the onotological proof

The philosopher Plato questioned “ How can a thing that is moved by another ever be the beginning of change?” Plato related this to processes within the universe of motion or change and their need for a beginning then translated this view for the creation of the universe concluding there was a need for a ‘motion which can move itself”. Aristotle, Plato’s pupil, carried forward the cosmological argument combining it with religion around 360 BC.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was the most influential philosopher in the development of the cosmological argument. He was convinced there were features of the world that could prove the existence

Physics significantly destroyed part of the cosmological argument, quantum mechanics have now undermined our understanding of causality as things can cause themselves. Furthermore Stephen Hawking saw the Big Bang as a beginning, which can never be reached or even an oscillating universe- big bang-big crunch etc. Hawking wrote that that the universe may be self contained with no boundary limiting the uses of a creator.

The cosmological argument is strong because it begins on an unquestionable premise: that the universe exists. The main strength of the cosmological argument is that the main points are logical; there must be a beginning if actual infinities are rejected and that this beginning must be outside the universe. The rejection of actual infinities is based upon the reasoning that there have been none discovered in the physical universe and their complex properties make then almost inconceivable. Mathematician Reuben Hersh questioned “ Where do infinities come from? Not from observation and not from physical experience…. The idea of infinity exists but not infinity itself.” The lack of evidence for actual infinities is a mathematical strength behind the cosmological argument.

Bertrand Russell took the simplistic line that” the universe it just there and that’s all there is to say” he did not agree with the questioning to its origin, whilst John Hick inquired “how do we know that the universe is not a mere unintelligible brute fact?”

Aquinas’ third was delves into the notion of things being either contingent or necessary. Something labeled contingent has the possibility to exist or not exist and therefore at one point in time nothing that was contingent did exist. In third way Aquinas refers to God as a necessary being, something which has to exist and is not dependent on anything else for its existence. Aquinas called on people to respond to this conclusion by admitting “the existence of some being having of itself its own necessity.” He went a step further to say “this all men speak of as God.”

Some topics in this essay:
God’ Schopenhauer, , Reuben Hersh, Gottfried Leibniz, God” Aquinas’, God Aquinas’s, Hawking Bang, Lane Craig, Russell Hume, Immanuel Kant, cosmological argument, actual infinities, beginning universe, strength cosmological argument, strength cosmological, lack evidence actual, world universe, cause hume, universe finite, russell hume, infinite regress, evidence actual infinities, william lane craig, argument aquinas’,