Editing Cosmological argument (section)

{{Short description|Argument for the existence of God}}

In the [[philosophy of religion]], a '''cosmological argument''' is an argument for the existence of [[God]] based upon [[observation]]al and [[fact]]ual statements concerning the [[universe]] (or some general category of its [[natural]] contents) typically in the context of [[cause and effect|causation]], change, contingency or finitude.<ref name="Reichenbach">{{cite encyclopedia|last1=Reichenbach |first1=Bruce |title=Cosmological Argument |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmological-argument/ |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |access-date=14 January 2025 |date=2022}}</ref><ref name=oderberg>{{cite book |last=Oderberg |first=David S. |author-link=David S. Oderberg |editor1-last=Meister |editor1-first=Chad |editor2-last=Copan |editor2-first=Paul |title=The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion |publisher=Routledge |date=September 1, 2007 |pages=341–350 |chapter=The Cosmological Argument |isbn=978-0415380386}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Craig |first1=William Lane |title=The Cosmological Argument From Plato to Leibniz |date=2001 |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock|Wipf and Stock Publishers]] |location=Eugene, Oregon |isbn=1-57910-787-7}}</ref> In referring to [[reason]] and observation alone for its [[premises]], and precluding [[revelation]], this category of argument falls within the domain of [[natural theology]]. A cosmological argument can also sometimes be referred to as an '''argument from universal causation''', an '''argument from first cause''', the '''causal argument''' or the '''prime mover argument'''.

The concept of causation is a principal underpinning idea in all cosmological arguments, particularly in affirming the necessity for a [[First Cause]]. The latter is typically determined in [[philosophical analysis]] to be [[God]], as identified within [[classical theism|classical conceptions of theism]].

The origins of the argument date back to at least [[Aristotle]], developed subsequently within the scholarly traditions of [[Neoplatonism]] and [[early Christianity]], and later under medieval [[muslim|Islamic]] [[scholasticism]] through the 9th to 12th centuries. It would eventually be re-introduced to Christian theology in the 13th century by [[Thomas Aquinas]]. In the 18th century, it would become associated with the [[principle of sufficient reason]] formulated by [[Gottfried Leibniz]] and [[Samuel Clarke]], itself an exposition of the [[Parmenides|Parmenidean]] causal principle that "[[creatio ex materia|nothing comes from nothing]]".

[[Contemporary philosophy|Contemporary]] defenders of cosmological arguments include [[William Lane Craig]],<ref name="craig-sinclair">{{cite book |last1=Craig |first1=William Lane |author-link=William Lane Craig |last2=Sinclair |first2=James D. |editor1-last=Craig |editor1-first=William Lane |editor2-last=Moreland |editor2-first=J. P. |editor2-link=J. P. Moreland |title=The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=May 18, 2009 |pages=101–201 |chapter=The ''Kalam'' Cosmological Argument |isbn=978-1405176576}}</ref> [[Robert Koons]],<ref name="newlook">{{cite journal |last=Koons |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Koons |date=1997 |title=A New Look at the Cosmological Argument |url=http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/philosophy/faculty/koons/cosmo.pdf |journal=American Philosophical Quarterly |publisher=University of Illinois Press |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=193–211 |access-date=2015-03-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030314133629/http://www.dla.utexas.edu/depts/philosophy/faculty/koons/cosmo.pdf |archive-date=2003-03-14 }}</ref> [[John Lennox]], [[Stephen Meyer]], and [[Alexander Pruss]].<ref name="pruss-gale">{{cite book |editor1-last=Gale |editor1-first=Richard M. |editor2-last=Pruss |editor2-first=Alexander |editor2-link=Alexander Pruss |date=March 2003 |title=The Existence of God |location=Burlington, VT |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-0754620518}}</ref>