Arguments For The Existence Of God Based On Observation

Question 1

What is the ao1 spec

Answer 1

The cosmological argument, the teleological argument, challenges to arguments from observation

Question 2

What is the ao2 spec

Answer 2

Whether Cosmological jumps to the conclusion of a transcendent creator, whether teleological can be defended against challenge of chance, whether the logical fallacies can be overcome

Question 3

Who was Aquinas

Answer 3

Presented cosmological and teleological argument in the 13th century

Question 4

Who was William paley

Answer 4

Christian scholar who presented teleological argument in 19th century

Question 5

Who was David Hume

Answer 5

Agnostic Scottish philosopher and historian

Question 6

What are Aquinas’s first 3 ways

Answer 6

Argument from motion, argument from causation, argument from contingency

Question 7

What is the argument from motion

Answer 7

1. All things that move or change do so because something has acted upon them
2. Infinite regression is impossible
3. There must be an external unmoved mover, which we call God

Question 8

What is Aquinas’s second wayb

Answer 8

Causation
1. All effects come from a cause
2. Infinite regression is not possible
3. There must be a first uncaused cause, which we call God

Question 9

What is Aquinas’s third way

Answer 9

Contingency:
If all beings were contingent, then at one time nothing existed and nothing could exist now, so there must be a being who has in itself it’s own necessity, which we call God

Question 10

What is Aquinas’s 5th way

Answer 10

Things which lack knowledge act for a purpose - all natural things have purpose
This purpose comes from God and he guides all things to achieving his purpose

Question 11

What is Aquinas’s analogy of the archer

Answer 11

Nature is like an arrow shot from an archers bow as it has direction, purpose and is moving towards a goal

Question 12

What is the context of when Paley was writing

Answer 12

Lots of scientific progress was being made at this time, so people learned about the world and used this knowledge for design arguments

Question 13

What analogy does paley use to demonstrate his point

Answer 13

Analogy of the watchmaker
Similarly to how a watch is complex and implies the existence of a watchmaker, the natural world is complex implying the exist of a designer (God)

Question 14

How does Paley use the example of an eye

Answer 14

It shows god’s benevolence and design as it is so complex and protected carefully in the skull

Question 15

What is design qua purpose

Answer 15

Paleys idea that the fact that everything has a purpose shows that there must be a designer - uses the analogy of the watchmaker

Question 16

What is design qua regularity

Answer 16

Paley’s idea that the fact that the universe works like clockwork in predictable patterns shows that there is a designer

Question 17

Who was Charles darwin

Answer 17

19th century scientist discovered natural selection and evolution

Question 18

How does Paley respond to the problem of evil with the watchmaker analogy

Answer 18

If a watch we found was imperfect, we would still assume it had a designer - the quality is irrelevant

Question 19

What does David Hume say about the problems with using observation (4 things)

Answer 19

Fallacy of composition - things in the world have a cause, but the world doesn’t have a cause
Problem of induction
Confusing causation and correlation
We can’t compare our universe to any other universe

Question 20

What does David Hume criticise about using analogies

Answer 20

Can’t compare the natural universe to a machine as it is a circular argument - they have chosen the conclusion that they want

Question 21

What does David Hume say is a logical fallacy

Answer 21

Rejecting infinite regress
The leap to the God of classical theism

Question 22

What is the Epicurean hypothesis that Hume uses

Answer 22

Idea that order can come from chaos