Theme 1 Flashcards
What is the cosmological argument
An inductive argument for the existence of God
A posteriori
What is the cosmological argument made up of
Kalam argument
Aquinas’ first three ways
- Motion
- Cause
- Contingency
Motion
- 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
Cause
- 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
Contingency
- 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
The kalam argument
- 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
William L Craig
- everything that begins to exist has a cause
- the universe began
- therefore, the universe has a cause
- library example
Challenges to cosmological argument
- 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
What is the teleological argument
An inductive argument for the existence of God
An a posteriori argument
What is the teleological argument made up of
- Aquinas’s fifth way
- Paley’s watchmaker analogy
- Tennant’s anthropic principle
- Tennant’s aesthetic principle
William Paley’s design argument
- 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
Aquinas’ fifth way
- 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
Tennent’s anthropic principle
- 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
Tennent’s aesthetic principle
- 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
Challenges to the teleological argument
- 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
What is the ontological argument
A deductive argument for the existence of God
An a priori argument
What is the ontological argument based on
- 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
Anselm’s ontological argument
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
Descartes ontological argument
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
Malcolm’s ontological argument
- 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
Gaunilo’s objection
(Reply to Anselm)
- 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
Critics of Guanilo
- 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
Immanuel Kant
- 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
Key quotes
(Cosmological)
“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
Key quotes
(Teleological)
“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
Key quotes
(Ontological)
“I believe in order to understand” (Anselm)
“God a being than which nothing greater can be conceived” (Anselm)
