First cause

The first cause is the postulate, popular in philosophy and theology, that, since everything that happens must have a cause, everything is traceable back to a first cause, usually referred to as God.

A popular argument for atheism - along with being a popular scientific rebuttal of intelligent design - is the notion of the infinite regress. Every action or being requires a cause, so if God exists, God must have a cause; that cause also had a cause, and so on, literally ad infinitum.

Christian theology (and some other religions as well) states that God is the "uncaused first cause"; that He is "eternally self-existent", or that He is "beyond time and space".

The first cause argument was presented by evangelical Christian philosopher T.Miethe in version resting on following premises:

• Some limited, changing being(s) exist.
• The present existence of every limited, changing being is caused by another.
• There cannot be an infinite regress of causes of being, because an infinite regress of finite beings would not cause the existence of anything.
• Therefore, there is a first Cause of the present existence of these beings.
• The first Cause must be infinite, necessary, eternal, and one.
• The first uncaused Cause is identical with the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

See also

• Cause and effect
• Entelechy
• Paradigm
• Singularity
• Special pleading