20TH FEBRUARY, 2010

CHRISTIAN WORLD VIEW

Q. Examine how Christian ontology and cosmology prove that the universe was created and
sustained by God.

2010
HANSON ELIJAH

ANU08130206
Ontology is define as the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as

well as the basic categories of being and their relations, therefore Christian Ontology then becomes the

study of God as one Supreme Perfect Being, nature, existence or His reality, who is the source of all

beings and reality. God is the ultimate reality because He is, and we are. Today in the West, the term

"God" typically refers to a monotheistic concept of a supreme being that is unlike any other being.

Classical theism asserts that God possesses every possible kind of perfection, including such qualities as

omniscience, omnipotence, and perfect benevolence. Other philosophical approaches take a logically

simple definition of God such as "the prime mover" or "the uncaused cause", or "the ultimate creator"

or "a being than which nothing greater can be conceived" from which the classical properties may be

deduced. Certainty about the existence of "the self" and "the other", however, has come under

increasing criticism. According to Mead, "we do not assume there is a self to begin with. Self is not

presupposed as a stuff out of which the world arises. Rather the self arises in the world" –but in actual

sense the world generates from self according to Christians.

Cosmology is also defined as the philosophical study of the universe, composing of the structure

and origin of it. The Bible then gives us how this universe of ours was created; this account is

found in John 1 “In the beginning [of the cosmos] was the Word [as likened to a reason, thought

or intelligence] and the Word was with God and the Word was God. In this context we can

deduce the other of things in the universe that it began as a thought in the mind of a Supreme

Being before it was establish due to the fact that without logos there is no cosmos-literally

meaning that the logos[intelligence of a Being] creates a cosmos[creation]. The creativity of God

is continuous: if God as the creator withdrew his creative presence from an entity, it would cease

to exist. Therefore, according to this theological thinking God is not just the cause of all things,

past, present, and future, but he is the essence of their being.

Since God (of the kind to which the proofs/arguments relate) is neither an entity in the universe

nor a mathematical object, it is not obvious what kinds of arguments/proofs are relevant to God's

existence. The nature of mans being seeks to understand who he is where he ‘comes’ from

[origin], why he is here [purpose] and his whole essence, with Christian ontology in essence we

note that we don’t just exist but that we are beings from a Supreme being, This argument

examines the concept of God and states that if we can conceive of the greatest possible being

then it must exist. Based on this argument we actually see the universe consisting of a chain of

actual beings each giving existence to the one below it and responsible for the existence of the

rest of the chain below because he deems an actual infinite impossible, the chain as a whole must

terminate in a being that is wholly simple and one, whose essence is its very existence and

therefore is self sufficient and not in need of something else to give its existence. Because its

existence is not necessitated by something else but necessary and eternal in itself, it satisfies the

condition of a being the necessitating cause of the entire chain that constitutes the eternal world

of contingent existing things. René Descartes, with "cogito ergo sum" or "I think, therefore I

am", argued that "the self" is something that we can know exists with epistemological certainty.

Descartes argued further that this knowledge could lead to a proof of the certainty of the

existence of God, using the ontological argument as explained before.

Now, to the Christian understanding of cosmology giving rise to a cosmological argument for the

existence of God- as a Uncaused Cause for all caused things in the universe, meaning that for

every cause the was a cause behind it, in this sense God is the Uncaused Cause for which the

universe exists. A notion put forth by Thomas Aquinas which is now known as the Argument for

Motion, in it he asserts that things in motion could not have brought themselves in motion but

must be caused to moved so therefore there cannot be an infinite impression of movers therefore
there must be an unmoved mover hence, this unmoved mover is God. Therefore the big question

is who is the Cause of things existing? Everything that exists has a cause. However, there must at

some time have been a cause prior to all other causes. This 'prime mover' or first cause is

necessary to explain existence. This first cause is God.

Furthermore, every creator[owner] is thought to have the sole authority over his creation[ what

he owns], for example the owner of a car does his own maintenance in the same sense God being

the owner of the universe preserves[ sustains] His Creation.

In conclusion, Since I believe that this physical reality is a thought in the mind of God, I

understand reality as one unified whole; God's "mind" is the framework that generates and holds

together all reality. Thus, Supernature is God's nature, will, and imagination. Reailty is all one

thing, and that one thing is created and sustained by God (that one thing is thought).