3. Approaches to the Design Argument Flashcards
1
Q
Describe a brief biography of Richard Swinburne
A
- born 1934
- professor of philosophy of the Christian religion at Oxford from 1985-2002
- he has been an influential figure in arguing for the probability for God’s existence, most notably in his most accessible work, Is There A God? (1996)
- he has written on many other subjects including the problem of evil, the mind-body problem & free will
2
Q
Explain Swinburne’s use of probability as an argument for God’s existence
A
- drawing on Ockham’s razor (the principle that the simplest explanation is the most likely), Swinburne argues from probability, when joined with the cumulative evidence of other proofs of God’s existence - the cosmological, ontological & moral arguments - the design argument raises the probability of God’s existence
- while science can explain many of the regularities we see around us, it is still a logical and reasonable step to postulate a God who created our universe
- for example, we can accept Darwinism but still ask, ‘What makes natural selection occur?’
- therefore, it could be that the universe was organised & designed so that life would evolve by natural selection
3
Q
What is theism?
A
the idea that God wants to interact with His creation, & therefore he is an immanent being
4
Q
Why is idea of theism sometimes considered harmful?
A
leads to “deism”, which is the idea that God is solely transcendent because He gives humans to autonomy to operate the universe
5
Q
What are “regularities of co-presence”?
A
this means that everything in the universe works together in an orderly way
6
Q
What does Swinburne say about order & regularity?
A
- like Paley, Swinburne compares this [the watchmaker] with the machines that human beings make which also have parts that work well together & exhibit spatial order
7
Q
What are “regularities of succession”?
A
the orderly pattern of the universe is very simple e.g. Newton’s Laws
