THEACADEMY.ONLINE IGCSE

1. BELIEF,
UNCERTAINTY
AND UNBELIEF
ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE
OF GOD

2. ARISTOTLE (384-
322 BCE)

3. ARISTOTLE
AND THE
PRIME
MOVER
• All movement depends on there
being a mover.
• By movement, Aristotle was referring
to all change (growth, melting etc.)
• The result is a chain of events with
each movement being caused by a
mover.

4. THERE
MUST BE A
BEGINNING
TO ALL OF
THIS…
The chain of events cannot continue
infinitely.
This must be an eternal substance, immune
to any change (cannot decay or die).
Must be unmoved (not moved by anything
else)
Aristotle called this unmoved mover the
Prime Mover.

5. AQUINAS (1224 –
1274)

6. ST THOMAS
AQUINAS
• He felt Aristotle’s logic was
compatible with Christianity and
often quoted him in support of his
arguments about God.
• He put forward his own
Cosmological argument, three
different ways.

7. ONE
MOTION
Any kind of motion, including any
change of quality or quantity.
This chain of movements cannot go
back infinitely.
There must be a first mover which is
itself unmoved.
This Prime Mover is God.

8. TWO
CAUSE
Cause and effect in the world.
Nothing can be the cause of itself.
Aquinas rejects an infinite chain of causes.
There must be a first uncaused cause.
This first cause is God.

10. THREE
CONTINGENCY
•Everything that begins to exist has
a cause.
•The universe began to exist.
•The universe must have a cause…

11. • If time were infinite..
• There would be a time
when nothing existed…
• This is because of
contingency
• If something is
contingent it by
definition cannot
continue forever…

12. If there was a time when
nothing existed…
Something must have
caused things to exist.
This thing must be
necessary.
This necessary being is
God.
God is necessary because
if God didn’t exist then
nothing else would exist.

13. CHALLENGES
DAVID HUME
1711-76

14. HUME
We only know what we experience.
We experience cause and effect in the world.
This leap from experienced cause and effect to
the cause of the universe is IMAGINED.
The mind has connected the two events –
induction.
This is not evidence of God.

15. IMMANUEL KANT
(1724-1804)

16. KANT
The idea that everything in the world has a
cause only applies to sense experience.
This cannot apply to something we have not
experienced.
It is impossible for anyone to have knowledge
of anything outside time and space.

17. BERTRAND
RUSSELL (1872-
1970)

18. RUSSELL
Fallacy of composition
This means ascribing properties of the parts of
a whole to the whole.
‘Objects within the universe are created. The
universe is created.’