Cosmological Argument Essay

In this paper, I will explain the rationale of the cosmological argument and it’s objections as presented by Hume in the Dialogues Concering Natural Religion. My conclusion is that the cosmological argument ultimately fails to prove the existence of a self-caused being. I will show that is unreasonable to claim that there need be an explanation for the whole infinite series of a cause and effect chain. The character Demea primarily says that everything has a reason and utilizes this fundamental claim to prove the existence of a deity. He then continues to explain that it would be impossible for anything to be the cause of it’s own existence and by thus following this cycle of cause and effect, we either chase an infinite succession with no …show more content…
He concludes that unless we want to chase an infinite regress of possibilities, we must recourse to a necessarily existent being who has this property of existence in itself. This self-caused being is of course the God of Western ideologies. Hume used the character Demea to argue for the existence of a deity and similarly uses the character Cleanthes to provide objections against Demea’s arguments. I will argue for the claim that an infinite series does not require an external cause. I will explain this assertion by disapproving premise three of the cosmological argument, which states that we need to explain the cause of the whole infinite series itself. Hume argues …show more content…
Primarily, the idea of infinity is caused by the limitations of the human mind. Furthermore, infinity only has meaning under the branch of mathematics. Our human capacities are not strong enough to ponder greater possibilities of the universe and because of this limitation we have identified this concept of infinity to solve the cosmological dilemma.A self-caused deity, with the necessary powers can exist outside of this infinite series and thus be the creator of the infinite series