Cosmological argument Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Metaphysical argument for the existence of God=== [[Duns Scotus]], the influential Medieval Christian theologian, created a metaphysical argument for the existence of God. Though it was inspired by Aquinas' argument from motion, he, like other philosophers and theologians, believed that his statement for God's existence could be considered separate to Aquinas'. His explanation for God's existence is long, and can be summarised as follows:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.logicmuseum.com/wiki/Authors/Duns_Scotus/Ordinatio/Ordinatio_I/D2/Q2B|title=Authors/Duns Scotus/Ordinatio/Ordinatio I/D2/Q2B - The Logic Museum|website=www.logicmuseum.com}}</ref> #Something can be produced. #It is produced by itself, by nothing, or by another. #Not by nothing, because nothing causes nothing. #Not by itself, because an effect never causes itself. #Therefore, by another ''A''. #If A is first then we have reached the conclusion. #If A is not first, then we return to 2). #From 3) and 4), we produce another- ''B''. The ascending series is either infinite or finite. #An infinite series is not possible. #Therefore, God exists. Scotus deals immediately with two objections he can see: first, that there cannot be a first, and second, that the argument falls apart when 1) is questioned. He states that [[infinite regress]] is impossible, because it provokes unanswerable questions, like, in modern English, "What is infinity minus infinity?" The second he states can be answered if the question is rephrased using [[modal logic]], meaning that the first statement is instead "It is possible that something can be produced." Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page