RE GCSE Revision - Philosophy Flashcards
Arguements for the existence of God?
Cosmological arguement
Teleological arguement
Moral arguement
Ontological arguement
Experiential arguement
What is the cosmological arguement?
For a stack of dominos to fall, someone has to push them over
There must be a cause for the existence of the universe
This cause must be a first cause
This would be God
Pros: Seems intutive and easy to communicate.
Cons: Fails to establish a reputable first cause. The Big Bang goes against this.
What is the teleological arguement?
The chance of the world even existing is incredibly low
Furthermore, the world is so perfectly designed for life
The tree give us fruit, and our hand shapes allow us to grab it
Therefore, there is God has he is the only one to be able to make it so perfectly designed for life and create a world.
Cons: The many natural disasters that kill good and innocent people would suggest otherwise.
Pros: This arguement is very intutive and there has been research showing that even young child believe that there is a purpose to everything.
Gives the user purpose.
What is the moral arguement?
If God doesn’t exist, objective moral values don’t exist.
God’s nature provides a standard for which all actions can be measured morally.
If there is no God, then there is only ‘pitiless indifference.’
Therefore, for us to have an objective morality, we need God.
Pros: It is intutive and communicable. Implies atheists lack any real morals making the theists have a moral high-ground in a debate. This makes sense as an immoral, godless liar would probably try to convince people that morality is objective so they can get away with their evil actions.
Cons: Doesn’t show that objective morality comes from God and that it actually exists.
What is the ontological arguement?
For a being to be God, it has to be the greatest possible being.
Things in reality are better than in imagination.
Therefore, God has to exist.
Pros: Appears complex so seems hard to refute.
Flaws: You can say this about everything, e.g. the greatest possible unicorn would exist in reality as that would be better than in the imagination. Therefore, God does exist.
What is the experiential arguement?
My personal experiences are reliable sources of information.
I personally experience (insert theistic event here)
Therefore, God does exist.
Pros: Impossible to argue with as we can’t say with 100% convinction that that person didn’t experience what they said.
Cons: There are a wealth of medical conditions that science backs where people perceive things that aren’t actually there.
Also, doesn’t explain how a Muslim can have a personal experience with Allah while a Christian can have a personal experience with Jesus etc. They can’t all be right.
What is Pascal’s Wager?
If someone believes in God, and He does exist, they get to enjoy heaven
If He doesn’t, they look finitely on Earth and just have death
Meanwhile, an atheist would gain finitely on Earth, but suffer infinitely in hell.
Therefore, a rational person should live like there’s a God.
Pros: Simple and easy to understand.
Cons: Multiple religions can use this arguement making it absurd and illogical. You can worship all of them, and so, by picking one, the atheist and theist are basically in the same realm, as the theist has to be right about his pick of 1/9999 Gods and the atheist has to be right about his pic of 0/9999 Gods.
