"Nothing comes from nothing." Aquinas argued therefore argued that because the universe exists, God must have made it.
First Way: Motion - Aristotle theorised that everything is constantly in motion, or a state of change. Aquinas developed this by saying that this change must be caused by something, as changes do not happen by themselves. There can be no infinite regression of causes, as there would be no first cause. Therefore, there must be what Aristotle called the Prime Mover.
Second Way: Causation - Because everything is caused by something else, it would be illogical to say that something can cause itself because that would mean it was there before it began. Therefore, there must be a first cause; God.
Third Way: Necessity - Everything in the universe is contingent, because it relies on something else for its existence and it doesn't have to exist. If the universe's existence isn't necessary, it is possible for it not to exist, so we can assume that at one point the universe didn't exist. There must be something that is necessary (God), that can cause contingent things to come into existence, but doesn't rely on something else for its existence.

	Created by Summer Pearce about 8 years ago

AS - Level (Year 1) Philosophy (4b) Traditional Arguments for the Existence of God - Cosmo.) Slide Set on The Cosmological Argument, created by Summer Pearce on 10/03/2016.