Category: Cosmological

The Argument from Cause:

P1    all things that exist have causes

P2    the universe exists

C    the universe must have a cause

C     that cause is God.

 

The consequences game:

At the top of a piece of paper write down a recent occurrence real or not e.g.

I was sent off the rugby pitch

Because

I tripped one of the other team members

Because

He had been hassling me

Because

I had been dating his sister and we had split up

Because

She betrayed me with my best friend

Because

He had bet me he could take her away from me

Because

I had been boasting what a perfect couple we were

Because

I was arrogant

Because

My parents always told me to believe I was right

 

So think of something which might have happened recently from a tooth out to a car accident to being accused of shoplifting to tripping over in the dining hall to how you got to this lesson today. Etc. and trace the trail of causes.

 

No read your list forwards and backwards (backwards starts with because and has two phrases together)

 

Because my parents always told me to believe I was right

I was arrogant

Because I was arrogant

I had been boasting what a perfect couple we were

Because I had been boasting what a perfect couple we were

My best friend had bet me he could take my girlfriend away from me

etc

The cosmological argument could be better known as the ‘………………………………..’

 

Its main point is that there must have been a ……………………… cause

 

It is based on ……………………………………..– we see ……………………………..in action around us – things are born and things die.

 

……………………….. believed that there must have been one cause which caused everything else but which itself was not caused by anything else.

 

This cause was a ……………………………being as it was not …………………………… upon anything else for its existence.

 

And this Aquinas called ……………..

 

This fits with Anselm’s view that God is ‘the …………………………………….. and if that is the case then he must of necessity exist.

 

Objectors to the cosmological argument include ………………………who believed that even if there was a first cause, to conclude that it was God was a…………………………..……………………………………

 

Others like …………………….. believe that order and cause and effect are concepts we impose on the world because we can’t cope with the concept of chaos.

 

As ………………………………… said just because we don’t have the technology or understanding yet doesn’t mean we won’t at some time in the future. We don’t need to therefore assume God is the answer just because it will do for the moment.

 

………………………………………..went further to say that the universe just is – ……………………. – so why discuss it Since we can never know the answer!?

 

Words to fill in the gaps with