God

• 1. INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHYSection 701, Summer II Online
  WEEK OF JULY 11, 2011:
  EXISTENCE OF GOD
  

2. Overview
Several philosophers throughout history have tackled the question whether the existence of God is logically defensible.
They have presented arguments that we are going to examine. We are going to look at these positions:
The Cosmological Argument
The Argument from Design
The Ontological Argument
3. Kinds of Arguments
A posteriori proving the existence of God from evidence in the world
A priori proving the existence of God from thought and reason alone
4. The Cosmological Argument
St. Thomas Aquinas
First Mover
Causation
Degrees/Perfection
Intelligent Design
(textbook pg. 4748)
5. Example: Causation
Some things are caused by other things.
Nothing can be the cause of itself
it would have to exist before it causes itself that would be a logical contradiction
There cannot be an endless string of objects causing other objects to exist
If there were no first cause at the beginning, the rest of the chain could not exist
Therefore, there must be an uncaused first cause called God.
Possible objections to this position?
6. The Argument from Design
In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there; I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place; I should hardly think of the answer I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there. (...) There must have existed, at some time, and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers, who formed [the watch] for the purpose which we find it actually to answer; who comprehended its construction, and designed its use. (...) Every indication of contrivance, every manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of nature; with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater or more, and that in a degree which exceeds all computation.
William Paley, Natural Theology (1802)
7. The Argument from Design
Paleys Watchmaker Argument
A posteriori
Stone vs. Watch
Analogy to the world
Existence of God
Possible objections to this position?
8. The Ontological Argument
A priori
From the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Imagine the greatest possible being that can be imagined (God).
God exists as an idea in the mind.
A being that exists as an idea in the mind and in reality is, other things being equal, greater than a being that exists only as an idea in the mind.
Thus, if God exists only as an idea in the mind, then we can imagine something that is greater than God (that is, a greatest possible being that does exist).
But we cannot imagine something that is greater than God (for it is a contradiction to suppose that we can imagine a being greater than the greatest possible being that can be imagined.)
Therefore, God exists.
Possible objections to this position?
IF it existed, it would have to have these properties