Arguments

Question 1

What is the Cosmological argument?

Answer 1

1. Something cannot be the cause of itself.
2. Something cannot come from nothing.
3. There cannot be an infinite series of causes and effects.
   ∴ There must be a first cause to the universe.

Question 2

What is the ontological argument?

Answer 2

1. God is the greatest conceivable being.
2. A being that exists is greater than a being that doesn’t exist.
3. A god that exists is greater than a god that doesn’t exist.
   ∴ God, the greatest conceivable being, must exist.

Question 3

What is the moral argument?

Answer 3

If God didn’t exist, then there would be no correct morality.

Question 4

What is the Teleological argument?

Answer 4

The argument that nature has clear design and purpose and must therefore have a designer.

Question 5

What is the Irenaean theodicy?

Answer 5

Also known as the ‘soul making’ theory, it proposes a two-stage creation process, in which humans are made imperfect, having free will and experiencing evil to grow into a ‘child of god’ and develop perfect morality.

Question 6

What is the Augustinean theodicy?

Answer 6

Humans were created perfect and with free will and chose to turn away from God in the Garden of Eden (Adam and Eve). Evil is a ‘privation of good’ or an absence of good.