Philosophy of Religion: Cosmological and Teleological Arguments

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering cosmological and teleological arguments, scholastic philosophy, Paley's watchmaker analogy, Darwinian evolution, and Humean critiques based on lecture notes.

Pythagoras of Samos

An ancient Greek thinker and philosopher who believed that everything can be quantified and that numbers constitute the essence of the universe.

Brian Davies's Critique

The view that the cosmological argument cannot serve as a standalone proof of God's existence because a logical leap remains between accepting a first cause and identifying it as the Christian God.

Fallacy of Composition

A logical error highlighted by David Hume asserting that just because individual parts within the universe have causes, it cannot be assumed that the universe as a whole requires a cause.

Copleston vs. Russell Debate

A philosophical exchange where Copleston argued that contingent things require an external necessary being containing its own reason for existence, while Russell maintained the universe is 'just there and that's all.'

Principle of Sufficient Reason

Gottfried Leibniz's principle stating that everything that exists or occurs must have a sufficient explanation or reason for why it is the case, culminating in an external, necessary God.

Contingent Being

A being or object that has the potential not to exist and relies on something external to give it existence, such as humans depending on air.

Necessary Being

A being that cannot not exist, does not rely on anything else for its existence, and holds the reason for its existence within itself; identified by Aquinas as God.

Aquinas's First Way (Motion)

An argument stating that change involves moving from potentiality to actuality, and because nothing can move or change by itself without an infinite regress, there must be a Prime Mover.

Aquinas's Second Way (Causation)

An argument based on the succession of causes ($A \rightarrow B$), positing that nothing can cause itself and causes cannot regress infinitely, requiring a first uncaused cause.

Natural Selection (Darwinian Theory)

Charles Darwin's mechanism showing that random mutations and survival of the fittest can produce order and apparent design by chance, eliminating the need for an intelligent designer.

Cosmological Argument

An a posteriori argument based on natural theology and observations of the universe that asks why there is something rather than nothing and infers a necessary, uncaused external cause.

Hume's Example of the Scales

An analogy illustrating that if one side of a scale weighs $1\,\text{kg}$ and the other heavier side is hidden, we cannot know the nature of the hidden weight; similarly, observing effects in the world cannot prove the cause is God.

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)

A text by Scottish sceptic David Hume presenting dialogues that criticize design arguments, proposing alternatives such as multiple craftsmen constructing the world rather than a single Christian God.

Minucius Felix's House Analogy

A late 2nd-century argument stating that when we see a neat, orderly, and well-kept house, we assume it has a master; similarly, the sight of order and law in heaven and earth points to an author.

Telos

The Greek word for 'end', 'goal', or 'purpose', serving as the root for teleological arguments that infer a designer from the end design, order, and complexity of the universe.

Aquinas's Fifth Way (Archer and Arrow)

The teleological analogy stating that just as an arrow lacks intelligence and must be directed to its target by an archer, non-intelligent natural things (like sunflowers turning to the sun) must be directed toward their ends by an intelligent being.

A Posteriori Argument

An argument derived from observation and empirical experience of the natural world, yielding probable rather than definitive conclusions.

A Priori Argument

An argument based on reason, independent of sensory observation or empirical experience.

Natural Theology

The approach of observing order, beauty, and evidence in the natural world to deduce rational conclusions about God's existence and attributes, referenced in Romans 1:19.

Design Qua Purpose

A form of the teleological argument illustrated by William Paley emphasizing that complex mechanisms and living parts (such as the eye for sight or wings for movement) were specifically fashioned to fulfill a distinct purpose.

Design Qua Regularity

A form of the teleological argument emphasizing that the universe is not chaotic but behaves according to consistent order, natural laws, and regularity.

Paley's Watchmaker Analogy

William Paley's argument in Natural Theology that just as the intricate cogs, levers, and springs of a watch imply a watchmaker, the complex intricacies in nature necessitate an intelligent divine designer.

Tennant's Anthropic Principle

The teleological proposition that the universe is finely tuned against the odds so that the development of human life was inevitable, serving as evidence of a designing God.

Paley's Broken Watch Defense

William Paley's rebuttal to critics stating that even if a watch is broken or tells time unreliably, it still exhibits purpose and demands a designer; therefore, flaws or natural disasters do not disprove design.