless, and spaceless just to name a few.
Another objection to the Cosmological Argument is the need for the first cause of the universe to have a cause. The answer to the question, “Who made God?”. I believe that to be a premise that doesn’t take all the facts of the situation into account. Remember in the preceding paragraph that the cause would have the attribute of timelessness? If you are timeless, how do you have a beginning or a cause? There is no time. If you cannot measure with the parameter of time then there is no beginning or end, everything exists in a timeless realm. Something we cannot even begin to comprehend, and we exclude from this kind of philosophical discussion.
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