Theme 1

Question 1

What is the cosmological argument

Answer 1

An inductive argument for the existence of God
A posteriori

Question 2

What is the cosmological argument made up of

Answer 2

Kalam argument
Aquinas’ first three ways
- Motion
- Cause
- Contingency

Question 3

Motion

Answer 3

• everything in the universe is in a state of motion
• he noted that things don’t move in their own instead they are loved by something else
• he said if we go back we must reach a starting point
• to see who started these things we need to look outside the universe for something that’s not moved by anything else
• he named this the unmoved mover- God

Question 4

Cause

Answer 4

• everything in the universe has a cause
• the idea of going back in infinity is seen as impossible
• it leads to a question - what was the first cause?
• Aquinas says it’s God
• he says it’s impossible for anything in the universe to cause itself to exist
• for example: you can’t exist without your parents

Question 5

Contingency

Answer 5

• he noted that everything that exists has the possibility of not existing
• for contingent beings to exists there must be a non-contingent being that brought everything into existence (God)
• he states something must exist that is unlike everything in existence - it has no beginning, no end
• it has a necessary existence to bring everything into existence

Question 6

The kalam argument

Answer 6

• an argument for Gods existence
• argues that the universe has a cause, which must be invasive
• an actual infinite cannot exist in reality
• If the universe had no beginning, we would have an actual infinite
• this is impossible

Question 7

William L Craig

Answer 7

• everything that begins to exist has a cause
• the universe began
• therefore, the universe has a cause
• library example

Question 8

Challenges to cosmological argument

Answer 8

• Hume was uncomfortable with the reasoning behind the cosmological argument
• He had 4 major challenges:
  1. Just because we observe cause and effect in the universe doesn’t mean that this rule applies to the universe itself.
  For example: Russel says just because all humans have a mother it doesn’t mean the whole humanity has a mother (fallacy of composition)
  2. We have no experience of creating a universe so we can’t talk meaning fully about that
  3. These isn’t enough evidence to say the universe had a cause or what the cause might have been
  4. Even if God could be accepted as the cause there is no way to determine what sort of God he is

Question 9

What is the teleological argument

Answer 9

An inductive argument for the existence of God
An a posteriori argument

Question 10

What is the teleological argument made up of

Answer 10

• Aquinas’s fifth way
• Paley’s watchmaker analogy
• Tennant’s anthropic principle
• Tennant’s aesthetic principle

Question 11

William Paley’s design argument

Answer 11

• The complexity of the watch points towards the conclusion that this watch has been created by an intelligent being
• He says the universe also has a complex design; therefore, the universe is designed by an intelligent being. For example: the human eye is a complex creation, how it perceives objects and how the eyelids protect the eyes
• So like a watch needs an intelligent designer to create it, the universe also needs an intelligent designer who created it

Question 12

Aquinas’ fifth way

Answer 12

• something that lacks intelligence cannot move towards fulfilling a useful end unless something with intelligence has moved it
• for example your own can’t write your essay for you because it is an unintelligent thing
• bow and archer theory - the arrow is an unintelligent thing which is directed by the archer to help it achieve its goal
• the universe also has a goal but lacks intelligence, so it must be directed by some intelligent being
• for Aquinas the only explanation was that this guiding intelligent being is God

Question 13

Tennent’s anthropic principle

Answer 13

• the natural world provides the things that are necessary for human life to be sustained
• the fact that the process of human evolution has led to the development of intelligent human life
• it’s developed to the extent where humans can observe and analyse the universe that it exists in

Question 14

Tennent’s aesthetic principle

Answer 14

• the natural appreciation that humans have for things that are considered beautiful
• Tennant’s response was to claim that this appreciating comes from God
• God not only wanted his creation to live in the world, but he wanted them to enjoy living in it

Question 15

Challenges to the teleological argument

Answer 15

• the universe is far too complex
• we lack experience to make such claims about a grand design
• if the universe is designed why does it have so many flaws
• Hume criticises the use of human analogies to demonstrate that the universe is designed by God
• he says any analogy made by humans is necessarily based on experience that humans have but if we lack experience of the reason the analogy is being used to prove right then how can we be assured that the an analogy is certain
• the Big Bang theory is often used as proof that a random action caused the beginning of the universe, not God

Question 16

What is the ontological argument

Answer 16

A deductive argument for the existence of God
An a priori argument

Question 17

What is the ontological argument based on

Answer 17

• It’s based on logical reasoning (a priori) to come to a conclusion
• Deductive proofs are a series of premises or statements that point towards logically acceptable conclusions:
  -premise 1: all oceans contain water
  -premise 2: the Atlantic is an ocean
  -conclusion: therefore, the Atlantic contains water

Question 18

Anselm’s ontological argument

Answer 18

God as the greatest possible being (Proslogian 2):
- God is considered to be the being than which no greater can be conceived, in this case, he exists both in the mind and reality otherwise he is not the greatest possible being
- it is greater to exist in reality than in the mind. For example: before a painting exists in reality it exists in the painters mind

God has a necessary existence (Proslogian 3)
- “God cannot be conceived but to exist”
- once you understand what it means for God to be the greatest being, you need to conclude that God has a necessary existence
- God if he exists is either a being which cannot be though of as not existing (necessary existence) or he is a being which can be thought of as not existing (non-contingent)
- God having a necessary existence demonstrates that God is the greatest possible being that can be thought of, as anything which exists is greater than anything that doesn’t
- if God is the greatest being he just exist in reality not just in the mind

Question 19

Descartes ontological argument

Answer 19

God was the most perfect being who possessed all perfections
Analogies:

• Idea of the triangle = a triangle has 3 sides and adds to 180°
  To understand a triangle there needs to be a set criteria that can be understood by all
  Likewise to think of God’s existence you need to think of the attributes of his existence as a necessary part of the definition of God
  He says the concept of God contains the idea of his existence as a necessary perfection that he possesses in the same way the concept of a triangle refers to the shape with three sides and interior angles that add to 180°
• Mountains and valleys = one cannot think of a mountain without thinking of the corresponding valley
  Where there’s one there’s always the other
  It is impossible to divorce the idea of God and the idea of his existence
  He states that God alone possesses this perfection as the supremely perfect being, proving that he exists

Question 20

Malcolm’s ontological argument

Answer 20

• he rejects both Anselm and Descartes
• he sides with Guanilo and Kant
• he says you can’t add the concept of existence to a list of qualities that something has and then claim it exists
• he does agree with Anselm’s 3rd pros logion that God is the greatest being that can be thought of
• God should equally be described as an unlimited being, if he wasn’t unlimited that means there would be limits to his being which would mean he’s not the greatest
• therefore, God must be an unlimited being to be a necessary being

Question 21

Gaunilo’s objection
(Reply to Anselm)

Answer 21

• he claims that in the same way Anselm argues, it is possible to argue the existence of God through the definition of God is “that nothing greater than God can be conceived” then it must be possible to have the idea of a prefect island and because of this idea the island must exist
• he states that the idea of something that can be thought of existing separately outside of our minds just because it’s the greatest thing we can think of is logically nonsense
• just cause you can define the greatest being doesn’t mean he exists

Question 22

Critics of Guanilo

Answer 22

• he misunderstood the argument and is applying criticism incorrectly
• basic counter argument to Guanilo focusses on the idea that only God is necessary (non-contingent) and the ground or source of his own being
• Guanilo’s island is contingent, and it can’t ever be perfect because you can always make it more perfect
• God’s perfection is a necessary part of him

Question 23

Immanuel Kant

Answer 23

• criticises Descartes form of the ontological argument that God possesses all perfections
• he objected to this because it is inaccurate to describe existence as perfection
• he said “existence cannot be predicate” simply because existence can be a thing that an object can possess or lack but it does not describe anything about the nature of an object
• Kant states that we can’t just say that God exists because that doesn’t tell us anything about his nature
• however, if we described God as omni benevolent or omniscient that tells us about his nature

Question 24

Key quotes
(Cosmological)

Answer 24

“It necessary to arrive at an unmoved mover, moved by no other”

“Motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality” (Aquinas)

“The universe is just there, and that’s all” (Russel) - challenge

Question 25

Key quotes
(Teleological)

Answer 25

“It is necessary to arrive at an uncaused cause, caused by no other”

Whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence” (Aquinas)

“The universe is just there, and that’s all” (Russel) - challenge

Question 26

Key quotes
(Ontological)

Answer 26

“I believe in order to understand” (Anselm)

“God a being than which nothing greater can be conceived” (Anselm)