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Single Idea 21254
[filed under theme 28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / a. Cosmological Proof
]
Full Idea
The whole chain or succession [of causes and effects], taken together, is not caused by anything, and yet it is evident that it requires a cause or reason, as much as any particular object which begins to exist in time.
Gist of Idea
A chain of events requires a cause for the whole as well as the parts, yet the chain is just a sum of parts
Source
David Hume (Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion [1751], Part 9)
Book Ref
'The Existence of God', ed/tr. Hick,John [Macmillan 1964], p.95
A Reaction
This is such a major and significant idea. With blinkers on we think our questions are answered. Then someone (a philosopher, inevitably) makes you pull back and ask a much wider and more difficult question.
The
21 ideas
with the same theme
[existence of nature proves God exists]:
8144
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Brahman is the Uncaused Cause
[Anon (Upan)]
|
21257
|
Self-generating motion is clearly superior to all other kinds of motion
[Plato]
|
21258
|
The only possible beginning for the endless motions of reality is something self-generated
[Plato]
|
21261
|
Self-moving soul has to be the oldest thing there is
[Plato]
|
5699
|
If matter wasn't everlasting, everything would have disappeared by now
[Lucretius]
|
5760
|
The power through which creation remains in existence and motion I call 'God'
[Boethius]
|
5614
|
If you assume that there must be a necessary being, you can't say which being has this quality
[Kant on Aquinas]
|
21269
|
Way 1: the infinite chain of potential-to-actual movement has to have a first mover
[Aquinas]
|
21271
|
Way 3: contingent beings eventually vanish, so continuity needs a necessary being
[Aquinas]
|
21270
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Way 2: no effect without a cause, and this cannot go back to infinity, so there is First Cause
[Aquinas]
|
21272
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Way 4: the source of all qualities is their maximum, so something (God) causes all perfections
[Aquinas]
|
22124
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We can't infer the infinity of God from creation ex nihilo
[Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
|
3634
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We can't prove a first cause from our inability to grasp infinity
[Descartes]
|
12566
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We exist, so there is Being, which requires eternal being
[Locke]
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19418
|
Mechanics shows that all motion originates in other motion, so there is a Prime Mover
[Leibniz]
|
2099
|
The existence of God, and all metaphysics, follows from the Principle of Sufficient Reason
[Leibniz]
|
21254
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A chain of events requires a cause for the whole as well as the parts, yet the chain is just a sum of parts
[Hume]
|
1435
|
If something must be necessary so that something exists rather than nothing, why can't the universe be necessary?
[Hume]
|
5598
|
If you prove God cosmologically, by a regress in the sequences of causes, you can't abandon causes at the end
[Kant]
|
6205
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To know if this world must have been created by God, we would need to know all other possible worlds
[Kant]
|
20706
|
A distinct cause of the universe can't be material (which would be part of the universe)
[Davies,B]
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