In This Article Edwards Attacks the Cosmological Argument, Specifically Aquinas's

question 7

True/False

In this article Edwards attacks the cosmological argument, specifically Aquinas's causal and contingency versions, holding that the argument fails at several points. Against the causal argument, he argues that the premise asserting the impossibility of an infinite series is false. Even if the argument were sound, he says, it would not prove the existence of a single first cause because a plurality of causes cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, the argument is not helped by the theist's distinction between causes that bring something into existence (causes in fieri) and causes that sustain something in existence (causes in esse). Some defend the causal argument by insisting that even if there were an infinite series of causes, there still must be an ultimate cause of the series as a whole. Edwards counters that such notions rest on the "erroneous assumption that the series is something over and above the members of which it is composed." Against the contingency argument, Edwards maintains that to explain a contingent phenomenon, we do not need to posit a necessary being and that those who make such a demand beg the question at issue.
-Paley thinks that the fact that a creation has defects shows that the creator must also have defects.

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Definitions:

Profit Maximization

The operation by which businesses deduce the pricing and quantity of output that maximizes profit gains.

Ore

Naturally occurring minerals or rock from which valuable metals or other elements can be extracted profitably.

Marginal Rate of Substitution

The rate at which a consumer is willing to trade one good for another while maintaining the same level of utility.

Pareto Optimal

An arrangement of resources where it is unworkable to elevate any person’s or preference's state without concurrently depreciating another’s.