Swinburne's Argument from Probability

Question 1

Swinburne’s Argument from Probability (Summary)

Answer 1

1. Swinburne’s Approach to Science.
2. Common Source of God.
3. Why is theism a simple hypothesis

Question 2

Swinburne’s Approach to Science

Answer 2

• Swinburne admits that most general regularities of the universe can be explained by science.
• We still need God to explain “why science explains”
• In this way, both science and religion can work side by side in explaining how the complex universe came into existence.

Question 3

Common Source of God

Answer 3

• Swinburne believed that temporal order is better explained by assuming a common source than it is by any theory of coincidence.
• This common source should be God for two reasons:
  1. Simplicity of a hypothesis enhances it’s probability
  2. Theism being an extremely simple hypothesis, is more probable than any alternative explanation.

Question 4

Why is theism an extremely simple hypotheses (3)

Answer 4

1. Suggests a God of a very simple kind, a being whose capacities are great as they logically can be.
2. Theism reduces all forms of explanation to personal explanation (God)
3. All things depend on him whereas he depends on nothing. Explanation, in this sense, ends with God.