Questions tagged [cosmological-argument]
17 questions
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If the universe has a beginning does that prove God exists?
It is curious to note that a eminent Physicist like Stephen Hawking thinks the universe has a beginning. This has some rather startling Religious implications
You can find the link here: http://www.hawking.org.uk/the-beginning-of-time.html
Now let…
Neil Meyer
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Does St. Thomas Aquinas' cosmological argument from contingency assume that an infinite regress of contingent things is impossible?
The Third Way: Argument from Possibility and Necessity (Reductio argument)
We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, that
come into being and go out of being i.e., contingent beings.
Assume that every being is a contingent…
Jonah Pate
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An argument against brute physical facts
I would like to know what anybody thinks of the following argument against brute physical facts, such as the idea that the material universe as a whole is a brute fact.
A physical fact is taken to mean a true statement about something that is…
Mark
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What precisely are brute contingent facts?
In my philosophical discourses typically relating to cosmological arguments, I've been astounded by brute facts, and how they relate to contingency and necessity. My reflections can be adduced by a particular comment from a post about brute…
Khasim Amedu
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Is there a logical reason to default to a certain type of first cause?
While there are some exceptions, physics generally holds that the universe has a beginning.
Assuming that there is a first cause of the universe, what are the logical based reasons for preferring either simple/unintelligent first cause or a…
Joseph Hirsch
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How do we know things don't come into existence Ex Nihilo on their own?
The Kalam Cosmological Argument relies on the idea that things don't just pop into existence from nothing, or they don't come into existence Ex Nihilo. However, it seems that it justifies this based on the idea that things don't come into existence…
Luke Hill
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A small reformulation of the Cosmological Argument
I am sure the cosmological argument has been raised here by people like me who know nothing about philosophy numerous times before on this board. But I'm wondering if a slightly different approach can strengthen it.
It seems to me that all forms of…
Mark
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Are all explanations either personal or scientific?
In A New Cosmological Argument, Richard Gale and Alexander Pruss offer up a cosmological argument for a personal God, from the weak principle of sufficient reason (among other premises, but the WPSR is their unique contribution).
They argue for the…
Adam Sharpe
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How sound is the Avicennian argument from Contingency?
There are numerous variations of the argument from contingency that that are postulated in apologetics and philosophical speculation, however I stumbled upon an argument that is ascribed to my knowledge to Avicenna, also known as Ibn Sina (though, I…
Khasim Amedu
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If there is no more gap, is the existence of God the logical conclusion?
The god of the gaps is used to fill the last gap in front of a fundamental explanation of the physical world.
Fundamental physical constants, like the masses of the elementary particle families (or their coupling strengths to the Higgs field) and…
Pathfinder
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Generating the simplest sort of Cosmological Argument
First, I am not a philosopher, but rather an applied mathematician. However, the Cosmological Argument has always intrigued me. At times I feel that all attempts are necessarily hopeless, at other times I feel that a clever argument could actually…
Mark
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Having S5 system Why we need to use WPSR in Gale Pruss New cosmological arguement?
As you know Gale_ Pruss improved The cosmological argument using WPSR instead of Strong PSR.
They in their 1999 article said if it be possibly that there be a God who freely created the world using S5 modal system there be such…
MHghasemi
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The resemblance of 'being that exists' with the 'element' in the definition of a set
What exactly is the meaning of the term 'being that exists' which is associated with the argument from contingency. Can I equate this term with an abstract object (SEP) such as 'element' in the mathematical definition of a set so that I can make a…
RIYASUDHEEN T. K
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The Kalam Cosmological Argument
I have recently watched a discussion between William Lane Craig and the CosmicSkeptic about the Kalam, and it gave me this idea, and I doubt I'm the first to have it but what if causality is in itself an intrinsic property of time, we know that we…
Jordan23
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Some questions about the cosmological argument given by Samuel Clarke
The exercise I am doing is as follows:
The following are my questions:
Why the exercise says that Samuel Clarke's argument "allow for the possibility of causal chains with no beginning"?
I reconstruct Samuel Clarke's argument. Is there something…
CharlieLei
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