A comparison between critic of religion, Betrand russell and a religious believer, Fredwick copleston Flashcards
What year did the famous Coppleston and Russel debate happen?
In 1948
What beliefs were Russel and Coppleston?
Rusell was an agnostic and Coppleston was a religious believer ( Christian)
How does the debate begin?
With Russel and Coppleston agreeing with the definition of God ‘ a supreme personal being’ .
What is the first part of the argument about?
In the first section, the Argument from Contingency, Copleston argues that God must exist because the universe requires a Necessary Being to explain it, but Russell argues that the universe is a brute fact..
For the argument of contingency what does Coppleston centre his argument on?
The principle of sufficient reason, which is related to the idea of contingency. ( must be a sufficient reason for contingent beings). Russel argues why is this the case.
What analogy does Coppleston use a lot?
the analogy of the dependency on individuals to the dependency of the universe. Russel accuses coppleston of fallacy of composition (where a conclusion about the whole is based on something that is true about its part) and the talk of the cause of universe is useless,
What term does Russel critque that Coppleston uses?
The term ‘necessary’ it is useless unless it is applied to analytic statements. He gives the example of ‘irrational animals are animals’ as a statement which must be true as it is contradictory to deny it. The statement ‘this is an animal is a synthetic proposition because it can be denied.
Coppleston believes everything has causes and what does he suggests about Physicists?
Some atoms don’t have a cause but in pratice they do think that objects have causes, if not science would not be conducted. Russel thinks that although they look for a cause it doesn’t mean that causes are everywhere. They don’t assume they will find a cause.
What is the second part of the Russel and Coppleston debate?
In the second section, on Religious Experience, Copleston argues that the powerful influence of religious experiences on people’s lives makes the existence of God more likely, but Russell argues that these are subjective experience
It is important to remember that Coppleston accpets that religious experience itself?
is not proof of the existence of God, but argues that the existence of God is the best explanation for such experiences.
How does Russel counter the idea that the existence of God is the best explanation for such experiences?
Russel disagrees and argues that Coppleston’s argument could equally well be used to prove the existence of Satan. Who he thinks theists decline this problem.
