The
Development
Of
Cosmology
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
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
Aristotle 384–322BC
A turn towards experience
Metaphysics
Four Causes
Material Cause
Formal Cause
Efficient Cause
Final Cause
Profound influence on Christian thought
through St Thomas Aquinas
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!
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
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!
St Augustine of Hippo (354–430)
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
The Kalam Argument
Kalam (Arabic): to argue or discuss
Two Muslim scholars – al-Kindi (ninth
century AD) and al Ghazali (1058–1111
AD)
Cosmological – Seeks to prove God is
the creator of the universe
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
St Thomas Aquinas 1224–1274
Brilliant philosophical and theological mind
Developed a synthesis between Aristotle’s
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
Aristotle’s Prime Mover/First Cause becomes
central to the Christian view of the world