4: Classical Theism II

Question 1

Recite the Leibnizian Cosmological Argument

Answer 1

1. Everything that exists has an explanation, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause
2. If the universe has an explanation, that explanation is God.
3. The universe exists.
4. Therefore, the universe has an explanation (1&3)
5. Therefore, the explanation of the universe is God (2&4)

Question 2

Why is the first premise not susceptible to the objection that some truths may have no explanation for their truth?

Answer 2

“This premise is compatible with there being brute facts about the world, what it precludes is that there could exist things that just exists inexplicably.”

Question 3

Explain why the typical atheist is himself committed to the truth of the second premise?

Answer 3

Because it is logically equivalent to what he believes.

“If atheism is true, then the universe has no explanation” is equivalent to “if atheism is not true, then the universe has an explanation.”

Question 4

Why is the second premise plausible in its own right?

Answer 4

Because the universe encompasses all of physical reality, which means that its cause must transcend space and time and cannot be physical or material.

Either an abstract object or an unembodied mind.

But abstract objects don’t stand in causal relations, the answer must be an unembodied mind.

Question 5

How does the kalam cosmological argument reinforce the Leibnizian cosmological argument?

Answer 5

The kalam cosmological argument shows that the universe is not eternal, but had a beginning, therefore, it is contingent.

Question 6

Recite the Kalam Cosmological Argument

Answer 6

1. Everything that begins to exists has a cause
2. The universe began to exist
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause

Question 7

What three reasons can be given in defense of the first premise?

Answer 7

1. Something cannot come from nothing
2. If things really do come from nothing, then it becomes inexplicable why anything does not come into being uncaused
3. The first premise is constantly confirmed in our experience

Question 8

How might you respond to someone who says that the first premise is true about everything in the universe but not of the universe itself?

Answer 8

Premise 1 is not merely a physical law, which are valid for things within the universe, but a metaphysical principle: that being cannot come from non-being. The principle therefore, applies to all reality.

Question 9

What can you say in response to people who claim that quantum physics furnishes an exception to the causal principle?

Answer 9

1. Not all scientists agree that sub-atomic events are uncaused
2. These particles do not come from “nothing”, they come as result of the fluctuations of the energy contained in the sub-atomic vaccuum.
3. The vaccuum is not “nothing” but a sea of fluctuating energy with a rich structure and subject to physical laws.

Question 10

What are the four lines of evidence in support of the second premise of the Kalam?

Answer 10

1. The Impossibility of an Actual Number of Things
2. The Impossibility of Forming an Actually Infinite Number of Things by Adding One Member After Another
3. The Expansion of the Universe
4. The Thermodynamic Properties of the Universe

Question 11

What is the evidence for The Impossibility of an Actual Infinite Number of Things?

Answer 11

1. An actually infinite number of things can’t exist
2. A beginningless series of events entails an actually infinite number of things
3. Therefore, a beginningless series of events can’t exist

Question 12

What is the evidence of the Impossibility of Forming an Actually Infinite Collection of Things by Adding One Member After Another?

Answer 12

1. The series of events in time is a collection formed by adding one member after another
2. A collection formed by adding one member after another cannot be actually infinite
3. Therefore, the series of events in time cannot be actually infinite.

Question 13

What is the difference between an actual and a potential infinite?

Answer 13

• Actual infinitie - collection of definite members whose number is greater than any natural number
• Potential infinite - an infinite that is increasing towards infinity but never gets there.

Question 14

How do you respond to “if an actual infinite cannot exist, then God must not be infinite”?

Answer 14

God’s infinity is qualitative, not quantitative; the nature of a metaphysically necessary being who is morally perfect, omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, etc.

Question 15

What is the A Theory of time?

Answer 15

The commonsense view that things or events in time are not equally real. Temporal becoming, that things go out of being and come into being, is an objective feature of reality.

Question 16

What is the B Theory of time?

Answer 16

All events in time are equally real and temporal becoming is an illusion of human consciousness.

Question 17

How does the A Theory underlie the second philosophical argument for the beginning of the universe?

Answer 17

The second philosophical argument presupposes the reality of the A theory.

Question 18

Explain how the Big Bang model implies an absolute beginning of the universe?

Answer 18

If the universe is expanding, we need only go back in time until one arrives at a state of infinite density called the singularity, where all space, time, matter, and energy shrunk to zero. There is no “outside” or “before” this singularity. Therefore, it implies an absolute beginning for the universe.

Question 19

What is the 2nd law of thermodynamics?

Answer 19

Processes taking place in a closed system always tend toward a state of equilibrium. Unless energy is being fed, the process will run down and quit.

Question 20

How does thermodynamics imply a beginning of the universe?

Answer 20

If the universe has existed forever then it becomes inexplicable why we don’t see thermodynamic equilibrium or “heat death”

Question 21

What attributes of the First Cause may be deducted from the Kalam Cosmological argument?

Answer 21

1. Spaceless
2. Timeless
3. Changeless
4. Immaterial
5. Uncaused
6. Powerful
7. Personal
   
   • intellect
   • free will
   • emotions

Question 22

Why must the cause of the universe be personal?

Answer 22

1. A scientific explanation cannot be given for the first state of the universe since there was nothing before it. It can only be accounted for in terms of agency.
2. Timelessness and Immateriality are properties that can be possessed by a mind or an abstract object. But abstract objects don’t stand in causal relations. So the cause of the universe must be the order of a mind.
3. The answer to the dilemma of “how an effect doesn’t share the same timelessness of the cause?” is that the cause is a personal Creator exercising his free will.

Question 23

Recite the Teleological Argument

Answer 23

1. The fine-tuning of the universe is either due to physical necessity, chance, or design
2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance
3. It is due to design

Question 24

What is fine-tuning?

Answer 24

1. Small variations from the actual values of the constants and quantities in question would render the universe life-prohibiting
2. Range of life-permitting values is exquisitely narrow in comparison with the range of assumable values

Question 25

Why is the hypothesis of physical necessity implausible?

Answer 25

Because it requires us to believe that a life-prohibiting universe is physically impossible

Question 26

Then “who designed the Designer?”

Answer 26

1. In order to recognize an explanation as the best, one need not have an explanation of the explanation
2. In contrast to the complexity of the universe, an unembodied mind is a remarkably simple entity.

Question 27

Recite the Moral Argument

Answer 27

1. If God does not exists, objective moral values and duties do not exist.
2. Objective moral values and duties do exist.
3. Therefore, God exists.

Question 28

What is the difference between moral values and duties?

Answer 28

• Values = has to do with something being good or bad; it’s about something’s worth
• Duties = has to do with their being right or wrong; it’s about obligatoriness.

They are distinct because I am not morally obligated to do something just because it would be good for me to do it.

Question 29

What does it mean to say that moral values and duties are objective?

Answer 29

That certain things are good/evil or right/wrong independently of whether any human being believes in them or not.

Question 30

Why on naturalism do objective moral values seem not to exist?

Answer 30

Because moral values are seen as by-products of socio-biological evolution. As a result, there has evolved a “herd morality” that functions well for the perpetuation of our species.

Question 31

Why on naturalism do objective moral duties not seem to exist?

Answer 31

As human beings are just animals, animals don’t have moral obligations to each other. Morality is rooted in habit and custom, feeling and fashion. When one rapes someone, he is doing nothing more serious than acting unfashionably.

Question 32

What is the difference between moral ontology and moral epistemology?

Answer 32

• Ontology = deals with the reality of moral values and duties.
• Epistemology = deals with our knowledge of morality.

As God’s moral law is written in the hearts of men, believer’s and unbeliever’s moral epistemology will not vary much. The central question lies in the ontology.

Question 33

What is Atheistic Moral Platonism?

Answer 33

Objective morality has no foundation. It just exists.

Question 34

What three objections might be brought against Atheistic Moral Platonism?

Answer 34

1. In the absence of people, justice still exists? Morality seems to exist as properties of persons, not abstractions.
2. Suppose they do exist with no foundation, why am I obliged to align my life with good and not evil?
3. It is improbable that the natural realm and the moral realm, entirely independent orders of reality, just happened to mesh.

Question 35

What is the Euthyphro Dilemma?

Answer 35

Are things good and just because God wills it or God wills it because it is good and just?

Question 36

Respond to the Euthyphro Dilemma

Answer 36

Moral values and duties are grounded in God’s commands so they are not independent from him. They are necessary expressions of his just and loving character.

Good/bad is determined by reference to God’s character; right/wrong is determined by reference to his will.