The existence of God Flashcards
Who argued the First Cause argument?
St Thomas Aquinas
How many different proofs of God’s existence did St Thomas Aquinas suggest?
Five
What was St Aquinas’ religion and profession?
He was a Christian monk
What was Aquinas’ argument?
- Everything that exists has a cause
- Infinite regress is impossible
- The universe must have a cause of its existence
- This cause would be an Uncaused Cause (God)
- Therefore this proves God’s existence
What are the weaknesses with the First Cause argument?
- why does God not have a cause?
- who does Aquinas say believes the Uncaused Cause to be God?
- he is a monk, so his theory must have some bias
What were the 4 Design Arguments?
- *William Paley- *universe designed with purpose (complex), must have been designed
- *St Thomas Aquinas- *planets are ordered and complicated, must have been designed
- *Isaac Newton- *thumbs and eyes are unique an designed
- *F. R. Tennant- *universe is **just right **for humans (Anthropic Principle)
What was William Paley’s Design Argument?
(Teleological argument)
- If you found a stone, you’d think it was nothing
- If you found a watch, you would believe it had been manufactured
- Therefore the universe must have been created as it is so complex and too amazing for chance
- God must have created the universe
What are the weaknesses with the Design Argument?
- Isn’t the stone designed too?
- Just because something looks designed doesn’t mean it is e.g. penicillin was an accident
What is a miracle?
- an act of God - God did it
- going against what we understand of nature - impossible
- helpful or good for people
How do miracles prove God’s existence?
- God makes miracles happen
- It is God reaching into our world to help us
Many religious people believe God is immanent?
What does this mean?
Interfering in our world through miracles
Why are miracles often personal?
People would have different perspectives to the miracles that God may have given to them
What are the 3 types of religious experience?
- visionary experience
- conversion experience
- general revelation experience
Why does religious experience prove God exists?
If you meet God, you know he exists
What are the problems with religious experience?
- Did you make it up consciously or sub-consciously?
- It could be a hallucination
- Without evidence, you can’t prove it
What did Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher, argue?
That our knowledge came from a source beyond our experience. That our sense of right and wrong came from something beyond humans themselves- the morality argument
What must the source of our morality be?
- can’t be human- so the source must need to exist bedore humans and to keep existing
- need to have intelligence- there is logic to our morality
- has to be good- our morality is overwhelmingly good
What are the arguments against the morality argument?
- not everybody has the same sense of right and wrong
- is our sense of right and wrong fixed or changing?
- alternative sources for morality?
What does **belief **mean?
An idea accepted as true without positive proof e.g. belief that God exists
What does **proof **mean?
Any evidence that helps to establish a fact
What does **evidence **mean?
Grounds for belief/disbelief
What does **certainty **mean?
Something established as probable, being sure of something
What does **probability **mean?
Something that is likely to happen or be true
What are theists?
People who believe in God
What are atheists?
People who don’t believe in God
What are agnostics?
People who are not sure whether they believe in God or not
