In this essay I am going to explore the major features of the cosmological argument. The cosmological argument is an argument which states the universe is not explicable without reference to causes and factors outside itself. Although the cosmological argument was famously expressed as one of Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways (rational arguments for the existence of God) it is grounded in the Greek metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle. Both argued that the fact of motion (i.e. things move) requires a mover ('... the series must start with something for nothing can come from nothing' (Aristotle)). The key ideas are 'contingency' and 'necessity'. To say of something that it exists is to also point to other factors that have influenced (and caused) it to exist. For example, to say that the computer I am currently using to write these words on exists it to say that the materials, machinery and people by which is constructed and made, also exist. If they had not then this computer would not exist.

The major features of the cosmological argument are

• Things come into existence because something has caused

Therefore there must be a first mover.

been presented in many ways. In each form, the argument

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