The first cause argument
Thomas Aquinas
The first cause argument is an argument for the existence of God associated with A Christian monk and theologian (1225 - 1274). His ideas, such as the just war theory, have had a great influence on modern philosophy. (1225-1274).
Aquinas was a monk who used reason and logic to point to the existence of God.
Cause and effect
A common way to explain the first cause argument is to imagine a line of dominoes. None of the dominoes will fall unless something pushes the first one. They don’t just fall on their own.
Aquinas believed the universe is the same - something had to start the chain reaction. For him, that ‘first push’, or cause, is God and the effect is the universe.
He wrote: “It is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God.” (Summa Theologiae, Part I, Question 2, Article 3)
Arguments against Aquinas
Not everyone agrees with the first cause theory, and a big challenge for them is the question: “So who caused (created) God?”.
If everything needs a cause, then why is God unique in being exempt from this?
Some people also argue that if religious believers can say God is eternal and doesn’t need a cause, then the universe could also be eternal and not need God to start it.
In other words, if one thing (God) can be uncaused, then maybe something else (the universe) could also be uncaused.
How do religious people view first cause?
They believe that the opening lines of Genesis are evidence of Aquinas’s theory, as they teach us that God created everything from nothing: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty.’ (Genesis 1: 1-2)
The first cause argument is also supported by some modern Christians who accept the Big Bang theory and see no conflict between this scientific explanation and their belief in God.
In 2014, Pope Francis said that the Big Bang is not in conflict with the idea of a creator:
‘The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.’
