Philosophy Paper 2

• God is everlasting


  exists within time
• God is eternal


  exists outside time
• Theodicy


  explanation of why an omni potent, omni benevolent god would allow evil
• Ontological Argument


  - a priori

  - deductive

  - prove god exists by definition
• Cosmological Argument

  arguments from

  - causation

  - contingency

  - must be something that isn't caused or contingent ... god
• Teleological Argument

  - arguments from design

  - spatial order ... features eg. eye must be designed

  - temporal order ... laws of nature eg. gravity must be designed
• Ayer's verification principle

  - meaningful statements must be analytic or empirical

  - doesn't fit either ... meaningless

  - moral judgements fail principle
• Paradox of the Stone


  - can god create a stone that he can't lift?

  - 'no', then God cannot create the stone.

  - 'yes', then God cannot lift the stone.

  - both answers say god cannot do some thing ..... god isn't omnipotent
• Euthyphro Dilemma


  - is what is morally good commanded by god because it is morally good

  - or is it morally good because it is commanded by god

  - challenge omnipotence

  - arbitrary
• E-T Simultaneity


  god as E (eternal) existing and relating to humans T (temporal)
• Omniscience vs free will

  - god is omniscient and we don't have free will

  - we have free will and god is not omniscient
• Descartes' Ontological Argument


  - i have the idea of god

  - idea of god is the idea of a supremely perfect being

  - lacks no perfection

  - existence is a perfection

  c) god exists
• Kant - Existence is not a predicate


  - not a property the same way green is a property of grass

  - doesn't add anything
• Anselm's Ontological Argument


  - god is a being greater which cannot be conceived

  - it is greater to exist in reality than in the mind

  c) god exists
• Gaunilo's Island


  - perfect island is greater than which cannot be conceived

  - it is greater to exist in reality than in the mind

  c) this island exists
• Malcom's Ontological Argument


  - gods existence is either necessary or impossible

  - gods existence is only impossible if the concept is self contradictory

  - the concept is not self contradictory

  c) so the existence of god is necessary
• Paley's Design Argument


  - spatial order

  - compares man made objects eg. watch with aspects of nature

  - both organised for purpose (watch and human eye)

  - must have a designer

  c) god is the designer
• Hume's objections to teleological arguments

  - problems with the analogy

  - man made objects are very different from natural objects

  - examples of design within the universe it is a fallacy to conclude the universe itself is designed (part to whole)
• Darwin's evolution to object teleological arguments

  - complex organisms can emerge without a designer

  - eg. giraffes designed by god to have long legs? or compete for food so evolved
• Swinburne's Teleological Argument


  - we can scientifically explain spatial order but cannot explain temporal the same way

  - personal explanation for temporal eg. choosing to write this sentence

  - this is analogous of the laws of nature as god chooses to design them

  c) god exists
• Is the designer God?

  - gods power is infinite, the universe is finite

  - designer and creator may be separate?
• Kalam argument


  - everything that begins to exist has a cause

  - the universe began to exist

  - the universe has a cause

  c) the cause is god
• Aquinas' First Way


  - from motion

  - some things are in motion

  - if this chain goes on infinitely there would be no first mover, so nothing would be in motion

  - things are in motion, so there must be a first mover

  c) that mover is god
• Aquinas' Second Way


  - from causation

  - everything is subject to cause and effect

  - if this chain goes on infinitely there would be no first cause, so there would be no cause and effect

  - there is cause and effect in the universe, so there must be a first cause

  c) that cause is god
• Descartes Cosmological Argument


  - if i was the cause of my own existence i would have given myself all perfections

  - i do not have all perfections

  - so i am not the cause of my own existence

  - there must be something that caused its own existence

  c) whatever causes its own existence is god
• Hume's objection to cosmological arguments from causation


  - everything has a cause is not an analytic truth

  - logically possible for something to exist and not have a cause for its existence
• Aquinas' Third Way


  - from contingency

  - everything that exists contingently did not exist at some point

  - if nothing existed, nothing could begin to exist

  - since going's began to exist there was never nothing in existence

  c) something must not exist necessarily ... god
• Leibniz Principle of Sufficient Reason

  - from contingency

  - every truth has an explanation of why it is the case

  - sufficient reason for necessary truths is analysis

  - cannot provide sufficient reason for contingent truths without referring to other contingent truths

  c) to provide sufficient reason for contingent truths we need a necessary substance ... god
• Russel - fallacy of composition (cosmological)

  - cosmological arguments

  - part applied to whole

  - eg Leibniz - everything in the universe requires sufficient reason does not mean the universe itself does
• Logical Problem of Evil

  - existence of god is logically impossible given the existence of evil
• Mackie's inconsistent triad


  - omni potent god, omni benevolent god and evil cannot all be true

  - evil exists, so no omnipotent or omni benevolent god can exist
• Plantinga's response to logical problem of evil

  - free will defence

  - logically possible god would allow evil for greater good of freedom and free will
• Evidential Problem of Evil


  - the amount and distribution of evil is strong evidence that god doesn't exist
• Hick's response to evidential problem of evil

  - soul making theodicy

  - we need certain evils to develop virtues eg. hard work and discipline

  - animals, not possible just to get rid of terrible
• Cognitivism


  truth value
• Non-cognitivism


  no truth value

  eg. boo hurrah
• Flew's gardener - meaningless

  - jungle clearing, weeds and flowers

  - must be a gardener (never any signs of gardener)

  - unfalsifiable and meaningless
• Hick Eschatological Verification - meaningful


  - travelling road, A believes it leads to celestial city B meaningless journey

  - A correct it will be proved right at celestial city

  - B is correct journey will go on forever

  - after death
• Mitchell's resistance fighter - meaningful


  - at war, meet a stranger

  - leads resistance so you trust him

  - appears to sometimes support the other team

  - believe and trust he has good reason

  - religious believer can accept some evidence against god without withdrawing belief
• Hare's Bliks - meaningful


  - part of someone's world view "blik"

  - believe uni lecturer is trying to murder them

  - proof that they are not by talking yet no amount of evidence convinced them

  - unfalsifiable but meaningful to holder