The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God

Transcription

1 The Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God

2 Some preliminaries: The essence of being a Christian is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the risen Son of God. It is through Christ that we are saved by grace through faith. Having faith in Christ does not mean having a set of warm feelings about Jesus, God, and the Church, nor merely believing certain facts to be true. Faith, in the Biblical sense, is genuinely trusting someone for good reasons.

3 So, what reasons are there for anybody to have faith in Jesus? 1 Peter 3:15: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. (NIV) 1. There is a God 2. The Bible is true 3. Jesus Christ is the risen Son of God, who died for our sins 4. The Christian worldview makes sense of the world 5. We can encounter God personally

4 There is a God: The Ontological Argument The Cosmological Argument The Teleological (Design) Argument The Moral Argument (Romans 1:18-20; 2:14-15)

5 What is an Argument?

6 An argument is the presentation of reasons and evidence in a logical format that leads to a conclusion. The most basic logical argument is the deductive syllogism: Premise 1: All As are B Premise 2: X is an A Conclusion: Therefore: X is B In an syllogism of this type, if the premises are true then the conclusion must be true. Not could be true, might be true, true if you like it, or true for you but not for me; but true for everyone, everywhere, and for all time.

7 Example: Premise 1: Premise 2: Conclusion: All men are mortal Socrates is a man Therefore: Socrates is mortal

8 The Kalam Cosmological Argument Premise 1: Everything that begins to exist has a cause for its existence Premise 2: The universe began to exist Conclusion: The universe has a cause for its existence

9 Discussion: Premise 1 is self-evidently true. There are no possible counterexamples which would contradict it. One of the most basic axioms of philosophy, and common reason, is the principle from nothing, nothing comes (Latin: ex nihil, nihil fit). Premise 2 can be demonstrated to be true logically and empirically.

10 Discussion: Logically it can be shown that, for physical reality/material existence, an actual infinite number of things cannot exist; that is, you can t reach infinite by adding one thing to another. Not with apples, people, and not with moments of time. Therefore, the succession of past moments of time cannot be infinite and there must be a first moment of time.

11 Discussion: Empirically (through the evidence of science) the "Big Bang" theory, for which there is a great deal of astronomical evidence, includes an absolute beginning to the physical universe, refuting the belief in an eternal cosmos. The second law of thermodynamics (entropy) implies that if the universe were eternal, it would have experienced heat death by now

12 Therefore: Since premise 1, Everything that begins to exist has a cause for its existence, and premise 2, The universe began to exist, are both true; the conclusion, The universe has a cause for its existence, must be true.

13 Implications: 1. This Cause of the universe must exist outside the universe: No effect can be its own cause; neither the universe nor something within the universe can be the cause of the universe. The cause of the universe must be outside time, space, and all physical reality.

14 2. This Cause of the universe must be eternal, without beginning or end: For anything to exist at all, something must exist eternally. If what is were absolutely nothing, it would remain absolutely nothing. Therefore, either the universe or a Cause who creates the universe must exist eternally, without beginning or end. The universe had a beginning, therefore the Cause of the universe is eternal.

15 3. This Cause of the universe must be immensely powerful: The universe is 100 billion light years across (1 light year = 6 trillion miles) and contains billion of galaxies each containing billions of stars around which orbit probably billions of planets. The cause of the universe must have at least the power to bring this vast cosmos into existence.

16 4. This Cause of the universe must be personal: Since this Cause must decide whether and when to bring the universe into existence, this cause must be a personal agent, because only a personal agent can decide something. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A spaceless, timeless, immaterial, eternal, powerful, personal Cause of the universe = God

17

18

19

20

21

22

23