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Philosophy And Ethics > Arguments For The Existence Of God > Flashcards

Arguments For The Existence Of God Flashcards

1
Q

What Christians think the Designer is like (5)

A 
Monotheistic 
Perfect
Omniscient
Eternal
Transcendent
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2
Q

Copleston’s response to Russel

Cosmological argument

A

There’s a limit to how different a whole can be from the parts that make up that whole.
You can’t get necessary things from combining contingent things - they’re too different.

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3
Q

Fallacy of composition

A

Inferring that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true if every part of the whole.

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4
Q

Principle of sufficient reason

A

Everything must have an ultimate reason or cause.

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5
Q

Explain Kant’s second objection to Anselm (ontological argument)

A

The only way we can find out if things exist is through the experience of our senses.
Looking at definitions can’t tell whether things exist - only what they’d be like IF they existed.

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6
Q

Regularity

A

Following a fixed pattern of use / purpose.

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7
Q

Explain:

“A cause is proportional to its effects”

A

Hume’s other objection to Paley.
The simplest explanations are the most likely to be true.
Why assume this designer has lots of other qualities?
There’s no Christian God, but there probably is a designer(s).

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8
Q

What part of the cosmological argument does Russel say is a fallacy of composition?

A

Aquinas thinks everything in the universe is contingent, including the universe itself.

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9
Q

What Kant denies

A

That we can use existence as a property / predicate.

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10
Q

According to Kant, what makes something a predicate?

A

If it adds to our knowledge of that thing.

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11
Q

Analytic statement

A

A statement that follows from a definition.

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12
Q

Summarise Russel’s argument

A

1) Everything in the natural world is contingent.
2) If everything is contingent, then at some point there was nothing in the natural world.
3) Nothing comes from nothing.
Conclusion: Therefore there’s at least one necessary thing.
4) There’s no reason to say this isn’t the Universe itself - the next steps to a God are unjustified.

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13
Q

Give the cosmological argument in full.

A

1) Everything in the natural world is contingent.
2) If everything is contingent, then at some point there was nothing in the natural world.
3) Nothing comes from nothing.
Conclusion 1: Therefore there must be at least one necessary thing.
4) Everything necessary is either caused or uncaused.
5) The series of necessary beings cannot be infinite.
Conclusion 2: Therefore there is an uncaused being existing of its own necessity.
Conclusion 3: This is God.

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14
Q

Explain Gaunilo’s Parallel

A

1) It’s possible to conceive the greatest possible island.
2) It’s greater to exist in reality than not to exist in reality.
Conclusion: Therefore, as the greatest conceivable island, it must exist.
BUT IT DOESN’T!

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15
Q

Explain the Design Argument

A

1) Some objects in the world exhibit complexity, regularity and purpose.
2) The complexity, regularity and purpose is evidence that these objects were designed.
3) The Universe also exhibits complexity, regularity and purpose.
Conclusion: It is likely the Universe was designed.
Conclusion 2: This designer is God.

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16
Q

What did Paley observe that simple things don’t do and what does that mean?

A

They don’t organise themselves into complex things.
There is no complexity of order.
There must be a designer.

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17
Q

What type of argument is the cosmological argument?

A

Inductive, a posteriori

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18
Q

Fallacy

A

A failure of reasoning that makes an argument invalid.

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19
Q

Give the ontological argument

A

1) God is (by definition) the greatest conceivable being.
2) It is greater to exist in reality than not to exist in reality.
Conclusion: Therefore, as the greatest conceivable being, God must exist.

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20
Q

How is the teleological argument and the watchmaker analogy linked?

A

The design argument is based on / inspired by the analogy.

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21
Q

If God is the greatest conceivable being, what does this mean?

A

He must have the great-making property of existence (He exists).

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22
Q

What does Paley rely on to reach his conclusion of God being the designer, and not some other reason?

A

Process of elimination

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23
Q

A priori argument

A

An argument that doesn’t involve observation - just logical reasoning.

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24
Q

A posteriori argument

A

An argument that relies upon observation to be true.

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25
Q

Which type of arguments prove their conclusions 100%?

A

Deductive

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26
Q

Deductive arguments

A

Move from a general conclusion to something more specific.

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27
Q

Inductive argument

A

Moves from something specific to a more general conclusion.

28
Q

Necessary beings/things

A

Not dependent for their existence on other beings / things

29
Q

Contingent beings / things

A

Dependent for their existence on other beings / things

30
Q

The creator of the design / teleological argument

A

William Paley (a vicar)

31
Q

What does Russell want to argue?

A

The Universe itself could be a necessary object

32
Q

What Paley’s argument depends on

A

Looking at what we know about human designers and using this by analogy to support his conclusions about what God is like.

33
Q

Argument

A

A set of statements that intend to prove a conclusion.

34
Q

Predicate

A

(Kant)

A property

35
Q

What type of argument is the ontological argument?

A

Deductive, a priori

36
Q

If a necessary being is uncaused, what does this mean?

A

It exists of its own necessity.

37
Q

According to Anselm, what makes something great?

A

By having great-making qualities.

38
Q

What does Paley think about the cause of the Universe being a random accident?

A

Too unlikely.

39
Q

Name 2 people objecting to the ontological argument.

A

Gaunilo

Kant

40
Q

Explain Anselm’s response to Gaunilo’s objection

A

1) The greatest conceivable island would have to exist. It couldn’t fail to exist.
2) The greatest conceivable island would therefore be a necessary object.
3) But islands are contingent, and by definition no contingent thing can exist necessarily.
Conclusion: Therefore, the ontological argument only applies to necessary objects.

41
Q

Analogy

A

An inference where information or meaning is transferred from one subject to another.

42
Q

Why does Anselm believe “existing in reality” is a great-making property?

A

Things that exist in our minds and in reality are greater than things that only exist in our minds.

43
Q

Why does Aquinas say that the necessary being cannot be caused?

A

We’d have an infinite regress, which is impossible.

A series of necessary beings cannot be infinite.

44
Q

According to Anselm, how can you make things greater?

A

Give them a bigger number of great-making properties.

Increase the amount of each great-making property they’ve got.

45
Q

Give the 4 parts to the watchmaker analogy

A

1) Stubs his toe on a rock. Paley doesn’t question why it’s there as it has always been there.
2) Stubs his toe on a watch. He questions why is there.
3) He can’t use the same argument as the rock because the watch is complex, regular and purposeful.
4) He concludes that the watch must have a watchmaker.

46
Q

Explain how Paley’s argument links to God

A

The more complex the object, the more intelligent / powerful it’s creator.
The Universe is more complicated than anything humans design, so the designer would have to be vastly more intelligent / powerful than humans - ie. God

47
Q

How does Hume object to Paley’s argument by using suffering?

A

If one can say the designer is clever due to the Universe’s complexity, it’s fair to say it is cruel / powerless since the Universe contains suffering.
This doesn’t match the Christian God.

48
Q

How does evolution disprove Paley’s argument?

A

Not everything that looks designed was designed.

49
Q

Why does Russell object to the cosmological argument?

A

It commits the fallacy of composition.

50
Q

How can someone respond to Hume’s “suffering” objection to the design argument?

A

The free will defence

Epistemic distance

51
Q

How Hume objects to Paley’s argument.

A

By looking at the same human designers and pointing out they aren’t like the Christian God.

52
Q

“Reductio ad absurdium” argument

A

Attempts to show we should reject a certain argument as it leads to absurd conclusions.

53
Q

What type of argument is the Design Argument?

A

Inductive, a posteriori

54
Q

What the watchmaker represents in Paley’s analogy

A

God

55
Q

What the rock represents in Paley’s analogy

A

Simple things

56
Q

What the watch represents in Paley’s analogy

A

The world

57
Q

Principle of order

A

A kind of law of nature that means things will become ordered on their own.

58
Q

Purpose

A

Having a clear reason for existence.

59
Q

Complexity

A

Something is complicated / contains many parts working together.

60
Q

Ontology

A

The philosophical study of existence.

61
Q

Who created the ontological argument?

A

Saint Anselm

62
Q

Infinite regress

A

A sequence of reasoning which can never come to an end.

63
Q

What type of strategy does Gaunilo use to object to Anselm?

A

Creates “parallel” versions of the ontological argument.

Reductio ad absurdium.

64
Q

What was Aquinas’s most famous work called?

A

Summa Theologica

65
Q

Who created the cosmological argument?

A

Roman Catholic theologian, Saint Thomas Aquinas.

66
Q

What does Anselm argue about Gaunilo’s response?

A

Gaunilo misuses the ontological argument in his parallels.

Of course the argument produces absurdity when used for contingent things - it was never meant to apply to them.

67
Q

What does Paley think about the cause of the Universe being some kind of principle of order?

A

No natural law has been discovered by science that would explain how the Universe organised itself.

Philosophy And Ethics (2 decks)

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