Arguments for the existence of God Flashcards
What did Flew call ‘Hume’s killing blow’?
Only 1 universe - no experience of other universes - can’t conclude a designer.
Design Argument - Hume conclusion
‘Can a conclusion, with any propriety be transferred from the parts to the whole?’
DA - Swinburne - simplest explanation is one omnipotent God.
‘Simplicity is aways evidence for truth.’
DA - Dawkins - evolution nature designs itself and is indifferent to humanity. Paley is…
‘gloriously wrong.’
DA - Pope John Paul II (link H.H. Price)
‘Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.’
Fides et ratio - faith and reason mutually supportive not exclusive.
What are the definitions that describe the Design argument?
Inductive - premise to NOT logically necessary conclusion
A posteriori (based on evidence)
Synthetic - conclusion of proof not in premises
Teleological - beginning (God) explains end result (creation)
What are the definitions that describe the Ontological argument?
A priori - non-empirical, logical
Deductive - gives certain proof
Analytic - true by definition
Necessary truth - ‘God exists’
OA - Anselm
‘I understand by thy light what I formerly believed by thy gift.’
OA - The fool
‘The fool says in his heart “There is no God”’ Psalm 14:1
OA - Gaunilo - argument to absurdity
Reductio Ad Absurdum
OA - Gaunilo - ‘Anselm is trying to move from a definition of God to the suggestion of God’s existence…’
‘… This is not a valid move.’
OA - Kant - Anselm builds existence into the concept of what he seeks to prove exists
‘miserable tautology.’
OA - Kant - extra noughts
‘merely so much labour and effort lost.’
£10.000000000
CA - What are the definitions that describe the Cosmological argument?
Inductive - premise to NOT logically necessary conclusion A posteriori (based on evidence) - observing universe.
CA - One thing exists necessarily - Aquinas
‘This all men speak of as God.’
