Arguments based on observation

Question 1

socrates quote

Answer 1

“with such signs of forethought in the design of living creatures, can you doubt that they are the work of choice or design?”

Question 2

teleological argument

Answer 2

-the ‘study of’ purpose or ‘teleo’ = everything in nature has a ‘telos’ - purpose/goal to which it works
-‘A posteriori’ argument because it gains knowledge from design in the world to infer/prove the existence of God

Question 3

William Paley

Answer 3

-‘design qua purpose’
-the world shows patterns, organisation and design
-everything is designed for a reason or purpose otherwise it would not be designed in the first place
-anything that is designed must have a designer

Question 4

William Paley (1743-1805)

Answer 4

-‘natural theology
1. Design Qua purpose
-Paley used the analogy of the watch to demonstrate the complexity of the world suggesting that there is a designer
-if i was “crossing a heath” and found an old fashioned watch on the ground, it has clearly not been there forever as the watch is complex and intricate
-doesn’t matter if the watch sometimes goes wrong or is not perfect
-the point is the watches existence suggests it is designed for a purpose
-conclusion: is any parts were shaped differently then the watch wouldn’t work, all part assembled purposefully in this right order = by a designer (watchmaker)

Question 5

nature: watch —> eye

Answer 5

-“every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature”
-Paley stated the same design is found in the natural world
-based his findings on science of the day: he looked at the human eye = extraordinary flexibility and ability, wings of birds = engineered for flight
-such evidence could only be the result of a ‘designing creator’ for Paley this is God

Question 6

eye —> universe

Answer 6

-just as the watch showed evidence of a designer = watchmaker
-the eye shows evidence of design =possible evidence of God
-look further to the most complex and amazing design of all = the universe
-the whole of nature needs the grandest of all designers
-conclusion = God

Question 7

cicero quote

Answer 7

“what could be more clear or obvious when we look up to the sky and contemplate the heavens, than that there is some divinity or superior intelligence?”

Question 8

second part of Paley’s argument

Answer 8

-Paley looked to the sky: astronomy, Newton’s laws of motion and gravity = design in the universe
-this design shows regularity, routine and consistency so is known as ‘design qua regularity’
-example, the rotation of planets in the solar system and how they obey the same universal laws
-could not have come about by chance
-conclusion: external agent must have imposed order on the universe (God)

Question 9

St Thomas Aquinas quote

Answer 9

“everything operates as to a design. This design is from God”

Question 10

Thomas Aquinas (1225-74)

Answer 10

-‘Summa Theologica’ Aquinas has ‘Five Ways’ to prove the existence of God
-Design qua Regularity is the 5th way
-there is something regulating the universe
-events that follow scientific laws are predictable, regular and unvarying

Question 11

Aquinas: Design qua Regularity

Answer 11

-objects follow natural laws = have goal/purpose
-reason objects perform their job efficiently is that they were designed that way
-everything that is designed must have a designer
-conclusion: everything in the natural world that does not think for itself heads towards its goal or purpose, it is directed by something which does think
-“this being we call God” God makes things reach their ‘target’

Question 12

metaphor of Archer and Arrow

Answer 12

1. an arrow hits a target even though it doesn’t have a mind of its own
2. the archer shot the arrow
3. things in the natural world follow natural laws
4. God caused the natural world to behave in this way
   -example of ‘regularity of succession’ (everything in nature follows certain laws that lead to certain results)

Question 13

Challenges: Richard Dawkins

Answer 13

“No purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.” - Blind Watchmaker
-goes after watchmaker analogy, God must be blind as the world is so corrupt and faulty

Question 13

Challenges: David Hume (1711-1776)

Answer 13

-‘Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion’ – never directly criticised Paley but the concept of the teleological argument
-Hume = empiricist, used senses
1. why is God the designer?
2. why just one God?
3. cannot guess that universe has a designer just because things within the universe may show a design
4. so much evil in the world, why would a classical theistic God design such a world
5. the world isn’t like a machine, it is more organic – against analogy element

Question 13

Challenges: Hume’s second argument - using Epicurean Hypothesis

Answer 13

-Hume suggested the Epicurean Thesis as a possible explanation for the design of the universe
-beginning of time particles in random motion = chaotic
-evolved into an ordered system
-shows design but not a designer (God/being)
Hume apparent design could happen at random and doesn’t infer a designer

Question 14

Darwinism ‘Origin of Species’

Answer 14

-natural selection:
-healthiest species survive and pass on genes
-variations which promote survival will become a feature of the species
-the rest will die out
-conclusion: not evidence of design but chance mutations over thousands of years

Question 15

why would a God design the world like this?

Answer 15

-Richard Dawkins - a female digger wasp not only lays her eggs in a caterpillar so that her lava can eat the insides but also stings it to paralyse but not kill so it is alive when they are eating it.
-Stephen Fry - “bone cancer in children, what’s that about? how dare you. how dare you create a world in which there is such misery that’s not our fault? it’s not right. it’s utterly, utterly evil” “ why should i respect a mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?”

Question 16

defences: F.R Tennant

Answer 16

-Anthropic (humans) principle: designed so that the evolutionary process would create an environment in which intelligent life could exist (supports evolution and designer)
-aesthetic argument: humans possess the ability to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings (enjoy art, music etc.), yet this isn’t necessary for survival, therefore, evidence of a Divine Creator not natural selection

Question 17

against Aesthetic argument

Answer 17

-Dawkins and Memes against argument
-in ‘The Selfish Gene’
-takes a Darwinian view of culture
-considers the family or the social group = stronger
-humans appear to have an appreciation of beauty and is no more than a survival mechanism
-Memes = a term invented to refer to the unit of cultural inheritence
-‘Memes’ =ideas that are operated by natural selection

Question 18

further defence of design

Answer 18

-if minute changes occurred, intelligent life probably wouldn’t have developed
-example, the earth is roughly 91-93 million miles away from the sun, if it was an closer or further away, humans couldn’t exist on earth, therefore, God must exist – Goldilocks argument
-Brown. added that earth is the only planet with an ozone layer to protect our lives from ultra-violent rays, couldn’t have happened just by chance

Question 19

cosmological argument

Answer 19

-cosmological argument is the ‘study of’ the ‘universe’
-is ‘a posteriori’ because it uses empiricism to gain knowledge about the existence of God from examining the cosmos

Question 20

Aquinas First way - unmoved mover

Answer 20

-in ‘Summa Theologica’ Aquinas has 5 ways
-cosmological is the first three ways
-first way = unmoved mover
-everything in motion is changing from potential to actual (synoptic link – Aristotle)
-state of motion is started and caused by something else
-the chain of movers cannot go on infinitely into the past
-conclusion: First Mover = God the unmoved mover
-This source of movement is the one that set all things in motion, and, as such, had to exist prior to and outside the constraints of that which was set in motion
-if God moves then he is changeable and no longer perfect

Question 21

Aquinas second way - uncaused causer

Answer 21

-cause and effect exist in the world
-“if you eliminate cause, you also eliminate its effects, so that you cannot have a last cause nor an intermediate one, unless you have a first”
-but there is not endless cause and effects throughout eternity and so therefore the first cause is created by God
-must be something that starts the process of cause and effect (God)
-Aquinas argued that this first cause must have no beginning - that is, nothing caused it to exist because the first cause is eternal

Question 22

Aquinas Third way - contingency and necessity

Answer 22

-everything is contingent - relies upon something else for its existence
-example, we rely on our parents for existence
-this patter of contingency cannot go on infinitely, has to start somewhere
-infinite regression is impossible
-there must be a necessary being that started it (being who has created itself), cannot not exist but cannot rely upon other things
-God is the necessary being

Question 23

challenges: David Hume, First criticism

Answer 23

-just because things within the universe can be explained through causes (everything is causes by a proceeding cause)
-doesn’t mean there is a cause for the universe as a whole
-known as the Fallacy of Composition (a mistaken belief, especially based on unsound arguments/ a failure in reasoning which renders an argument invalid)
-we have evidence of causes within our world that we can test/ study empirically - doesn’t mean the universe as a whole has a cause
-example, ‘twenty particles’ = if you find an explanation for each particle individually it would be wrong to then seek an explanation for the whole collection

Question 24

Russell supports

Answer 24

-says that every man has a mother isn’t proof that the human race has a mother

Question 25

challenges: David Hume, Second criticism

Answer 25

-assume there is a relationship between cause and effect
-we are in the habit of seeing effects and associating them with causes
-as a ‘matter if logic’ not all effects have causes
-called the ‘Fallacy of Affirmation of the Consequent’
-we have not experienced the creation of the universe, we cannot prove empirically that there is a ‘necessary’ being or that the being is God

Question 26

J.L Mackie supports

Answer 26

-why should people accept that god is the necessary being?
-equally argue that there is “a permanent stock of matter whose essence did not involved existence from anything else”

Question 27

arguments criticising God as Creator

Answer 27

-two types of propositions found in language:
-analytical statements: statements of reason - logical within itself
-example, all bachelors are unmarried men - it is contradictory to deny
-synthetic statements: when using names or people - need proof
-example, Herbert is a bachelor
-Russell used this logic against the cosmological argument:
-only analytical statements are ‘necessary’ - self explanatory
-you cannot have a ‘necessary’ being (God)
-a ‘being’ or ‘God’ is to use a name = needs proof of existence
-cannot prove God is a necessary being = meaningless

Question 28

Big Bang theory

Answer 28

-could explain start of the universe
-15 billion years ago there was a dense concentration of matter and energy
-this ‘mass’ of energy and matter exploded, blasting particles and energy outwards
-the matter then concentrated into hot lumps, which we call stars, clustered into galaxies
-debate rests on whether or not the cause of the Big Bang was natural or divine

Question 29

Steady State theory

Answer 29

-created by Bondi, Gold and Hoyle
-energy cannot be created, energy within the universe will simply be redistributed to cause the start of this universe
-undermines cosmological arguments

Question 30

arguments defending God as Creator - Leibniz Sufficient Reason

Answer 30

-the cosmological argument rests on certain principles of causation
-any existent thing must have a cause or reason for its existence
-Leibniz points to the idea that there cannot be more in the effect than there is in the cause (in his Principle of Sufficient Reason)

Question 31

supporters: arguments for contingency

Answer 31

-Copleston
-objects in the world depend on something else for existence - they are contingent
-therefore explanation for existence of everything in the universe must be external from the universe
-there must be a being that is self explanatory (example, contains within itself the reason for its own existence)
-this “necessary being” gives reason/explanation for the ways things are
= God

Question 32

supporters: Kalam argument

Answer 32

-Muslims scholars al Kindi and al Ghazali
-everything has to have a beginning including the universe
-the universe cannot go on infinitely
-then there must be a God who willed it to begin

Question 33

supporters: William Lane Craig

Answer 33

-no such thing as infinity
-if universe isn’t infinite must be a beginning
-beginning must be caused by something
-for Craig this is a “personal being” (God)