Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God. This, one of the traditional arguments for the existence of God (see God) and one of the five pro posed by Thomas Aquinas (see Quinque Viae), goes back to Aristotle and is based on the concept of causality. It proceeds from observed facts about the universe; it notes that every event has a cause; and it concludes from an analysis of these facts there must be a first cause. Since everything in the universe is in process and everything that exists exists contingently on the existence of something else, there must be some entity or principle, the first cause, who is not in process but is the prime mover (he who moves but is himself unmoved) and, in contrast to all contingent beings, necessarily exists. The cosmological argument, whether in Aristotle's or any other form, emphasizes the notion that this principle or being who necessarily exists does not depend on the universe yet the universe depends on him. He is likewise changeless while all else is in process of change. Against this view is the objection that it need not be so. The causal series leading into the past need have no beginning. The causal chain may regress infinitely. Hume, attacking the principle of causation as traditionally understood, rejected the Cosmological Argument. Kant rejected it on the ground that the principle, while it applies to the world of phenomena, cannot be known to apply to the real world, i.e., the reality that lies behind the world as we see it. Although the objection is by no means without weight, this form of the argument for the existence of God remains a very powerful one. We must note, however, that one might accept the Cosmological Argument as valid yet not accept the existence of God exactly as he is portrayed in the Bible and in traditional Christian theology. That is, even though it proves that a principle or entity exists as the prime mover, necessary being, and first cause, it does not prove that that principle or entity has the attributes that are traditionally assigned by Christians and others to God, e.g., the first cause or prime mover need not care for the fall of a sparrow or exercise a providential governance over the universe. Christian faith looks beyond the notion that God is to the question of what God is and arguments of this type, valid though we may deem them, do not yield all that Christian believers traditionally assert about the nature of God. See also Causa Sui.

Geddes MacGregor, Dictionary of Religion and Philosophy, New York: Paragon House, 1989