Arguments for the Existence of God

Apriori definition

a concept is known through reason/logic, without any experience

Aposteriori definition

a concept is known through experience

Deductive reasoning definition

if the premises are true, so is the conclusion

eg: All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore Socrates is mortal

Inductive reasoning definition

Gives new knowledge on what is probably true

eg, All cats I have observed have fur. When I go to Portugal the cats there will probably have fur too.

Reason definition

the innate human ability to work out the truth

Faith definition

the innate human ability to believe in something without logical proof for its existence

Fideism definition

relying on faith alone as a philosophical position

Cosmos definition

the space-time universe

Contingency definition

the idea of something being dependent on something else to exist

Synthetic propositions

known on the basis of experience

Analytic propositions

known on the basis of logic and reason alone

necessary being definition

a being whom all other beings depend on their existence

Design/Teleological Argument scholar

William Paley

Design argument key points

• watchmaker analogy - intricacy of design suggests a designer

• APOSTERIORI - observation shows the world must have a designer due to its complexity, regularity and purpose

• examples of design - a creatures eye perfect for sight, planets perfectly designed for orbit

Teleological/design helps people have faith because…

• uses logic and reason

• provides evidence for faith in God from the world around us

• it is simple

• gives people a way to respond to atheism

Cosmological argument scholar

Thomas Aquinas

Cosmological key points

• APOSTERIORI - based on his observations of the cosmos, arguing in Summa Theologica of the laws of cause and effect in the universe

• every mortal contingent being must have a necessary uncaused being

• ‘ex nihilo nihil fit’ - nothing comes from nothing, God is necessary

Cosmological argument helps people have faith because…

• supported by the design argument

• uses logic and reason

• gives people a way to respond to atheism

• Easy to understand, based on evidence of the world around us

Ontological argument scholar

Anselm

Ontological key points

• APRIORI - logical argument

• God = greatest being conceived

• it is greater to exist in reality than not

• therefore God must exist

• God has necessary existence (response to Gaunillo’s island)

Ontological argument helps people to have faith because…

• can be worked out without relying on unreliable synthetic propositions

• written as a prayer to help peoples faith in the Proslogion (Anselm’s book)

• Anselm responds to counter-arguments making it stronger

strengths of Design Argument

• Swinburne - a simple argument that is easy to understand is better

• Hume’s PoE argument that undermines a divine creator can be solved through theodicy

• Empiricism = conclusion based on evidence - so is this

• Evidence from the world - everyone can understand

weaknesses of the design argument - Hume

• world could’ve been designed by a ‘lesser being’ - design does not prove classical theist god

• human perspective may shape us to see creation

• PoE and characteristics of God

• analogy/anthropomorphise god

strengths of the cosmological argument

• aposteriori reasoning = not fallacy of composition

• occam’s razor

• there is need for an uncaused necessary being - no science alternative to ex nihilo nihil fit

• science itself assumes there is no ‘brute fact’

weaknesses of the cosmological argument

• fallacy of composition - assumes one aspect of the universe is universal

• synthetic, not analytic, no real reason

• Russell - the universe is an unexplainable brute fact

• necessary uncaused being may not be classically theist

• why cant the universe be eternal and uncaused?

strengths of the ontological argument

• does not rely on synthetic propositions

• uses the same rational process as mathematics

• can be supported by fideism

• Anselm responds to Gaunilo’s criticism of the perfect island - makes it stronger (God is supreme in every way, so must have a necessary existence) - the island is subject to potentiality, could always be better

Weaknesses of the Ontological argument

• Kant - existence is not a predicate - if you shout ‘it exists’, we cannot know what ‘it’ is, eg Thaler example, only describing the coin would tell us something about it

• Gaunilo’s island

• Kant - logical truth does not have to be true, a unicorn is a white horse with a horn is true by definition, does not mean it has to exist