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Theistic Arguments – Contingency of the Universe.

August 13, 2009 at 9:33 pm | Posted in Apologetics, Theistic Philosophy | Leave a Comment

The Apologetics 315 blog is doing a weekly series entitled “Theistic Arguments.” If you are new to the realm of apologetics these posts are going to be worth while. They kick things off with these thoughts:

An Argument from the Contingency of the Universe

The universe didn’t have to be here, and even if it has always been here it didn’t have to be the way it is. This means the universe is a contingent thing. But all contingent things depend upon a cause which is itself contingent, but it is not possible that everything is contingent. Thus there must be a necessary (indeed, self-necessary) being which is the ultimate cause of the universe. God is the self-necessary ultimate cause of the universe.

Greatest Strength: Pure contingency is logically untenable, so it is difficult to believe that the universe is both contingent and uncaused.

Greatest Weakness: The contingency of the universe as a whole is difficult to establish convincingly unless one is already convinced that it has a cause.1

1 William C. Davis, Reason for the Hope Within (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 1999), p. 25.