Theological Term of the Week

For the next few weeks, the theological terms will be the names of some traditional arguments used to justify belief in the existence of God. There is disagreement about the validity and usefulness of these proofs.

 

cosmological argument

An argument for the existence of God that begins with the existence of the universe and argues that the universe must have a cause, and that cause is God. 

• An example of a cosmological argument from Thomas Aquinas.
  

  The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. It is certain and evident to our senses that in the world some things are in motion. Now, whatever is moved is moved by another, for nothing can be moved except it is in potentiality to that towards which it is moved; whereas a thing moves inasmuch as it is in act. For motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality. But nothing can be reduced from potentiality to actuality, except by something in a state of actuality. Thus that which is actually hot, as fire, makes wood, which is potentially hot, to be actually hot, and thereby moves and changes it. Now it is not possible that the same thing should be at once in actuality and potentiality in the same respect, but only in different respects. For what is actually hot cannot simultaneously be potentially hot; but it is simultaneously potentially cold. It is therefore impossible that in the same respect and in the same way a thing should be both mover and moved, i.e., that it should move itself. Therefore whatever is moved must be moved by another. If that by which it is moved be itself moved, then this also must needs be moved by another, and that by another again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover, and consequently no other mover, seeing that subsequent movers move only inasmuch as they are moved by the first mover; as the staff moves only because it is moved by the hand. Therefore it is necessary to arrive at the first mover, moved by no other, and this everyone understands to be God.       

• John Frame on the validity of cosmological arguments:

  [E}ven Aquinas’s view requires assumptions, namely that nothing exists or happens without a sufficient cause, and that causes (including the cause of the universe) are accessible to human reason. Many skeptics of the past and present would not grant those assumptions.
  
  My conclusion is that our concepts of cause, reason and infinite series depend on worldviews, on ontological and epistemological assumptions. They are insufficient in themselves to serve as grounds for worldviews. A Christian theist will think differently from a skeptic about these matters. His Christian theism will govern his concepts of cause, reason, and  infinity, rather than the reverse. 

Learn more:

1. Theopedia: The Cosmological Argument 
2. GodQuestions.org: What is the cosmological argument for the existence of God?
3. Wikipedia: Cosmological Argument
4. Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry: The Cosmological Argument
   
5. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Cosmological Argument
6. Ronald Nash: The Cosmological Argument (audio)
   

Related links:

• moral argument
• ontological argument
• teleological argument
• trancendental argument for the existence of God

This series of theological terms was suggested by Kim of Hiraeth.

 

Have you come across a theological term that you don’t understand and you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.