Metaphysics of God- 3 markers

Question 1

‘causal principle’

Answer 1

Every event that occurs has a cause’ OR ‘Everything that begins (to exist) has a cause’.

Question 2

Anselm’s definition of ‘God’

Answer 2

A being than which nothing greater can be conceived.

Question 3

atemporal causation

Answer 3

When the cause of an effect is outside of time, and so does not temporally precede the effect.

Question 4

cosmological argument

Answer 4

An argument for the existence of God based on facts about what exists. God is argued to be the the first or sustaining cause/explanation of some feature of universe (e.e. its contingency/beginning/causation).

Question 5

Descartes’ definition of ‘God’

Answer 5

A supremely perfect being: a being with all perfections.

Question 6

Malcolm’s definition of God

Answer 6

An unlimited being (a necessary being: one that couldn’t not exist)

Question 7

moral evil (vs) natural evil

Answer 7

The former refers to harm or suffering caused intentionally by free agents/human beings; The latter refers to harm or suffering not caused intentionally by free human beings and instead caused by natural/physical events and processes

Question 8

ontological argument

Answer 8

An argument for the existence of God which is based only on a priori premises, including (alleged) a priori truths about the concept/nature/essence of God.

Question 9

principle of sufficient reason (Leibniz)

Answer 9

For any/all truths/facts/events there must be a sufficient reason why they are as they are and not otherwise.

Question 10

spatial order/purpose

Answer 10

What Swinburne calls “regularities of copresence”, namely patterns of order within space at one instant of time (e.g. the arrangements of the parts of the human body).

Question 11

teleological argument

Answer 11

An argument for the existence of God based the identification of purpose/design/complexity/order within things that exist.

Question 12

temporal causation

Answer 12

When the cause of an effect is within time, and so temporally precedes the effect.

Question 13

temporal order/regularity

Answer 13

What Swinburne calls “regularities of succession”, namely patterns of behaviour of objects over time (e.g. their behaviour in accordance with the laws of nature).

Question 14

God is eternal (vs) everlasting

Answer 14

The former means that God exists outside time and so has no beginning/end, since these make sense only in time (something starts/stops existing in time). The latter means that God exists in time - he exists throughout all time with no beginning or end.

Question 15

God is omnipotent

Answer 15

It is possible for God to bring about any [logically possible] state of affairs [that does not undermine God’s perfection].

Question 16

God is omniscient

Answer 16

God knows all true propositions (i.e. God knows all truths) [and couldn’t possibly lack this knowledge].

Question 17

God is supremely good (omnibenevolent)

Answer 17

God only does/thinks/commands what is morally good and cannot do/think anything morally bad.

Question 18

non-cognitivism about religious language

Answer 18

The claim that religious utterences are not truth-apt (they are not propositions). Religious predicates/concepts do NOT contribute to the descriptive/factual meaning of propositions and so can NOT be used to express cognitive belief states.

Question 19

cognitivism about religious language

Answer 19

The claim that religious utterences can be truth-apt (they can be propositions). Religious predicates/concepts contribute to the descriptive/factual meaning of propositions and so can be used to express cognitive belief states.

Question 20

falsification principle (Flew)

Answer 20

“The claim that if there is nothing which an utterence denies (no evidence that counts against/falsifies it) then there is nothing which it asserts either: and
so it is not really an proposotion/assertion.”

Question 21

metaphysical language

Answer 21

Language that at least attempts to make claims (propositions) about entities/properties that are not empirically observable.

Question 22

religious statements are “eschatologically verifiable”

Answer 22

It is possible for (at least some) religious statements that we make on while on earth to be verified (i.e. by this Hick means for any grounds for rational doubt about them to have been removed) through experiences (of God and God’s revaling of God’s purpose for us) that occur in the afterlife.