1C- Inductive arguments Flashcards
(5 cards)
Who was Hume
Hume (atheist philosopher) put forward challenges in ‘Dialogues concerning Natural religion’ (published after his death)
Explain Hume’s challenges to the cosmological argument
Fallacy of composition: (applying something we know to something we don’t know)- just because the rule of cause and effect exists in the universe doesn’t mean it exists outside the universe- are we just interpreting cause and mind is connecting events?- ‘if we believe that fire warms tis only because it costs us too much pain to think otherwise’
Russel- just because man has a mother it doesn’t mean mankind has a mother
MeaningfuLness- humanity can only have knowledge about things we have direct experience of- means humanity can’t possibly know who or what created the universe and talk about it meaningfully- Kant also accepted
Evidence objection- the argument doesn’t have enough evidence to support conclusion- inductive leap- cosmological argument doesn’t prove God empirically exists- no evidence God has put everything into motion
Which God- there’s no evidence to show which sort of God created the universe- not necessarily the GOCT- not necessarily benevolent
Explain Hume’s challenges to the teleological argument
Problems with analogies- criticises human based analogies- Hume uses the example of a house and architect- house and universe are too different to draw similarities (not comparing like with like)- universe has more similarities to living organisms but these don’t need a designer as they’re just natural things- as the universe is unique no analogy can explain its origins
‘Does not a plant or animal… bear a stronger resemblance to the world’ (Hume)
Universe designed?- the universe may appear designed but may be in fact in chaos so there’s no need for a designer God- the so called ‘order’ in the universe is no more than random configurations of atoms- may appear designed but only random atom movement
More than 1 God- if we use human analogies (eg watch) than these goods are usually designed by many people, not one- so maybe many gods designed the universe- Paley failed to think of this- doesn’t prove a monotheistic God
Absent designer- after human things have been created eg watch then the designer moves onto other projects- so once God designed the universe he moved on
Explain the scientific criticism of the big bang
Was approx 13.8 billion years ago from violent explosion- this matter expanded and as temp cooled galaxies formed
Formed naturally from laws of science
‘The big bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics’ Hawking
No need for a causer God
Explain the scientific criticism of evolution by natural selection
Charles Darwin evolution by natural selection- BOOK ‘ORIGIN OF SPECIES’
Those with the best characteristics survived and bred and others died off- ‘survival of the fittest’
we are a result of random evolution- powerful evidence as Dawkins stated random mutations can occur to make changes
God had nothing to do with our creation
This theory was largely anathema (disliked) in the 19th century who believed God was the prime mover
