Philosophy of religion

Reason

Human intellect abilities. Capacity to create beliefs for good reasons on evidence: empirical or rational

Faith

Gift from God. Set of beliefs some supported by evidence it goes beyond evidence.

Explain why reason and Faith are important?

Reason leads us to faith, our faith grows and it starts going beyond evidence

What is natural theology? Examples:

• Study of God and his attributes

• His relation to the world

• Beliefs established by reason independently from any revelation

• There is a creator bc our universe points to it.

Dogmatic theology

Belief mandatory for members of a religion

• Holy Trinity

• Bible Es inspired

• Jesus is born from a virgin

God's divine attributes

→ omnipotence [ex-nihilo] - from nothing

Omniscience knows it all

Immutability

Eternal

Omnibenevolent

Explain the teleological argument

It states that the universe is designed but not necessarily a theistic God. The argument is divided in two parts the theistic God and Cosmic design

• The universe is not a casualty

What is theism

The belief that there is a God or gods. Bases the idea of a creator

What is the orthodox view for Jews and Muslims?

God is single, omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent.

Design Argument premises and conclusions

Premise: the purposive organization of man-made objects is evidence of an intelligent maker all natural objects are purposive the the world is carefully organized

Conclusion: By analogy, there must be a maker of the universe who made it according to a PLAN and that is God.

Explain the analogy of the Watch by William Paley

He finds a stone and he sees it and he believes it might have always been there, but then finds a watch and inspect it carefully see that everything works in a very precise orderly matter. You would infere that it has a purpose and therefore a maker. You look at the effect (watch) and determine the cause (watchmaker)

ARGUMENT FROM ANALOGY

just as the watch you see the eye and think it works similarly if we conclude the watch has a watchmaker then the universe has a DIVINE MAKER

What is cause and effect?

Knowledge form our own experience. If something happens, is, or exists it must have a cause. It is central to God’s existence specially the cosmological argument.

What is the Comparison Argument?

We only have this world to go on so how can we be sure it is so perfect? WELL EVIDENCE!

Why is the problem of Evil THE STRONGEST ARGUMENT against the existence of God? (Cosmic Design)

It attacks directly the mere fact of God‘s existence but above all it ALTERS the concept and nature of God understood by Christianity.

1. The theistic God exists and Evil does not

2. The Theistic God does not exist and evil does

How is the image of God altered?

He is perhaps not ALL Good or NOT Omnipotent. It challenged God’s attributes.or

• Omnipotence: Can’t he prevent evil?

• Omniscience: He knows everything why doesn’t he do anything about it

• Omnibenevolence: How could he allow evil?

What is the Chaos THeory? (cosmic design)

Maybe the universe is not so orderly after all? At the quantum level physical processes are indeterminate. Nature is not as mechanical.

Human production is better than the universe which is why we feel the urge to create.

What is the cosmological Argument

Based on three principles it states that:

1. Something cannot be the cause of itself

2. Something cannot come from nothing

3. There cannot be an infinite series of causes and effects.

Descibe with an example Aristotles Theory of efficient Cause:

• Efficient - Material - Formal - Final

• (Sculptor - Marble - characteristics - object)

• God - Polvo de la tierra - At his image - Aliento de vida - Humankind

Objections to the Existence of God

1. Is seems God doesn’t exist bc God= good and evil exists

2. Everything in the world can be achieved by few principles. Human Reason and Will. There is no need to be supposed the existence of God.

In How many ways can we prove the existence of God?

Five ways:

• Argument of motion:

• Efficient Cause

• Possibility to Necessity

• Governance of things

• Ontological Argument

Argument of Motion

Everything has a beginning and the universe does too. Everything has an efficient cause and that is the UNCHANGED MOVER

Efficient Cause: Everything has a beginning

Everything has a beginning:

• If A caused B and B caused C then A is the beginnign of eveything and without it B and C would not exist

• The beginning is God

Possibility to necessity

Things that are possible ar wither created or destroyes but cannot exist forever. For something to exist it must come from somethign already existing. if at one time there was nothing it would be impossible for the universe to be here. A creator must exist.

Governance of Things:

Things that are imperfectact to become better (perfection of human character Socrates). They achieve this by design not chance. The arrow is directed by the archer.

ARGUMENT OF PERFECTION

God is the greatest thing we can conceive nd the world is in gradation (levels and order of something like a scale) In this case Something is good, better, best, perfect and divine. That can only be our creator therefore there is a God.

Ontological Argument:

1.  God is the greatest possible thing we can conceive. If there was a being that exists greater than what we conceive then God would not exist . But since God, there is no being greater then he EXISTS. 

2. Denying this leads to a reduction to absurdity

Who developed the Ontological Argument and what is it?

Saint Alsem developed it and it states that God is the greatest possible thing we can conceive. His has 3 main points which are the two types of existence, that which exists in the mind could possibly exist in reality, and things that exist in reality are greater than those that exist in the mind.

Is it possible that God exists in both the mind and reality? Please explain

Yes, if we accept the possibility of a greater being since God is the greatest being and that which exists, in reality, is greater than that in the mind then God CANNOT only exist in the mind.

Can we use Aristotle’s “Efficient Cause Theory” to prove/explain the existence of God?

1. Everything has a beginning and there are no infinite loops of creation just like the sculpture created the masterpiece everything leads to a conclusion that something CREATED our universe leading to God. 

2. Dios - Polvo de Tierra - Creados a su imagen y semejanza - Aliento de vida y Nosotros.

What is the meaning of chance and design?

It is made to support the thesis that the universe is designed. It does not refer to the creation of a theistic God. It splits into the argument of a theistic God as we know it and a cosmic designer(as we don’t know it)

Free will to defend the existence of God:

1. Free will explains the origins of evil even if God is all good. God created a world where good is possible but he also has given us the power to misuse our freedom if we choose it. True virtue comes from making the right choice between good and evil not from being incapable of choosing wrong. 

2. This leads us to the conclusion that if God were to eliminate all evil that would result in removing our free will. If we were created without free will we would be no better than robots programmed to be incapable of love, moral growth, and relationships.