Final Exam: Philosophy of Religion Flashcards
(35 cards)
1
Q
What are the four attributes of Aquinias God?
Is there a problem with those?
A
- Omnipotent (all-powerful)
- Omniscient (all-knowing)
- Omnibenevolent (all-good)
- Personal
Logical problem: omnipotency
can God make a stone so heavy that he cannot lift it? (double-bind) if yes and if no, his power is limited
2
Q
What are Aquinas 5 arguments for God’s existence?
A
- Motion
- Causation
- Contingent and necessary beings
- Properties in degrees
- Design
3
Q
How does Aquinas first argument work?
A
- Some things move
- Any movement requires a cause
- The cause must be before the movement
- There are no infinite chains of movement
- There must be a first cause of movement
- It has to be outside of the natural world
- Therefore, God exists
4
Q
How does Aquinas second argument work?
A
- There are events
- Events have causes
- Causes must preceed their events
- There are no infinite chains of events
- Therefore there must be a first event
- This event also must have a cause, but this cause cannot be another event in the natural world
- Therefore, God must have caused the first even and must exist.
5
Q
What are the problems of Aquinas first two arguments?
A
- Premises are questionable
- Motion: Aristotles physics vs. Newton’s physics
- Birthday Fallacy
- Everyone has a birthday, therefore there must be one day that is everybody’s birthday.
- Is backward causation impossible
6
Q
What are contigent and necessary truths?
A
- Contingent truths = truths that are true in at least one possible world
- Necessary truths = truths that are true in all possible worlds
- Possible worlds = all worlds that are (theoretically) possible; worlds that could exist
7
Q
How does Aquinas third argument work? What type is it?
A
Reductio ad absurdem argument
- Suppose all beings where contingent
- Contingent beings come into existencs and stop existing somewhen
- If all beings were contigent, there must have been an empty time
- This empty time would have been in the past
- Then the world would also be empty now
- The world is not empty now.
- Therefore there must be a non-contingent being and that being is God
8
Q
What are some of the problems of Aquinas third arguemt?
A
- nearly all of the premises can be doubted
- Empty time:
- birthday fallacy
- why in the past?
- Non-contigent being: why must it be God?
- Why cannot an empty world generate things?
- etc.
- Empty time:
9
Q
What are a priori and a posteriori truths?
A
- a priori = can be known simply by use of concepts without experience or observations
- a posteriori = can only be known by experience or observations
10
Q
What does “act for an end” mean?
A
- it means to have a function or a goal
11
Q
How does Aquinas Argument from Design work?
A
- Aquinas, like Aristotle thought that everything acts for an end. E.g. a falling stone tries to get close to earth.
- Argument
- Some things which have a function or act for an end have minds
- Any such thing, which does not have a mind must have been designed by an intelligent designer
- Therefore there is a designer, who created all those things
- Therefore God exists
12
Q
How can we critize Aquinas argument from design?
A
- Birthday fallacy: one designer created them all
- Sober: abductive argument
- What about H3: Evolution?
13
Q
What is Paley’s watch?
A
- suppose you find a watch on the beach
- What is more likely?
- H1: The random movements of sand, water and wind created this sophisticated masterpieve
- H2: An intelligent designer created the watch
- Surprise principle favours H2 over H1
- Argument by analogy –> same applies to our world
14
Q
What is an argument by analogy?
What are its components?
What determines its strength?
A
- An argument that shows one feature and tries to portray this feature on something similar
- Components
- Analog = Thing with feature
- Target = target of analogy
- Strengt depends on similarity of analog and target. Higher is better, but if identical its useless.
15
Q
What is Hume’s criticism of Paley’s Watch argument?
A
- Watch is overall not very similar to universe
- Watch is overall not very similar to biological organisms
- Even if argument would be better, it would only conclude that there exists a being “intelligent enough”, does not prove God’s existence
16
Q
What is Anselm’s Onthological Argument (for God’s existence)?
A
- God has maximal possible perfection
- Suppose that God did not exist
- Then someone could image a being greater then God, namely a being which has the maximal possible perfection and that does exist
- Therefore, God does exist (because he has maximal possible perfection, and non-existence would not be perfect)
17
Q
How does Sober criticize Hume’s criticism?
A
- Argument is not necessarily an argument by analogy
- Argument is abductive in nature
- And intelligent design seems to be best explanation for highly complex and sophisticated organisms
18
Q
What is the theory of evolution?
A
- Two hypothesis
- Single tree of life
- Modification by natural selection
19
Q
What are the three approaches to the problem of evolution?
A
- Theistic evolutionism
- There is evolution
- God created the world and started evolution
- Atheistic evolutionism
- There is evolution
- God does not exist
- Creationism
- There is no evolution
- God designed the whole universe and all beings
20
Q
What are problems with creationism?
A
- Testability - non falsifiable theories
- God designed everything, but planted evidence the would lead us to believe in evolution and an old earth
- Philip Gosse’s hypothesis: Earth is young, God planted evidence of old earth
- Implausibility
21
Q
What is evidence for evolution?
A
- Similarities in DNA
- Imperfect adaptations
22
Q
What is correlation and causation?
A
- Correlation: two events occur together
- Three types:
- Accidental correlation: pure chance
- Causal correlation: one event caused the other
- Common-cause-correlation: Both events were caused by the same cause
23
Q
How can we critize Anselm’s Onthological argument?
A
- Gaunilo’s perfect island counter-example
- Sober:
- a definition gives conditions for something counting as that thing, definitions cannot prove existence.
24
Q
What are analytical and synthetic statements?
A
- analytic = true or false because of concepts
- synthetic = true or false because of verifying experiences
25
What are local and global arguments?
* local = focus on one specific or local feature
* global = focus on some general feauture of the whole universe
26
What is the positivists theory of meaning?
* Every statement in principle is decidable to be true or false
* Analytically: concepts
* Synthetically: obeservation and evidence
* Some statements are not verifiable and thus meaningless.
27
What is Pascal's wager?
* Gives prudential reason to believe in God
* Employs expected utility (Erwartungswert)
28
What are evidential and prudential reasons?
* Evidential: you got evidence to believe somehting
* Prudential: it is in your interest to believe something
29
What are problems with Pascal's wager?
* It is impossible to decide to believe
* Assumptions about God:
* How can you know that God punishes believers?
* How can you know that God does not only punish people who believe in him because of Pascal's wager?
30
What is Jame's pragmatism version of the wager?
* people benefit directly from believing
* purpose
* life-guidance
* cost if God did not exists is low
31
What is Clifford's reply to Pascal's wager?
* We endanger humanity if we believe things without evidence
32
What is the problem of Evil?
* If God was omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent, why is there Evil in the world?
* Argument is deductively valid
33
Answers to problem of Evil?
1. Soul-building evil
* Bad experiences can build character
* But, some evils do not, they just harm?!
2. Evil due to free-will
* God gives people free-will and thus they will inevitably do some evil
34
What about natural Evils?
* There are some natural evils, that cannot be explained by soul-building or free-will.
* Lake Nyos: deathgas lake example in Cameroon
* Parasitic wasps
* Spider children killing and eating mother
* Human parasites
35
Replies to the problem of natural Evil?
1. Commited by minions of Satan
2. We cannot understand God's reasons, because we are so much less intelligent, wise and knowing
