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Topic: First cause argument

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	Does God Exist? First Rebuttal by Bill Cooke
		But more than this, his arguments underscored the main point in my opening address: that all this god-talk is nothing more than a vain contrivance to assert for our species some baroque cosmic significance, using the entire cosmos as a backdrop.
		Even if we accept for the sake of argument the need for a first cause, there is no remote reason why it should be a god, let alone this god and not that god.
		We have seen that Mr Aijaz's arguments for the existence of his god, which he arbitrarily assumes to be the only god, rest on sleight-of-hand, an arcane scholasticism, and an unwarrantable level of anthropocentrist conceit.
	www.infidels.org /library/modern/bill_cooke/cooke-aijaz/cooke2.html (1176 words)

	Cosmological argument - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The cosmological argument is an argument for the existence of God, also traditionally known as an "argument from universal causation," an "argument from first cause," and also as the "uncaused cause" argument.
		The Aristotlean formulation of the argument held that the universe is of an essence or substance such that all things in the universe are caused: dependent and contingent.
		In either case, though the "cause" is not supernatural as the monotheistic form of the cosmological argument suggests, it is, nonetheless, "specialized" and yields to a form of naturalistic dualism.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/First_cause_argument (3024 words)

	CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Cause
		With certain important modifications concerning the eternity of the material cause, the substantiality of certain formal causes of material entities, and the determination of the final cause, the fourfold division was handed on to the Christian teachers of patristic and scholastic times.
		Thomas Aquinas, the doctrine of the four causes of being is set forth in connection with the modifications noted.
		The final cause is to be sought for in the intention of the moulder.
	www.newadvent.org /cathen/03459a.htm (8920 words)

	The Strawman's Corner
		An argument that many philosophers have used to establish the existence of God is that God must exist as the first cause of all other things or events in the universe.
		And if there is a first cause, it does not follow that it has the characteristics that the God of personal theism is supposed to have.
		The first cause argument, then, is not an especially promising approach to establishing the existence of God.
	www.members.tripod.com /~deafwatch/tsc599.htm (884 words)

	The First Cause Argument (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		The basic argument is very simple: everything in the world around us has a cause; but the chain of causation cannot extend back into infinity; therefore, there must be a first cause, and this is God.
		He is begging the question if by "first cause" he means the cause that has the property of being first, for then he is simply assuming the very thing he is attempting to demonstrate.
		The first cause does not have to be a conscious being, much less one with all of the unusual properties commonly ascribed to God —; it could be, for instance, the Big Bang.
	members.aol.com /kiekeben/firstcause.html (927 words)

	Philosophy 101: Notes on the First Cause Argument
		And there is nothing in the argument to show that a first cause would have to have these other attributes or that from the existence of a first cause it would follow that some other being had these attributes.
		This first member, though a more or less remote cause of all the events that follow it in the chain, cannot itself have a cause, since then it wouldn't be the first member of the chain (its cause would be).
		If, as seems plausible, triggering and structuring causes are scientific concepts in the sense that they can be used only to answer local why-questions, then we cannot produce an atemporal interpretation of the First Cause Argument by retreating to the claim that God is the first or ultimate structuring cause of the universe.
	lilt.ilstu.edu /pefranc/firstcause.html (1544 words)

	Cosmological Argument
		The Cosmological Argument or First Cause Argument is a philosophical argument for the existence of God which explains that everything has a cause, that there must have been a first cause, and that this first cause was itself uncaused.
		Thomas Aquinas, a Christian, then expanded on Aristotle's ideas in the 13th century AD and molded the first cause-concept into a framework in which the cause of the universe itself is uncaused: the First Cause is God.
		The Kalam Cosmological Argument is consistent with the biblical account of the beginning of the universe and of the 'First Cause'.
	www.allaboutphilosophy.org /cosmological-argument.htm (811 words)

	Objections to the First Cause Argument
		The first cause argument is the argument that everything that has a beginning of its existence has a cause, that the universe has a beginning of its existence, and that the universe therefore has a cause.
		The first cause argument is the argument that everything that has a beginning of its existence has a cause, that the universe has a beginning of its existence, and that the universe therefore has a cause of its existence.
		The first cause argument is an argument from the mere fact that a temporal universe exists to the existence of an eternal creator of it.
	www.existence-of-god.com /first-cause-objections.html (704 words)

	Arguments for the Existence of God
		If he starts out claiming that all occurring causal series have first, middle and last elements, then he has already assumed that there is a first cause and that the series of past events must be finite.
		Thus, his argument favor of 3 presupposes the conclusion it argues for and is fallacious.
		First of all, it should be noted that there is a science of infinite series that they are well understood now in a way they were not in Aquinas's time.
	www.mindspring.com /~mfpatton/god.htm (4728 words)

	Theistic Arguments: First Cause (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		The Cosmological Argument, also known as the First Cause Argument, is one of the most important arguments for the existence of God, not only because it is one of the more convincing, but also because it is one of the most used.
		The thought that everything that happens must have a cause, and that the first cause of everything must have been God is widespread.
		And just suppose that every thing has a cause, then the argument is still invalid, for the Universe is not a thing, it is the set of all things.
	www.positiveatheism.org /faq/firstcause.htm (517 words)

	The First Cause Argument by Peter Kreeft
		If there is no first cause, each particular thing in the universe is explained in the short run, or proximately, by some other thing, but nothing is explained in the long run, or ultimately, and the universe as a whole is not explained.
		If there is no first cause, no being who is eternal and self-sufficient, no being who has existence by his own nature and does not have to borrow it from someone else, then the gift of existence can never be passed down the chain to others, and no one will ever get it.
		He argues that if there were no first efficient cause, or cause of the universe's coming into being, then there could be no second causes because second causes (i.e., caused causes) are dependent on (i.e., caused by) a first cause (i.e., an uncaused cause).
	www.peterkreeft.com /topics/first-cause.htm (2172 words)

	The First Cause Argument (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		The first cause argument asserts that everything we see around us is causal in nature, therefore if one goes up the chain of causality, one will encounter the First Cause, and that would be God.
		First, there's no reason to assume that if everything has a cause then God must have a cause.
		This argument is similar to saying that if objects A and B possess the property P, then an object C also possesses the same property.
	www.mit.edu /activities/mitmsa/NewSite/libstuff/russell/node2.html (253 words)

	PHIL 1301 - Exam 1 (Spring 2006)
		To explain an argument, you should say what the premises are, what the conclusion is, what sort of argument it is, and how the premises are supposed to support the conclusion.
		To evaluate the argument, you need to consider objections to the argument and explain why you think they are or are not justified.
		An objection to an argument may be either a reason to think one or more of the premises is false, or a reason to think that the premises do not support the conclusion.
	www.trinity.edu /cbrown/intro/introExam1S06.html (397 words)

	THE 'BIG BANG' ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
		the first is the cause of the intermediate cause, and the intermediate is the cause of the ultimate cause....
		Finally, even if this argument did succeed in proving the existence of a first cause, it wouldn't succeed in proving the existence of god because there is no reason to believe that the cause of the universe has any of the properties traditionally associated with god.
		Unlike the traditional first-cause argument, this argument is not self-refuting because it does not imply that god has a cause.
	www.infidels.org /library/modern/theodore_schick/bigbang.html (4494 words)

	Deepest Thinker's Page
		first cause; this first cause, however, must not be considered simply as the first in a series of continuing causes, but rather as first
		first contended weakness, however, there are grave difficulties in the move from contingent to necessary existence.
		causes of becoming, which are temporal, from a cause of being, which is not.
	www.biblehistory.com /deepest.html (2154 words)

	[No title]
		The First Cause Argument The "First Cause" argument (a version of the Cosmological Argument) attempts to establish that the universe must have had a "first cause".
		The Design Argument According to the Design Argument, the best explanation for the complex harmony that we find in the world is that it is the result of the handiwork of a designer.
		Chief examples of the complex harmony that proponents of the argument have used are biological systems (humans, hearts, plants, etc.) One persuasive way to make the case is to appeal to an analogy with things like watches.
	www.unc.edu /~theis/uncg/paper.doc (1015 words)

	firstcause (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		Perhaps the simplest and easiest to understand is the argument of the First Cause.
		The philosophers and the men of science have got going on cause, and it has not anything like the vitality it used to have; but, apart from that, you can see that the argument that there must be a First Cause is one that cannot have any validity.
		If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument.
	www.qpalzm.org /philosophy/firstc.html (230 words)

	The Cosmological Argument: The First Cause or Prime Mover
		Of course, the traditional cosmological arguments offered by Aquinas and others have largely been supplanted by contempory versions of the argument, such as the Kalam cosmological argument, cosmological arguments based on big bang and quantum cosmology, and arguments based on philosophical considerations concerning time and causation.
		The author argues that the existence of God cannot be deduced on the basis of the universe having a first cause.
		According to one form of the Kalam Cosmological Argument, as expounded by William Lane Craig, there cannot be a beginningless temporal world because the application of Cantorian set theory of transfinite arithmetic to the real world generates counterintuitive absurdities, thereby disclosing that an infinite set of real entities is metaphysically impossible.
	www.infidels.org /library/modern/theism/cosmological.html (3946 words)

	Martial Arts Planet - Consolidated Refutation of the First Cause Argument
		If it is valid to infer the universe must be caused, then it is valid to infer that the cause of that cause must be caused.
		There is no justification whatsoever for the claim that the first cause is not also caused.
		The concept of a first cause is flawed on several levels and results in multiple paradoxes.
	www.martialartsplanet.com /forums/showthread.php?t=32111 (1493 words)

	If God created the universe, then who created God?
		A valid argument is one where it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false.
		The argument in this paper is valid; it is of the same form as: All whales have backbones; Moby Dick is a whale; therefore Moby Dick has a backbone.
		Also, if there is no cause, there is no explanation why this particular universe appeared at a particular time, nor why it was a universe and not, say, a banana or cat which appeared.
	www.answersingenesis.org /tj/v12/i1/universe.asp (1700 words)

	Bertrand Russell (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		This caused him to analyze classes, for it was known that given any number of elements, the number of classes they result in is greater than their number.
		Russell's solution was, first of all, to analyze not the term alone but the entire proposition that contained a definite description.
		In the book, Russell considers a number of logical arguments for the existence of God, including the first cause argument, the natural-law argument, the argument from design, and moral arguments.
	bertrand-russell.iqnaut.net (6275 words)

	Deism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-24)
		'''Deism''' is belief in a God or first cause based on reason and experience rather than on faith or revelation, and thus a form of theism in opposition to fideism.
		The view of an impersonal and abstract God has caused Many to claim that Deism is "cold" and amounts to atheism.
		However, Deists maintain that the opposite is true and that this view leads to a feeling of awe and reverence based on the fact that personal growth and a constant search for knowledge is required.
	deism.iqnaut.net (1092 words)

	Aquinas: Five Ways to Prove that God exists -- The Arguments
		Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God.
		Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.
		Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.
	www.mnstate.edu /gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/aquinasFiveWays_ArgumentAnalysis.htm (501 words)

	Correspondence with Chris Neufeld regarding atheism, big bang, and the first cause argument for the existence of god.
		Correspondence with Chris Neufeld regarding atheism, big bang, and the first cause argument for the existence of god.
		You might not know this, but you are offering something that is a little like what is know in the philosophy of religion as the "first cause" argument for the existence of God.
		Read about it with much more explanation in the article entitled "The 'Big Bang' Argument for the Existence of God (1998*)" at URL http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theodore_schick/bigbang.html, unless, of course, your real purpose is not to understand, but to convince.
	www.xenodochy.org /mail/cn030721.html (4529 words)

	First Cause - OneLook Dictionary Search
		Tip: Click on the first link on a line below to go directly to a page where "First Cause" is defined.
		First Cause : Encarta® World English Dictionary, North American Edition [home, info]
		Phrases that include First Cause: first cause argument, the first cause theory
	www.onelook.com /?w=First+Cause&ls=a (151 words)

	The First Cause Argument
		The answer is that the concept of cause is analogical — that is, it differs somewhat but not completely from one example to another.
		, it is sometimes argued (e.g., by Bertrand Russell) that there is a self-contradiction in the argument, for one of the premises is that everything needs a cause, but the conclusion is that there is something (God) which does not need a cause.
		"The First Cause Argument." excerpted from Fundamentals of the Faith.
	www.catholiceducation.org /articles/apologetics/ap0168.html (2236 words)

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