Cosmological arguments are based on the observable fact that the universe exists rather than nothing existing. Why is there anything at all? And why is there something that exists that can ask the question of why anything exists? Is it possible that the universe is the total of all reality and requires nothing else, or it is possible/probable/certain that a reality beyond the universe is required to explain the universe?
Aristotle was an early example of someone using a cosmological argument to demonstrate the existence of God. Since motion exists in the universe, there must be an unmoved mover, also called a prime mover, that is the original cause of motion. Aristotle equates the prime mover to God.
Thomas Aquinas builds upon Aristotle by giving five reasons that God must exist.[i] The first is the proof from motion in the universe, which is identical to Aristotle’s argument. Second, Aquinas offer a proof from efficient causality. This argument is similar to that of motion but recognizes that normal things need to be caused by other things. But to avoid infinite regress, there must be an uncaused cause, which is God.[ii] Third, Aquinas offers a proof from possibility and necessity. A possible being might or might not exist whereas a necessary being must exist. Since something cannot be created from nothing, there must be as least one necessary being (i.e., a being that has always existed), which is God. Fourth, Aquinas offers a proof from the degrees of perfection. When something has a characteristic, it has this characteristic to a certain degree (e.g., beauty, intelligence).[iii] There must be something that has the maximum amount of this characteristic, from which lesser degrees of the characteristic are derived. There must therefore be something with the maximum degree of being, from which all others of lesser being are caused. This something is God. Fifth and finally, Aquinas offers a proof from governance of the universe. This is essentially an argument from design, which is addressed in its own section below.
The remainder of this section will focus on the causality proof for the existence of God. Although presented by both Aristotle and Aquinas, it was more formally developed by Muslim theologians in the middle ages in what is known as the kalam cosmological argument:
Kalam Cosmological Argument
P1. Whatever begins to exist must have a cause.
P2. The universe began to exist.
C1. Therefore, the universe must have a cause.
C2. The cause of the universe is God.
P1 is rarely challenged. Some incorrectly think that quantum physics allows particles to be created out of nothing, but this is a misunderstanding of a universe permeated by quantum and electromagnetic fields. Therefore, the kalam cosmological argument sinks or swims based on P2. This is an apologetic gift since nearly all cosmological scientists agree that the universe had a beginning. Stephen Hawking writes:
“All the evidence seems to indicate, that the universe has not existed forever, but that it had a beginning, about 15 billion years ago … The Second Law [of Thermodynamics] states that disorder always increases with time … it indicates that there must have been a beginning. Otherwise, the universe would be in a state of complete disorder by now, and everything would be at the same temperature. In an infinite and everlasting universe, every line of sight would end on the surface of a star. This would mean that the night sky would have been as bright as the surface of the Sun. The only way of avoiding this problem would be if, for some reason, the stars did not shine before a certain time … the universe, and time itself, had a beginning in the Big Bang, about 15 billion years ago.”[iv]
And so, the best scientific evidence agrees with the Bible in that the universe had a beginning and therefore must have a cause. This cause does not necessarily have to be omnipotent, just powerful enough to create the universe. However, the fact that this cause exists outside of space and time and exercised its power in an amazing creative act is fully consistent with the Christian God.
[i] Aquinas presents his five proofs for the existence of God in his Summa Theologiae.
[ii] The term efficient cause simply means a cause that brings something else into being. In this usage, the meaning of efficient is derived from its Latin root efficere, which means to bring about.
[iii] Aquinas uses the term genus rather than characteristic in his proof from the degrees of perfection.
[iv] Stephan Hawking, “Beginning of Time.” This is from a transcript of an academic lecture delivered by Hawking in 1996.
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