PHIL1004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Cosmological Argument, Intelligent Designer, Teleology
INTELLIGENT DESGIN ARGUEMNT – ARGUMENT BY ANALOGY BY THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
E.g. plants growing with a purpose. More complicated non-human species have sensitive systems.
Inference to the universe.
DOES GOD EXIST? LECTURE 1.2 23/02
TOPIC OVERVIEW
- Arguments for the Existence of God
o St Thomas Aquinas: Cosmological Argument(s)
o Williams Paley: Argument from Design
- Arguments against the Existence of God (Monday)
o Mackie: The Problem of Evil
- Pasals Wager Thursday
o Is it reasonable to believe in God without evidence?
TIPS
- Conceptual analysis → What does God ea?
ST ANSELM ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY – OMINI-GOD
- Omnipotentnly good
- Self-sufficient
- Omniscient
- Omnipresent
“T THOMA“ AQUINA“ COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS – GOD EXISTS (THESIS)
A2: First Cause
1. Each thing in the sensible world is caused by something else
2. A cause precedes its effect
3. (Give 1&2) No thing can be the cause of itself
4. The chain of causes cannot be infinite
5. There must be a first cause that is self-caused (Cause sui). This is God.
C GOD EXISTS
What objections could be raised against this argument?
- Assumption that the first cause is God. However, it is true by definition.
- There ould e a distitio etee a sesile orld ad Gods orld.
- If something is outside the sensible world how can it impact the sensible world
A3: Necessary Existence
1. Things in the natural, physical world are contingent: they can exist at sometimes but not others
(i.e. they can come to be and can pass away)
2. If a thing can fail to exist, it is possible to be a time when it does not exist
3. If everything can fail to exist, it is possible for there to be a time when nothing existed
4. But what does not exist must be caused to exist by something else
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Intelligent desgin arguemnt argument by analogy by the exi stence of god. Arguments for the existence of god: st thomas aquinas: cosmological argument(s, williams paley: argument from design. Arguments against the existence of god (monday: mackie: the problem of evil. T thoma aquina (cid:859) cosmological argument s god exists (thesis) Assumption that the first cause is god. There (cid:272)ould (cid:271)e a disti(cid:374)(cid:272)tio(cid:374) (cid:271)et(cid:449)ee(cid:374) a se(cid:374)si(cid:271)le (cid:449)orld a(cid:374)d god(cid:859)s (cid:449)orld. If something is outside the sensible world how can it impact the sensible world. Hidden premise: because everything in the natural world is caused by something else see a2: if it is possible for there to be a time when nothing existed, nothing would exist now, this is absurd. So, there must be something that necessarily exists (to cause what exists now) and that does not depend on anything else for its existence: god is the only thing that necessarily exists. Hidden premise: because god is self-caused see a2.
