modern restatements of the design argument

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16 Terms

1
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what did Tennant argue?

the reality of God could be established by using philosophical reasoning and the evidencing from nature. he thought that it was possible to come to a definitive proof of God’s existence and that we live our lives on the basis of probabilities

2
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what were tennants arguments on Gods existence based on?

the probability of them being persuasive rather than conclusive.

3
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what did Tennant try to establish in his arguments?

‘theistic hypothesis’ as the most probable explanation for the world including the existence of human beings. further he argued that the natural world interact with each other in order to support human life and this fine-tuning could only be brought about by god.

4
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how many strands are known to Tennants argument?

6, it is also known as the Anthropic principle

5
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explain the first strand of tennants argument?

nature and knowledge are mutually adapted to each other, he argues that the world is more or less intelligible to humans. it is a coherent universe whereas, if the elements of the universe had been very slightly different it would have been chaos

6
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explain the second strand of tennants argument?

Tennant accepts Darwins evolutionary ideas and says that it is not the mechanism of how evolution happened that is most important, but the fact of the whole process being successful that points to the existence of God.

7
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explain the third strand of tennants argument?

the fitness of the physical world and its ability to continue to sustain life is consistent with a formative principle. for tennant that is God

8
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explain the fourth strand of tennants argument?

Tennant notes that the world is essentially beautiful. everything in nature exhibits aesthetic qualities, and these are in tune with its intelligibility. he thinks that this strengthens the case for God’s existence

9
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explain the fifth strand of tennants argument?

human beings are part of the natural world, but transcend it by being rational and moral creatures. this point must be explained, says tennant, in any reasonable explanation of the world.

10
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explain the sixth strand of tennants argument?

argues that his previous five points reinforce each other and have a cumulative effect. When all five are seen together as aspects of a complex universe that is ordered to produce a consistent and inter-connected, whole, culminating human intelligence, the theistic hypothesis becomes inescapable

11
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what does the weak version argue?

if the world had been any different, human beings would not and could not exist this does not really cause any difficulties as it merely states that the world exists as it does

12
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what does the strong version argue?

more controversial. it argues that the world must be the way it is, so that human beings can exist in it. the way the world developed made it inevitable that humans would exist. this is a more controversial statement and has led to a great deal of discussion and debate amongst both philosophers and scientists

13
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what does Richard Swinburne argue in regards to the design argument?

the laws of the universe act according to very simple principles, are regular and observable and can be understood using scientific methods.

14
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what does Swinburne use to argue that it would be unbelievable if the regularity of laws were merely a coincidence?

ockham’s razor- logical principle that entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity’ (that the explanation with fewer assumptions is the correct one)

15
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what does Swinburne conclude about the existence of God?

belief in god is an extremely ‘simple’ proposition. He says that the simplicity of God is much more likely than all the characteristics of the universe demand further explanation.

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what are the criticisms of Swinburne’s argument

  1. humans cannot know what is in God’s mind so we cannot say that positing Gods existence is a simple explanation

  2. Swinburne used Razor to argue that it is more likely than not that there appears to be a simplest solution (God) is, in fact, the correct or only one. It might be that a combination of factors in more likely to be the most satisfactory solution

  3. hume and mill both say, the existence of evil in the world is a major objection to having God as the ultimate explanation. Swinburne does not answer this successfully. if the existence of evil in the world were to be understood as part of a simple explanation, many people, both religious and non-religious, would find this to be unsatisfactory.