exam 4 Flashcards
what is the logical argument from evil
Mackie’s problem of evil
what is the evidential argument from evil (William Rowe)
1) there exists pointless evil (evil that does not serve any purpose)
2) an all good/powerful/knowledgeable being would prevent the occurrence of pointless evil
3) but there is pointless evil
4) hence there is no such being
what is William rowes position on the existence of pointless evil
there is an equal argument to say that pointless evil exists and does not exist (atheism and theism is rational)
rationality is dependent on the individual
What is Wykston’s skeptical theism (response to Rowe’s evidential argument)
1) humans would only to assess whether there is pointless evil if they had access to the big picture
2) but humans dont have such access
counter to skeptical theism
1) skeptical theism implies moral paralysis
lack of intervening in seemingly evil because you may fear that you are preventing something good in the big picture
what is the parental analogy with the evidential argument
parent would not explain everything to child, trust god even if evil seems pointless
counter: parent would do everything reasonable to explain it to a child. people pray and are ignored
what are the major objections to god
1) problem of evil
2) coherence objections
3) hiddenness objections
4) redundancy objections
5) evidential objections
what is the coherence objection
attempts to create incoherence with qualities of god to show theism is false
coherence objection with omnibenevolence
problem of evil
coherence objection with omnipotence + counter
problem of the stone
counter: problem of the stone is a contradiction and omnipotence does not factor in contradictions
coherence objection with omniscience (foreknowledge problem)
omniscience implies foreknowledge which implies lack of free will
counters to coherence objection with omniscience (foreknowledge problem)
counter1: open theism - God does not know the future (Cicero, Swinburne)
Counter 2: Distinguish will/can happen
counter 3: buethias: strictly god has no foreknowledge (god knows everything now, god is timeless)
what is open theism
denial of foreknowledge on gods behalf
why can god not be immutable if free will exists
if god is immutable, his omniscience is immutable and then he would have eternally immutable omniscience, i.e. see the whole future immutably, which would then violate free will
what is distinguishing between will/can happen
foreknowledge follows free choices/recognizes choices. You do not HAVE to eat a hamburger, but you will. Must means you cannot do otherwise, but god knows you will freely do it
explain Buethius foreknowledge claim
God knows everything that is going to happen now, even if it is in the future for humanity
(god is timeless)
who made the hiddeness objection
shellenberg
what is the hiddeness objection
a perfectly loving god would make his existence known to people who didn’t know of him but wanted to know
what is the redundancy objection (from epicureans)
1) we should always claim the simpler explanation (principle of simplicity)
2) naturalism is the simpler explanation
what is principle of simplicity
we should always claim the simpler explanation
counter for redundancy objection
naturalism is not the simpler explanation because nothing comes from nothing. God is required
what are the different theistic stories
hume: need for happiness
Marx: class conflict
freud: cosmic dad
what is Humes theistic story
want to end up happy and not be miserable, arguments are an afterthought
what is marxs theistic story
people believe in god because of class conflict (rich vs poor)
gives oppressed light through tunnel
gives oppressors motivation
what is Freuds theistic story
need protector because dad can’t protect you from everything (cosmic dad)
plantinga counter to naturalistic arguments
these stories are just announced and not argued for
what if you dont find story plausible?
plantinga thoughts on natural vs theistic belief in god
if naturalism is true, it makes sense to look for belief in god through natural means as those are The only ones that exist
if theism is true, god may influence thoughts to allow for belief in god
it is justifiable to think that god exists, and it is wrong to think that it is unjustified to think god doesn’t exist
