RMPS: Belief and Science The Development of Cosmology

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The Development Of Cosmology
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Pre-Socratic Philosophers

• Thales sixth century BC
• All matter can be reduced to water
• Heraclitus
• Everything is in a state of flux and therefore
  everything is subject to change
• Democritus fifth century BC
• Atomism
• All matter is made up of very small particles

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Plato

• All that we see and experience are copies of
  unseen realities
• Forms and Universals
• Implications for religious belief and science
  the real is beyond what we experience in this
  world and is hidden in the eternal

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Aristotle 384322BC

• A turn towards experience
• Metaphysics
• Four Causes
• Material Cause
• Formal Cause
• Efficient Cause
• Final Cause
• Profound influence on Christian thought through
  St Thomas Aquinas

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Aristotle continued

• Unmoved movers
• What causes something to move?
• Is this an infinite series?
• An uncaused cause?
• St Thomas Aquinas Cosmological Argument God is
  the uncaused cause of the world!

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Ptolemy of Alexandria second century BC

• Medieval Christian Cosmology
• Mixture of Biblical imagery, Plato, Aristotle
  and Ptolemy
• Ptolemy
• Earth is centre of the universe
• Surrounded by glass spheres on which planets and
  stars moved
• Ten spheres seven for the planets, eighth was
  for stars, ninth was invisible and moved others,
  and tenth was the dwelling of God

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Ptolemy continued

• The Earth made of four elements
• Earth
• Water
• Air
• Fire
• Movement was a result of the tendency of the
  elements
• Movement of heavens is perfect and followed the
  perfect form, a circle
• Implications for later scientific theories!

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St Augustine of Hippo (354430)

• God is reflected in his creation
• The highest feature of creation is the human
  person
• God is reflected in the human person
• Wonder at the splendour of creation should lead
  us to acknowledge the existence of God
• Precursor of the Argument from Design

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The Kalam Argument

• Kalam (Arabic) to argue or discuss
• Two Muslim scholars al-Kindi (ninth century AD)
  and al Ghazali (10581111 AD)
• Cosmological Seeks to prove God is the creator
  of the universe

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Kalam argument continued

• The present exists because at some point it began
  to exist
• The universe began to exist and must be finite
• Because the universe exists, it must have a cause
  for its existence
• Therefore the universe has a first cause of its
  existence
• That first cause is God

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St Thomas Aquinas 12241274

• Brilliant philosophical and theological mind
• Developed a synthesis between Aristotles
  metaphysics and Christian theology
• Basis of his Five Ways into exploring the
  existence of God
• Natural philosophy and religion naturally open up
  into each other
• Aristotles Prime Mover/First Cause becomes
  central to the Christian view of the world