Swinburne’s anthropic fine-tuning design argument from temporal order (regularities of succession) Flashcards
What is a strength of Aquinas’, developed by Tennent and Swinburne, approach compared to Paley’s?
Aquinas’ approach focuses on temporal order, which considers the order of events over time, rather than spatial order.
Why is spatial order not sufficient to justify belief in God?
Spatial order can be explained by evolution or Hume’s arguments about chance and the problem of evil.
What is temporal order?
Temporal order refers to the orderliness of a thing’s behavior over time due to physical laws, maintained by natural laws discovered by physics.
What is an example of temporal order
the element of hydrogen has the same properties everywhere in the universe and since it first existed. The electron has a certain amount of negative charge and if it were different to less than a trillionth of a degree atoms could not exist. All of this orderliness persists throughout time which makes it temporal order.
What does Swinburne suggest proponents of the argument from design should rely on?
Swinburne suggests they should rely more on regularities of succession, as St. Thomas Aquinas did, rather than focusing solely on spatial order.
What questions arise regarding the laws of nature?
- Why are there laws of nature at all?
- Why are the laws of nature uniform and unchanging?
- Why do we have these laws, rather than other laws?
- Why are the laws so perfectly suited for human existence?
We should not expect such order to exist by chance, nor could evolution explain them.
Why does Swinburne reject ‘chance’ as an explanation for the laws of nature?
Swinburne rejects ‘chance’ because it is unimaginably unlikely for a universe with our exact laws to exist by chance.
Why does Swinburne reject ‘science’ as an explanation for the laws of nature?
Swinburne rejects ‘science’ because while it can discover the laws of nature, it cannot explain why there are laws or why there are these specific laws, including why they are fine-tuned for life.
According to Swinburne, what sort of explanation can account for the temporal regularities observed in the universe?
Swinburne argues that a personal explanation, involving the intentional creation by an intelligent mind, can account for the temporal regularities observed in the universe.
According to Swinburne, what is the best explanation for the temporal regularities observed in nature?
Swinburne argues that the best explanation is a personal one, involving the intentional design by an intelligent mind, which he identifies as God.
