Rational Theology - Essay

Question 1

• What is Anselm’s argument for the existence of god? •• Present one possible
objection

Answer 1

• Reductio that aims to show that once you understand what God is (a being greater than which none can be conceived), you are rationally committed to her existence

Target claim: God exists in fact
Assume God does not exist in fact
God exists in the understanding
Then god only exists in the understanding
A being that exists in fact and understanding is greater than a being that exists only in the understanding
Then I can conceive of a being greater than God
BUT there is a contradiction with the definition of God - that God is a being greater than which none can be conceived;

•• Begging the question with the use of exists in premise that God exists in the understanding

Question 2

• What is Aquinas’ argument, based on the notion of causation, for the existence of god? •• Present one possible objection

Answer 2

• Some things undergo changes
If some thing undergoes a change, there is something else that changes it
THEN for everything that changes, there’s something else that changes it
AND there cannot be an infinity of such changes
THEN there is a first changer

•• Assume that there is a first changer, called God
If x changes y, then x undergoes a change
So: if God is a changer and changes something, then God herself must undergo a change.
So there must be something else that changes God
So God is not the first changer

Question 3

Present Pascal’s Wager. Offer one possible objection

Answer 3

• (?) The wager states that there is a low cost to believing in God but an infinitely good outcome if he exists and not much of a loss if god does not exist
• • Many gods; how is Pascal to be sure that only one God in the problem is correct? with more gods, there would a multiplied infinity payoff or the interplay between the gods and the belief in them all could anger other and cancel out or result in an infinite loss