Proving God--The Cosmological Proof

 In April, I will be teaching a four week course on proving the existence of God.  Not really being an expert (God did not talk to me), or a philosopher, I am approaching the topic as a layman.  I understand the ideas, I know the arguments against, them, and I can agree with both sides.

To start, I will present an assumption.  God is unprovable.  There is no empirical evidence that points to God.  Proof depends on evidence.  I can prove I am writing this because whoever looks at it can read it.  We all agree that letters make words, and words make sentences.  We all will agree more or less on the meaning of the words, and how together they hopefully give a coherent thought.  In Geometry, which I took in 10th grade, we could claim the proofs to be true because we all agreed on the values of the numbers.  No one disputed that 2+2=4.

With God, we can only prove the philosophical necessity of a god.  For example, let's look at Aristotle and his Cosmological Argument.  We have to start with an assumption, which is unprovable.  Everything must have a cause.  His proof is based on the assumption that there cannot be an infinite regression of causes.  For example, I will use the alphabet as a proof.  Z was caused by Y which was caused by X.  We get to A.  Either A was cause by -Z, which was caused by -A, which was caused by     --Z, ad infinitum.  For Aristotle, an infinite regression of causes is no cause, so there must be an uncaused cause.  

Religious philosophers such as Maimonides and Aquinas, could accept the logic of Aristotle, but not his definition of cause.  Aristotle believed in infinite existence.  His universe was a sphere, a perfect shape without beginning or end.  Aristotle posited four causes--material, formal, efficient, and final.  Everything that exists is made up of material.  It has a shape and form.  It was made in that way for a reason.  For example, a table is made of wood, it has four legs and a top, it was manufactured by a carpenter, for me to eat my meals on it.  Since God has no form, God is the final cause.  God for Aristotle was a thinking thing.  God thought only about God, and did not know that a universe existed outside the thought process of God.  God's thoughts permeated through the spheres, ultimately reaching the earth.  God does not willingly ordain things to happen.  For example, God did not determine that on a certain day a certain lion should eat a certain gazelle.  Only that the balance of nature must be maintained by lions eating gazelles.

For Maimonides and Aquinas, whose theism was in opposition to the deism of Aristotle, cause meant bring into existence.   For them, believers in the biblical account of creation, an non-existent object cannot be the cause of its own existence.  If something exists, something caused its existence.  Accepting Aristotle's negation of infinite regression, there must be a cause of existence that does not exist, or has no cause for its existence.  Maimonides and Aquinas agreed with Aristotle that God is an intellect, since thought is not made of material and has no form.  As theists, God's knowledge created the world and controls it.  

As I stated, I do not think this proves the existence of God.  It might convince us of the philosophical necessity of a god, but not the God of the Bible.  Tomorrow, I will try again.




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