There are many versions of the argument. Saint Thomas Aquinas (in the thirteenth century) and Samuel Clarke (in the eighteenth century) are the dominant contributors in the development of the argument. Though their arguments differ slightly, both men based their arguments on the observation that the world is rooted on causal relationships. Their arguments can be summarized into one argument as follows: Either the world is made up of things that depend on others for their existence (dependent beings), or things that are self-existent (independent beings). Not everything can depend on another for its existence. Therefore, there is some self-existing bein

Ultimately, if we want to use the Cosmological Argument to prove the existence of God, then we need more evidence to prove that the Principle of Sufficient Reason is true. PSR is the basis for the premises of the Cosmological Argument, and I have shown some examples that the traditional arguments in favor of the truth of PSR are unsound. Until there is evidence to prove that PSR is true, the Cosmological Argument is not able to provide support for the existence of God.

The second reason traditionally offered for defending PSR is by claiming that although it is not known to be true, it is, nevertheless, a presupposition of reason, a basic assumption that rational people make. The defender of PSR suggests that all of us presuppose that PSR is true, and that we couldn't engage in our everyday activity if we took seriously the possibility that it might be false. The problem with this second defense of PSR is that it even if it were true that we all presuppose PSR to be true, that wouldn't show that it was true. Even if PSR is a presupposition we all share, the premises of the Cosmological Argument could still be false. For PSR itself could be false.

Something has been overlooked though the only way that premise 1 and 2 can be true is if the Principle of Sufficient Reason is also true. The question, of course, is whether or not PSR is true. The first reason is that some have held that PSR is (or can be) known intuitively to be true, just as we know that two plus two

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