01 Arguements For Gods Existence - C Challenges Flashcards
How can the cosmological arguement and the teleological arguement be criticised?
Philosophically and scientifically.
What is Hume?
An empiricist
What is an empiricist?
Someone who accepts things as true when there is empiricle evidence for it.
What did Hume reject the idea of?
A necessary being.
Explain Hume’s criticism of the cosmological arguement saying Aquinas made a huge leap.
Why should the 1st mover be the God of classical theism? Aquinas makes a huge leap from the need of a first mover to identifying it as God.
Explain Hume’s criticism of the cosmological arguement relating to empiricle evidence.
The arguement begins with something that is within our experience-the universe and reaches conclusions about things that are outside our experience.
Explain Hume’s criticism of the cosmological arguement stating the fallacy of composition.
Why do we need to find a cause for the whole chain if we can explain each item in the chain?
What is the fallacy of composition?
Just because everything in the universe has a cause doesn’t mean that the universe has a cause.
What does Hume say Aquinas makes?
A huge leap from the need of a first mover to identifying it as God.
What does Hume accept that Aquinas rejects?
Infinite regress.
Why does hume say that the design arguement makes a leap?
Makes a leap from saying there is a designer to saying it is God.
Why does Hume say that we have no basis for inferring that is anything like a human designer behind it?
Because the universe is unique.
Give an example of we have no basis for inferring that there is anything like a human designer behind it because the universe is unique.
If we see a house, we conclude that it had an architect as we have experienced this. But the universe is not like a house. We cannot with the same certainty infer a similar cause.
this analogy is imperfect
According to Hume what may the order of the universe be a result of?
Chance.
According to Hume, although ther may be order what is there no evidence for?
Intention. Design is only apparent.
What does Humes say the the universe is compared to in the teleological what what does he say it is more like?
Compare to an artefact.
More like a living organism.
What does Hume says the universe shows signs of?
Disorder or defects ‘bad design’. There is a great deal of random suffering as well as natural disasters.
What is the scientific explanation that disproves the cosmological arguement? Explain.
The big bang - 13.7 billion years ago there was a singularity. This singularity inflated, expanded and cooled to give us the universe we have today. Evidence- red blue shift.
What scientific explanation can disprove the teleological arguement?
Evolution (natural selection)
What theory did Darwin propose?
That random chance organises life in the universe accordingly to the principles of evolution and natural selection.
Explain natural selection.
Natural selection works on a principle of survival of the fittest. The strongest survive and pass on their genes.
What evidence is there for evolution?
Fossils and DNA.
