ABSTRACT
If the cosmological argument is to escape the criticisms which we have so far levelled against it, it clearly needs to take a very different form. The standard way in which theists try to avoid the criticisms is by retreating from the First Cause argument to the Argument from Contingency. The general structure of the Argument from Contingency claims:
(1) The universe (and all its contents) exist only contingently. (2) If anything exists contingently, something exists necessarily. So: (3) Something exists necessarily.
