The argument appears to answer the questions: .
• How did the universe begin?.
• Why was the universe created?.
• Who created the universe?.
The cosmological argument is not just a Christian attempt to prove the existence of the classical theistic deity. Plato and Aristotle postulated the need for a craftsman and a cause of all things.
The most famous Christian application of the cosmological argument was offered by St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) who was a theologian, Aristotelian scholar, and philosopher. Called the Doctor Angelicus (the Angelic Doctor,) Aquinas is considered one the greatest Christian philosophers to have ever lived. Thomas Aquinas proposed five ways that "proved" the existence of god, the first three ways are cosmological arguments the fourth is a form of ontological argument and the fifth is a form of a teleological argument. .
The first way-(The unmoved mover) is formally expressed as .
• Everything that is in motion is moved by something else.
• Infinite regress is impossible.
Therefore there must be a first mover.
Aquinas was speaking of motion in the broadest sense. He included not only movement from one place to another, but.
also movement in the sense of change of quality or quantity.
According to Aquinas, an object only moved when an.
external force was applied to it. .
Aquinas wasn't arguing that the universe necessarily had a beginning. He thought it did, but said that you cannot reason that out as it was revealed doctrine. Rather his emphasis was on dependency. .
The same argument of dependency was taken up in the twentieth century by Swinburne.
The second way-(The uncaused causer) is formally expressed as .
• Every effect has a cause.
• Infinite regress is impossible.
Therefore there must be a first cause.
Put differently it means everything that happens has a cause. The cause itself has a cause. Something cannot cause itself for this would mean it proceeded itself and this is impossible i.
