Arguments for the Existence of God- Deductive Flashcards
Deductive arguments
A priori- without evidence or experience, use reasoning.
Deductive proof- a proof in which, if the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true.
Ontological arguments- Anselm’s
It is possible to exist in the mind and in reality but they don’t have to be true at the same time, but because something exists in the mind it doesn’t have to exist in reality. God exists in the mind and reality as he is the greatest possible being, if he doesn’t exist in reality, he’s not the greatest possible being. eg. a painting needs to exist in the mind of a painter before it becomes a reality.
Ontological argument- Gaunilo’s island
Gaunilo argued that Anselm made an unjustified leap from existence in the understanding and existence in reality.
Island example- there’s a perfect imaginary island in the ocean better than all the others, it must exist because it’s the greatest. Gaunilo argues there’s no evidence and that it doesn’t have to exist in reality.
Ontological argument- Anselm’s reply to Gaunilo
Anselm argues that a God who can’t be conceived to exist is greater than one who can be conceived not to exist. God is not like an island or any other physical thing, the island can not exist due to changes in the world (earthquakes) and also there may be a better island, but God’s existence isn’t dependent on changes in the universe. God is a necessary existence, where as the island is a contingent existence.
Ontological argument- Descartes’
A priori (reasoning). I have a clear and distinct idea of God, the idea of God is the idea of a supremely perfect being. A supremely perfect being contains all supreme perfections. Existence is a supreme perfection, therefore a supremely perfect being exists.
Ontological argument- Descartes’ examples
A triangle’s criteria is that it has 3 sides and all 3 interior angles add to 180 degrees. Similarly to God, he has a criteria and existence is one of them.
Mountains and valleys, You can’t have an uphill slope without an uphill slope just like you can’t have God not existing.
Ontological argument- Kant
He provisionally accepts that “God necessarily exists” but it can’t prove there is a God. The predicate being included in the subject does not mean there is anything matching the definition in the real world. Certain predicates are inseparable (unicorn and horn) but it is possible to deny the existence and of both subject and predicate. So the most we can say is “if there is a God then he must necessarily exist”.
Ontological argument- Kant in simple
Kant says that because you can describe something clearly in an imagery way, it doesn’t mean it physically exists, because there’s a definition, it doesn’t mean it has anything to match in definition.
Ontological argument- Davies
Davies explains Kant’s by using an example of a pixie. “a pixie is a little man with pointy ears, therefore there actually is such a thing as a pixie.” He believes that it isn’t legitimate to move from a definition to a statement about reality as there is nothing to bridge the gap from concept to reality.
Ontological argument- Kant’s second criticism
He argues that existence is not a property of any thing. He argued that a real predicate adds a descriptive property to the subject we are talking about and changes or develops our concept of it. ‘Exists’ does not add anything new to our concept and so is not a genuine predicate. (example of a piece of paper).
Ontological argument- Hume’s criticism
You can’t take an idea in your mind, apply argument to it and draw a conclusion about the real world.
Ontological argument- Malcolm’s version
Agree’s with Anselm’s 2nd version. He says that God’s existence is necessary true, it is logically necessary that any being with the properties of God exists.
