Cosmological and Design Arguments

Arguments for God's existence divide broadly into a posteriori arguments, which start from observed features of the world, and a priori arguments, which reason from concepts alone. The cosmological and teleological (design) arguments are the great a posteriori traditions. Both look at the universe and ask what best explains it, but they focus on different features: the cosmological argument on the sheer existence and dependence of things, the teleological argument on their apparent order and purpose.

The cosmological argument

Cosmological arguments hold that the existence of the universe requires an explanation beyond itself. Thomas Aquinas presented several versions in his Five Ways. The first three are cosmological. The argument from motion observes that things in motion are moved by oth