What are four similarities between the cosmological and the teleological argument?

Answer 1

1. Both arguments were stated by St. Thomas Aquinas: the cosmological argument was his third and the teleological was his fifth of five arguments intended to prove the existence of God.
   
2. Both arguments extrapolate from assumptions and truisms to the "necessary" conclusion.
3. Both arguments are based on faith. Because of this, they simply assume that if there is a god, it can only be the Abrahamic God of Judaism, Christianity or Islam. Neither argument concerns itself with whether the god it claims to find could be a Hindu god or the god of another pantheon.
4. Both arguments can be faulted and shown to be logically unsound.

Answer 2

Both use the world around us as evidence. Both use extrapolation.

Both point to the necessary existence of a Divine Being (God).

Both are based upon logic and/or faith.

The cosmological argument states that everything must have a source, a creator or a cause, and concludes that the First Cause was (is) God, who got everything started.

The teleological argument states that the detailed design which we witness in the universe (especially in living things), is evidence of God's existence. For example, theoretical physicist and popular science writer Paul Davies (whose early writings were not especially sympathetic to theism) states concerning the fundamental structure of the universe, "the impression of design is overwhelming" (Davies, 1988, p. 203).

The two arguments are ancient. They were discussed by the classical Greek philosophers, but are stated still earlier in the Hebrew Bible, in passages such as Psalm 19 and Job 36:22 to 37:24.

See also the Related Links.

Link: A retort

Link: Is there evidence for Creation?

Link: Can you show that God exists?

Answer 3

Both use the world around us as evidence. Both use extrapolation.

Both point to the necessary existence of a Divine Being (God).

Both are based upon logic and/or faith.