arguments for the existence of god

• a premise is a proposition that helps support a conclusion
• 'a priori' describe knowledge that is derived from the mind and not from experience e.g. brothers are male siblings
• 'a posteriori' describes knowledge we can only know through experiencing the world e.g. my dog likes chicken
• a deductive argument is one in which it is impossible for the premises to be true but the conclusion false - you take 2 premises to form a conclusion

  • e.g. (P1) all dogs have 4 legs; (P2) John's pet is a dog; (C) therefore, John's pet has 4 legs
• an inductive argument is one in which the premises may be true, but the conclusion still false - reasoning takes specific information + makes a broader generalisation

  • e.g. (P1) all cats i've observed have fur; (P2) tomorrow i'm going to Canada; (C) the cats i see in Canada will probably have fur
• natural theology = the view that the questions about God's existence can be answered without referring to scripture - using reason, science, history + observation
• Fideists believe that in matters to do with religion, faith is all-important over reason - people can believe in God with absolute conviction + that certainty can never be experienced using reason
• empirical = an argument based on the experience of the senses
• H.H. Price distinguished between 'belief that' and 'belief in'

  • both are necessary for faith
  • 'belief that' = acceptance of something
  • 'belief in' = an attitude of commitment + trust
• a subject is what a sentence is about
• a predicate gives us information about the subject
• analytic statements are true by definition e.g. a bachelor is an unmarried male
• necessary refers to something that is eternal with no beginning or end
• contingent refers to something that is not eternal, having a beginning + end
• Occam's Razor = the simplest explanation is usually the correct one