What does Clarke argue?
Clarke asserts that the sufficient reason why something exists as it does may be due to the “mere Will” of God and nothing more (C 3.2, W 4.606–607; C 5.124–130, W 4.700). This involves two claims.
What is the cosmological argument?
A cosmological argument, in natural theology, is an argument which claims that the existence of God can be inferred from facts concerning causation, explanation, change, motion, contingency, dependency, or finitude with respect to the universe or some totality of objects.
What is Craig’s cosmological argument?
The Kalām Cosmological Argument is a 1979 book by the philosopher William Lane Craig, in which the author offers a contemporary defense of the Kalām cosmological argument and argues for the existence of God, with an emphasis on the alleged metaphysical impossibility of an infinite regress of past events.
What kind of argument is the cosmological argument?
The cosmological argument is less a particular argument than an argument type. It uses a general pattern of argumentation (logos) that makes an inference from particular alleged facts about the universe (cosmos) to the existence of a unique being, generally identified with or referred to as God.
How does the first cause argument prove the existence of God?
Scientific discoveries, eg the Big Bang theory , can be seen to support the first cause argument. If God caused the ‘Big Bang’, then God is the ‘first cause’ that brought the cosmos (universe) into existence. It confirms to the theist that there is purpose to the cosmos and a place for God as its ‘creator’.
What is the first causes and principles of things?
First cause, in philosophy, the self-created being (i.e., God) to which every chain of causes must ultimately go back. The term was used by Greek thinkers and became an underlying assumption in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Is God the first cause of everything?
Aquinas argued that our world works in the same way. Someone or something must have caused the world to exist. The cause is God, the effect is the world. Aquinas stated that this cause (which is outside our world) is the first cause – that is, the one that started everything.
Is God necessary or contingent?
The “Argument from Contingency” examines how every being must be either necessary or contingent. Since not every being can be contingent, it follow that there must be a necessary being upon which all things depend. This being is God.
Is God metaphysically necessary?
Necessity in theology While many theologians (e.g. Anselm of Canterbury, René Descartes, and Gottfried Leibniz) considered God to be a logically or metaphysically necessary being, Richard Swinburne argued for factual necessity, and Alvin Plantinga argues that God is a causally necessary being.
Why does God necessarily exist?
Thus, by definition, if God exists as an idea in the mind but does not necessarily exist in reality, then we can imagine something that is greater than God. But we cannot imagine something that is greater than God. Thus, if God exists in the mind as an idea, then God necessarily exists in reality.
What type of being is God?
God, in monotheistic thought, is conceived of as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. God is usually conceived of as being omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (all-present) and omnibenevolent (all-good) as well as having an eternal and necessary existence.