Module 1 Questions and Ideas

Question 1

Fundamental Question of Metaphysics

Answer 1

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Question 2

Classical Christian notions of God

Answer 2

Omniscient

Omnipotent

All-benevolent

Perfect and immutable

Outside of time

Personal and incarnational

Question 3

Teleological Argument for divine existence

Answer 3

1. Design and order of non-natural objects is the result or product of humans.
2. Nature displays a great deal of order.
3. Therefore, it is most plausible to believe an intelligent designer exists.

Question 4

Problems with the Teleological Argument for divine existence

Answer 4

Nature isn’t well designed and natural selection

Question 5

Moral Argument for divine existence

Answer 5

1. Everybody makes ethical judgments.
2. Therefore there are universal objective moral standards.
3. If there were no objective moral law, there would be no justifiable basis for making comparative ethical judgements.
4. Such a standard must be grounded in either human or non-human law-giver.
5. If morality had its origin in the human mind, it wouldn’t be so uniform and persistent.
6. Therefore, the objective moral standard must come from outside.

Question 6

Cosmological Argument for divine existence

Answer 6

1. Every phenomenon has a cause.
2. It is impossible to have an infinite regression of causes.
3. Therefore there must be an ultimate cause.

Question 7

Problems with the Cosmological Argument for divine existence.

Answer 7

This doesn’t prove the existence of the Christian God.

Does there have to be only one ultimate or first cause?

What caused the first cause?

Why can’t the universe be causeless?

Why does the first cause have to be God?

Who says infinite regress is impossible?

Question 8

Ontological Argument for divine existance

Answer 8

1. Some objects exist in the mind alone.
2. Some objects exist in the mind and in reality.
3. An object that exists in the mind and in reality is more complete and more perfect than one that exists in the mind alone.
4. All of us can conceive of a greater possible being, one that is infinite in every respect.
5. This being can’t exist in the mind alone, because otherwise it wouldn’t be the greatest conceivable being.
6. Therefore the greatest conceivable being must exist in reality.

Question 9

Materialist position on religion

Answer 9

1. No supernatural beings. Reality is here, now, and subjective.
2. No mind or soul outside the body.
3. Empirical evidence and verifiability should guide our judgement, using observations, hypotheses, and experiments.
4. Though our senses can be flawed, we should still use them when evaluating religious phenomena.
5. Claims of miracles are a result of delusions, ignorance, or primitive traditions.

Question 10

Idealist position on religion

Answer 10

1. There is a metaphysical and objective reality outside our immediate physical and sensual grasp.
2. The mind/soul is the ultimate entity of being and is the most important element of who we are.
3. Empirical evidence is limited, and we must move beyond our bodies which impede our judgements to find the ultimate Truth. Reason is enhanced by revelation and ascetic practices, not observation.
4. Mystic experiences are windows to the ultimate reality. To not take them seriously is to fall victim to the body.
5. Miracles are everywhere because life itself is a miracle. Again, why do we have something instead of nothing?

Question 11

How to justify religious beliefs: the model of Strong Rationalism

Answer 11

We are justified in affirming our beliefs only if the are based on empirical evidence that no reasonable person can deny.

Question 12

How to justify religious beliefs: the model of Fideism

Answer 12

We don’t need to justify our beliefs. Faith without reason. Evidence and empirical reasoning can’t conclusively justify religion, so why bother trying?

Question 13

How to justify religious beliefs: the model of Critical Rationalism

Answer 13

The view that religious belief systems must be rationally evaluated, while also recognizing that conclusive proof is impossible.

Question 14

David Hume’s beliefs

Answer 14

Empiricist who, like other Enlightenment scholars of his time, and believed that all knowledge is based on experience and is derived from the senses. He was an opponent of philosophical rationalists

He believed that critical reason based on empiricism reveals to us the natural, essential truth. He also thought that nature is proof of a single creator, and that depriving yourself, asceticism, in the name of God is a sick, crazy man’s dream.

In his treatise, Traditional/historical religions begin with polytheism, which is based in fear

The heart of all human religions, especially Christianity, is fear

Polytheistic religions are more moral than monotheistic ones because they are more tolerant of differences

Question 15

Hume’s principles of association

Answer 15

Resemblance

Contiguity in time and place

Causation

Question 16

The Gospel of Thomas

Answer 16

Recorded 114 “secret teachings” of Jesus and no other material. No miracles, no passion narrative, no stories. What mattered for Thomas wasn’t Jesus’s death or resurrection, but his teachings.

Question 17

Kallistos Ware

Answer 17

Born in England in 1934, converted to Eastern Orthodoxy at age 24. Was a priest, monk, and bishop. Died in 2022.

Question 18

Where and when did David Hume live

Answer 18

1711-1776 in Edinburgh, Scotland

Question 19

Where and when did Plato live

Answer 19

Born in the 420s BC in Athens. Died in 348 BC in Athens

Question 20

Describe David Hume’s “A Treatise of Human Nature”

Answer 20

Based in empiricism, scepticism, and naturalism.

Hume was the first to do an empirical investigation into human nature, and used Newton’s same experimental methods of reasoning to draw conclusions on human psychology.

In this book, Hume…
argues that passion causes human behavior, not reason

introduces the problem of induction

argues that our faith in induction and causation is caused by custom and mental habit

argues that ethics are based on sentiments and passions, and not reason

offers the idea that free will and predetermination can coexist

Question 21

Where and when was the teleological argument for divine existence (also known as the intelligent design argument) developed?

Answer 21

Used by Aristotle, Plato, Paul, and Thomas Aquinas (specifically in his Five Ways of proving the existence of God)

Newton used it in the appendix of his second edition of Principia

David Hume refers to this argument and seems to agree with it in A Treatise on Human Nature, however later in his life he writes arguments both for and against it in Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Question 22

Where and when was the ontological argument for divine existence developed?

Answer 22

Early variations appear in some of Plato’s writings, but it was full described and developed by Anselm of Canterbury in 1078. Note that in Anselm’s work, he uses this argument not to prove the existence of God, but to describe how the idea of God became self-evident to him.

Question 23

When was the cosmological argument for divine existence (also known as the argument from universal causation or argument from first cause) developed?

Answer 23

Plato first developed this argument with the idea of a demiurge of supreme wisdom and intelligence as the creator of the universe.