The Existence of God Flashcards
What is Cosmological Argument?
It is a collection of arguments from ancient Greek to modern times. It is a posteriori (knowledge obtained through experience) and inductive (evidence 5at are not fully assured of the truth)
Who was the philosopher and theologian who wrote the book ‘Summa Theologica’, influenced by Aristotle, proposed 5 ways / arguments of demonstrating God’s existence (Quinque Viae)?
St. Thomas of Aquinas (1225 - 1274)
What are the 5 ways / proofs of God’s existence?
The argument of/from…
- the unmoved mover
- the first cause / efficient cause
- contingency
- degree
- design
What kind of argument? Things cannot move unless there is a mover, therefore there must be a first mover and that is God
The Argument from Motion
What kind of argument? An effect should be caused and for something to be made, there must be a first maker and that is God
The Argument from Efficient Cause
What are Aristotle’s views on causation?
- material cause
- efficient cause
- formal cause
- final cause
[MEFF]
What kind of argument? There must be a necessary being whose existence is not contingent on any other being or beings and that is God
Contingent - who’s existence is not necessary
The Argument from Contingency and Necessary Being
What kind of argument? Varying perfections of varying degrees may be found throughout the universe and these degrees assume the existence of an ultimate standard of perfection. Perfection must have a pinnacle, and that pinnacle is God
The Argument from Gradation or from Degrees of Perfection
What kind of argument? There must be an intelligent being which directs everything towards a purpose. If there is a designer, there must be a creator and that is God.
The Argument from Design
Remember this:
Things are in motion = there is a first mover
Things are caused = there is a first cause
Things exist = there is a creator
Perfect goodness exist = it has a source
Things are designed = they serve a purpose
What is Ontological Argument?
It is a philosophical argument for the existence of God using ontology(study of existence, being, becoming, and reality)
[The first ontological argument in the Western Christian tradition was proposed by Anselm of Canterbury in his 1078 work Proslogion
Who was a member of the Benedictine Order, a bishop of canterbury, and extended the Augustine tradition “seeking to believe in order to understand rather than seeking to understand to believe”?
St. Anselm of Canterbury
How did Anselm define God?
A being than which no greater can be conceived, and which exists
[This being must exist in the mind and reality, even in the minds of nonbelievers]
Remember this:
It is a conceptual truth that God is a being than which none greater can be imagined.
We cannot imagine something greater than God.
God exists.
