Arguments for the existence of God Flashcards
What are the strengths of the Design argument?
- Paley may be right to argue that then designer is the Christian God, as this is the simplest explanation. This is argued by Swinburne: “simplicity is always evidence for truth”
- Evil may be unavoidable in order for God to bring about good, there are many explanations available to explain why God may allow evil to exist in his design
- Evolution does not destroy the design argument because evolution doesn’t explain itself and it is compatible with a belief in God
- Paley’s argument that nature shows intention is supported by the Anthropic Principle. The AP says that the probability of this perfect universe that allows life to exist is so low that something must have designed it, in order to bring about intelligent beings such as ourselves
What are the weaknesses of the Design Argument?
- Even if the universe was designed, the designer was not necessarily the Christina God. It could’ve been produced by a team of lesser beings, hence the evidence for fault in the design
- Existence of evil seems incompatible with an omnipotent designer God
- Hume argues that universe is more like a vegetable than a machine, and vegetables require no designer
What is Gaunilo’s criticism of the Ontological argument?
His attack was a parody of Anselm’s argument:
* It is possible to conceive of the most perfect and real lost island
* It is greater to exist in reality than to exist only in the mind
* Therefore the most perfect and real lost island must exist in reality
What are Kant’s two critiques of the Ontological argument?
Existence is not a predicate
Questioning God’s necessary existence
How does Kant argue that existence is not a predicate?
- In Kant’s mind, existence is not a real predicate because it adds nothing the the concept of a thing
- Coin analogy: if I tell you a coin is round and shiny, that tells you something about it, telling you that it exists gives you no new information about it
How does Kant argue against Anselm’s claim of ‘God exists necessarily’?
- Anselm claims that ‘God exists necessarily’ is an analytic statement and is therefore true by definition
- Analytic statement: a unicorn is a horse with a horn
- The only way we can know if the unicorn exists is through evidence
- The same can be said of God
- ‘God exists necessarily’ is logically true, but it doesn’t follow that there really is a God
- Omits if
What are the strengths of Anselm’s Ontological argument?
- It is a deductive arguemnt, so if it succeeds, it effectively proves God’s existence
- Karl Barth argued that Anselm had a religious experience where God revealed his nature to be that which nothing greater can be conceived. For those with faith, this is clearly true, because it is an expression of their faith
What are the weaknesses of Anselm’s Ontological Argument?
- Most scholars reject it: Kant
- Anselm attempts to define God as the greatest conceivable being, but some would argue that any attempt to define God limits his power
- Gaunilo
How does Russell criticise the cosmological arguemnt?
- He argues that Aquinas commits the fallacy of composition
Just because something is true of the parts of the whole, doesn’t mean it is also true of the whole
Ie just because things in the universe are contingent, doesn’t mean that the universe itself is contingent - Suggest that the universe exists as a brute fact
The universe exists as an unexplainable brute fact
How does Hume criticise the cosmological argument?
- Rejects that any being can be necessary
Any being that exists can also not exist
This is true also of God
So when Aquinas’ third way requires God to be a necessary being, this is false logic - Suggests that the universe itself could be the necessary being
Conforms with Occam’s razor
As it makes the least assumptions
