SERIES

Cosmological Argument

by Timothy Yenter

Consider the pros and cons of this ancient argument for God’s existence.

MEET YOUR LECTURER

Timothy Yenter

I was a Graduate Teaching Fellow at the Yale Teaching Center and a Research Fellow at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. I have previously taught courses at Montana State University-Bozeman, Bethel University, and Yale University.

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Episodes

EPISODE ONE

Part 1

Timothy Yenter lays out a classic argument for the existence of God, called ‘The Cosmological Argument’ — roughly, the idea that something has to explain why the world is the way it is, and that something is God. He distinguishes two versions: the Beginnings Argument, and the Modal Argument. He covers the Beginnings Argument.

EPISODE TWO

Part 2

Timothy Yenter moves on to the version of the Cosmological Argument for the existence of God called ‘the Modal Argument.’ The idea is that all the contingent facts about the world need to be explained by some necessary fact, and that necessary fact is that God exists.