PHILOSOPHY
NOTES
, TOPIC ONE - ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
TOPIC ONE A - THE DESIGN ARGUMENT
Inductive, a posteriori, synthetic argument
William paley’s design argument
Argument from purpose
- A watch that has been put together in a particular way to fulfil a purpose contains evidence of design. Therefore,
it has a designer.
- This is also observable in the natural world - everything seems to have been designed to fulfil some function (for
example the eye is intricate designed for vision)
- Just as it is unreasonable to assume that the watch came without a watchmaker, so it is unreasonable to assume
that the universe came without a designer (God)
Argument from regularity
- The regularity of the mechanisms in a watch point to a watchmaker that has designed it to be this way
- Similarly, the regularities in the universe leads us to infer that there has been a designer of that regularity
Richard Swinburne
● Regularities of co presence
- Refers to the tendency of things to turn up together in orderly patterns
- The order of objects in space
- But, Swinburne doesn’t regard regularities of co presence as particularly convincing evidence of design
● Regularities of succession
- Refers to orderly processes that operate the same way each time
Swinburne argues that it is unimaginably unlikely for all these things to happen exactly as they do by chance.
Swinburne claims that science cannot provide sufficient explanation for the creation of the universe. Science tells us the
what but not the why. Science can only discover the laws of nature but cannot tell us why there are laws.
Science cannot explain the existence, orderliness and fine-tuning of the physical laws that enable temporal order.
Anthropic principle
Everything was created with humans in mind, and the universe and everything in it exists to allow humans to live and
flourish
Weak principle
- Because we are here, the universe must have the properties necessary for life
- This principle does not explain why the universe is the way that it is
Strong principle
- It was necessary for the universe to have the properties it did, and the fine tunings in its creation, and that these
did not just happen but were necessary
- The universe was intelligently constructed, and could not have come into being in any other way
Strengths of the argument Criticisms of the argument
Inductive arguments begin from experience, which is often universal or at It is an inductive proof and therefore only leads to a probably conclusion
least testable
Just because things in the world have a designer, it does not mean that the
The argument does not rely on fixed definitions that we must accept (like world itself has a designer
the ontological argument)
The order and complexity we see may just be human perception. There may
not be any order or complexity there, we just impose it on the world
The design argument tells us nothing about the designer
Alternative explanation - Charles Darwin (scientific criticism)
,The catholic church Darwin’s theory of evolution by the process of natural selection showed that
The Catholic church believes that faith and reason can work together. They order in nature was not necessarily evidence of purpose and design but
are not contradictions could instead be explained by natural scientific means.
- Our reasoning powers are another natural path to knowledge of
Darwin proposed that species can change over time, that new species come
God
St Anselm contended that we can argue rationally for the existence of God from pre-existing species, and that all species share a common ancestor
and that a person of moderate intelligence can be shown that it is rational 1) In a population, some individuals will have inherited traits that
to believe in god’s existence help them survive and reproduce (given the conditions of the
environment, such as predators and food sources present). The
individuals with the helpful traits will leave more offspring in the
next generation than their peers
2) Because the helpful traits are heritable, and because organisms
with these traits leave more offspring, the traits will tend to
become more common (present in a larger fraction of the
population) in the next generation)
3) Over generations, the population will become adapted to its
environment (as individuals with traits helpful in that environment
have consistently greater reproductive success than their peers)
David Hume
Criticises the teleological argument
Since we have no experience of the universe being designed or created, we
cannot infer the cause
There are not enough similarities between a watch and the universe for us
to infer that they have a similar cause (the universe is an organic entity
whereas the watch is a machine)
Paley makes the assumption that the designer is God. Even if there is a
designer, we cannot infer that they are supremely intelligent, or that such
being is omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient
[The world is more likely] “due to generation or vegetation than reason or
design”
, TOPIC ONE B - THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason
- Everything must have a reason or cause
Cosmological argument
Aquinas offered five ways of demonstrating God’s existence, the first three of these being cosmological arguments.
First way - argument from motion
An object moves only when an external force is applied to it
1) There are some things in motion or a state of change
2) Nothing can change by itself - everything is a secondary mover
3) If everything was a secondary mover, there would be an infinite regress of movers
4) Infinite regress is impossible, there must be a prime mover to begin this chain of motion
5) This prime mover is understood to be God
Second way - argument from causation
1) Every event has a cause
2) Nothing can be the cause of itself
3) If we imagine that this order of causes goes back infinitely then there would be no first cause
4) If this were true then there would be no causes at all
5) Since this is impossible, there must be a first cause. This is understood to be God
Third way - argument from contingency
This third argument is based on the contingency of the universe and seeks to prove that the universe is dependant on God
1) In nature, everything can either exist or not exist (everything in the world is contingent)
2) If everything is contingent, at some time there was nothing, since there must have been a time where nothing
had begun to exist
3) If there was once nothing, then nothing could have come from nothing
4) Therefore something must exist necessarily, otherwise nothing would now exist, which is absurd
5) The series of necessary beings cannot be infinite, so there must be an uncaused being which exists of its own
necessity
6) By this, we all understand God
Kalam argument
Argument has its origins in mediaeval islamic scholasticism
Revist in the twentieth century by William Lane Craig
1) Everything that begins to exist has a cause
2) The universe began to exist
3) Therefore the universe has a cause
4) If the universe has a cause, this must be God, since the cause must be something that transcends the universe
itself
5) Therefore, God exists
Kalam argument strengths
- The argument’s simple premise that the universe has a beginning is supported by the Big Bang Theory, which is in
turn supported by the majority of scientists. This amounts to scientific support for the existence of God.
Kalam argument weaknesses
- Kalam is unconvincing to a non theist as it is self contradictory as he states infinity is impossible however goes on
to say a personal creator is infinite.
- Mackie affirms that there is no good reason to assume a priori that an uncaused beginning of all things is
impossible.
NOTES
, TOPIC ONE - ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
TOPIC ONE A - THE DESIGN ARGUMENT
Inductive, a posteriori, synthetic argument
William paley’s design argument
Argument from purpose
- A watch that has been put together in a particular way to fulfil a purpose contains evidence of design. Therefore,
it has a designer.
- This is also observable in the natural world - everything seems to have been designed to fulfil some function (for
example the eye is intricate designed for vision)
- Just as it is unreasonable to assume that the watch came without a watchmaker, so it is unreasonable to assume
that the universe came without a designer (God)
Argument from regularity
- The regularity of the mechanisms in a watch point to a watchmaker that has designed it to be this way
- Similarly, the regularities in the universe leads us to infer that there has been a designer of that regularity
Richard Swinburne
● Regularities of co presence
- Refers to the tendency of things to turn up together in orderly patterns
- The order of objects in space
- But, Swinburne doesn’t regard regularities of co presence as particularly convincing evidence of design
● Regularities of succession
- Refers to orderly processes that operate the same way each time
Swinburne argues that it is unimaginably unlikely for all these things to happen exactly as they do by chance.
Swinburne claims that science cannot provide sufficient explanation for the creation of the universe. Science tells us the
what but not the why. Science can only discover the laws of nature but cannot tell us why there are laws.
Science cannot explain the existence, orderliness and fine-tuning of the physical laws that enable temporal order.
Anthropic principle
Everything was created with humans in mind, and the universe and everything in it exists to allow humans to live and
flourish
Weak principle
- Because we are here, the universe must have the properties necessary for life
- This principle does not explain why the universe is the way that it is
Strong principle
- It was necessary for the universe to have the properties it did, and the fine tunings in its creation, and that these
did not just happen but were necessary
- The universe was intelligently constructed, and could not have come into being in any other way
Strengths of the argument Criticisms of the argument
Inductive arguments begin from experience, which is often universal or at It is an inductive proof and therefore only leads to a probably conclusion
least testable
Just because things in the world have a designer, it does not mean that the
The argument does not rely on fixed definitions that we must accept (like world itself has a designer
the ontological argument)
The order and complexity we see may just be human perception. There may
not be any order or complexity there, we just impose it on the world
The design argument tells us nothing about the designer
Alternative explanation - Charles Darwin (scientific criticism)
,The catholic church Darwin’s theory of evolution by the process of natural selection showed that
The Catholic church believes that faith and reason can work together. They order in nature was not necessarily evidence of purpose and design but
are not contradictions could instead be explained by natural scientific means.
- Our reasoning powers are another natural path to knowledge of
Darwin proposed that species can change over time, that new species come
God
St Anselm contended that we can argue rationally for the existence of God from pre-existing species, and that all species share a common ancestor
and that a person of moderate intelligence can be shown that it is rational 1) In a population, some individuals will have inherited traits that
to believe in god’s existence help them survive and reproduce (given the conditions of the
environment, such as predators and food sources present). The
individuals with the helpful traits will leave more offspring in the
next generation than their peers
2) Because the helpful traits are heritable, and because organisms
with these traits leave more offspring, the traits will tend to
become more common (present in a larger fraction of the
population) in the next generation)
3) Over generations, the population will become adapted to its
environment (as individuals with traits helpful in that environment
have consistently greater reproductive success than their peers)
David Hume
Criticises the teleological argument
Since we have no experience of the universe being designed or created, we
cannot infer the cause
There are not enough similarities between a watch and the universe for us
to infer that they have a similar cause (the universe is an organic entity
whereas the watch is a machine)
Paley makes the assumption that the designer is God. Even if there is a
designer, we cannot infer that they are supremely intelligent, or that such
being is omnipotent, omnibenevolent and omniscient
[The world is more likely] “due to generation or vegetation than reason or
design”
, TOPIC ONE B - THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT
Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason
- Everything must have a reason or cause
Cosmological argument
Aquinas offered five ways of demonstrating God’s existence, the first three of these being cosmological arguments.
First way - argument from motion
An object moves only when an external force is applied to it
1) There are some things in motion or a state of change
2) Nothing can change by itself - everything is a secondary mover
3) If everything was a secondary mover, there would be an infinite regress of movers
4) Infinite regress is impossible, there must be a prime mover to begin this chain of motion
5) This prime mover is understood to be God
Second way - argument from causation
1) Every event has a cause
2) Nothing can be the cause of itself
3) If we imagine that this order of causes goes back infinitely then there would be no first cause
4) If this were true then there would be no causes at all
5) Since this is impossible, there must be a first cause. This is understood to be God
Third way - argument from contingency
This third argument is based on the contingency of the universe and seeks to prove that the universe is dependant on God
1) In nature, everything can either exist or not exist (everything in the world is contingent)
2) If everything is contingent, at some time there was nothing, since there must have been a time where nothing
had begun to exist
3) If there was once nothing, then nothing could have come from nothing
4) Therefore something must exist necessarily, otherwise nothing would now exist, which is absurd
5) The series of necessary beings cannot be infinite, so there must be an uncaused being which exists of its own
necessity
6) By this, we all understand God
Kalam argument
Argument has its origins in mediaeval islamic scholasticism
Revist in the twentieth century by William Lane Craig
1) Everything that begins to exist has a cause
2) The universe began to exist
3) Therefore the universe has a cause
4) If the universe has a cause, this must be God, since the cause must be something that transcends the universe
itself
5) Therefore, God exists
Kalam argument strengths
- The argument’s simple premise that the universe has a beginning is supported by the Big Bang Theory, which is in
turn supported by the majority of scientists. This amounts to scientific support for the existence of God.
Kalam argument weaknesses
- Kalam is unconvincing to a non theist as it is self contradictory as he states infinity is impossible however goes on
to say a personal creator is infinite.
- Mackie affirms that there is no good reason to assume a priori that an uncaused beginning of all things is
impossible.
