Chapter 1 Flashcards
What are the three sections of Chapter 1?
- The Cosmological Argument
- The Teleological Argument
- Challenges to Inductive Arguments
What are the key scholars for the Cosmological Argument?
- St Thomas Aquinas
- Al-Ghazali
- William Lane Craig
- Leibniz
What are the three ways of the Cosmological Argument?
- motion or change
- cause and effect
- contingency and necessity
Explain the First way of the Cosmological Argument
motion or change:
- everything has the potential to change and then does
- ‘unmoved mover’ causes everything - beginning
Explain the Second way of the Cosmological Argument
cause and effect:
- efficient cause causes everything
- infinite regress is impossible
- must be first cause or ‘uncaused cause’ - God
Explain the Third way of the Cosmological Argument
contingency and necessity:
- all things are contingent - depend on others to exist - must be a point when nothing existed
- something must be a necessary being to create contingent beings - God
What is the Kalam Cosmological argument?
based on Al-Ghazali - all causes are caused by God - universe must have a beginning that was caused - nothing exists without a cause
What is William Lane Craig’s development of the Kalam Cosmological Argument?
- infinity cannot exist - books in the library
- ex nihilo nihilo fit - universe began so must have a creator
What is Leibniz’ principle of sufficient reason?
everything must have ‘sufficient reason to exist’ - explanation beyond human comprehension
Quote Aquinas on the Cosmological Argument.
“Whatever is in motion must be put in motion by another”
“There is no case known in which a thing is found to be the efficient cause of itself; for so it would be prior to itself, which is impossible”
Who are the scholars for the Teleological Argument?
- St Thomas Aquinas
- William Paley
- F.R. Tennant
Explain Thomas Aquinas’ Fifth Way
- nature has order and purpose - beings that lack intelligence still move towards goal - God makes them
1. “not fortuitously but designedly”
2. objects with no mind have purpose
Explain William Paley’s watchmaker analogy
compares world to a watch - we see a watch and know it has a designer and creator because of complexity - don’t need to see it be made - God and the world
Define ‘design qua purpose’ and ‘design qua regularity’
design qua purpose: everything in the universe has been designed to fulfill a purpose
design qua regularity: the universe works with orderly regularity
What are F.R. Tennant’s two arguments?
- Anthropic argument
- Aesthetic argument
Explain the Anthropic argument
the universe has been designed in a way that is perfect for human life - gravity and gas balances - unlikely to happen on own - God
Explain the Aesthetic argument
beauty of the world that humans can appreciate has no biological necessity - God placed there for human enjoyment
Who are the scholars for the Challenges to Inductive Arguments for God’s existence?
- David Hume
- Stephen Hawking
- Charles Darwin
- Douglas Adams
Explain Hume’s problem of Induction
- assumes future will resemble the past - connection in past does not guarantee in future - no certainty
What are Hume’s two challenges to the Cosmological Argument?
- assumption that everything must have a cause is against problem of induction - empiricism tells us what happens but not why
- everything in universe has a cause doesn’t mean universe as a whole does - Russell: just because every human has a mother does not mean the human race as a whole does
What are Hume’s eight challenges to the Teleological Argument?
- analogies are weak - anything can be compared to world
- order does not mean design
- no other world’s to compare world to
- order may be necessary part of world’s existence
- world does not have to be designed by God
- creator may not be God of Christianity - God may have gone away
- like scales - we cannot see weight of one side and know what is on the other
- God could have copied our world from another or been made by group of Gods
What are the scientific challenges to the Inductive arguments?
The Big Bang Theory - Stephen Hawking
Evolution by Natural Selection - Charles Darwin
How does TBBT challenge inductive arguments?
explanation for the world without need for God - other origin of the universe
How does evolution challenge inductive arguments?
weak characteristics died out - we adapted to the world rather than the world to us
What is Douglas Adams’ Challenge to Tennant’s Teleological Argument?
compares to hyper intelligent puddle that believe hole was made for it because it fits well - reductio ad absurdum
What are the Challenges to Tennant’s Teleological Argument?
- universe is arguably not well structured for life - natural evil
- beauty is subjective - many people view world as ugly that needs to be explained
