Cosmological argument

In the philosophy of religion, a cosmological argument is an argument for the existence of God based upon observational and factual statements concerning the universe (or some general category of its natural contents) typically in the context of causation, change, contingency or finitude.^[1][2][3] 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 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 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 Parmenidean causal principle that "nothing comes from nothing".

Contemporary defenders of cosmological arguments include William Lane Craig,^[4] Robert Koons,^[5] John Lennox, Stephen Meyer, and Alexander Pruss.^[6]