Philosophy Essay Plans
Theme 1 – Arguments for the existence of God
Are inductive arguments persuasive for the existence of God?
Initial
- They are persuasive as they are things we can experience and see for example
beauty
- ‘biologically superfluous accompaniment of the cosmic process’ tenants aesthetic
argument shows how beauty is found and is not necessary for human existence –
therefore must be God
Counter
- However beauty isn’t necessarily objective as tenant makes out
- Beauty can be subjective as many different cultures see different things as beautiful
and also ugly – if it is subjective then God hasn’t created this for us out of his
benevolence and omnipotence
- Some things that are beautiful actually have a purpose for survival
Mini conclusion
- They are not persuasive
Initial
- Using our own senses we can establish that everything has a cause
- A child has a mother etc
- Aquinas argument is therefore persuasive
Counter
- However this enters the fallacy of composition
- Hume and Russel states that it goes against logic to assume that because one thing
has a cause and effect that we can see, then everything must have that similar cause
and effect
- Even if everything on the universe had a cause and effect – how do we know that the
universe has a cause
Mini conclusion
- Craig comes to the conclusion that we cannot have an actual infinite as we can never
reach the infinite amount in a series – therefore the universe must have had a cause
and that cause is god
Initial
- They are not persuasive
- Hume’s arguments have been very influential as there cannot be empirically any
evidence for God
- Furthermore people may only believe in God up and until a scientifical explanation
comes about to explain what is missing – this can be seen over time by Darwin’s
theory of evolution
- Problems of induction – cannot predict future
Counter
, - However this can show how they are persuasive as of now. The idea that God
created the Universe seems very plausible when there is no other explanation
- Religious believers will be convinced that God is the only answer
Theme 1 – Arguments for the existence of God
Are inductive arguments persuasive for the existence of God?
Initial
- They are persuasive as they are things we can experience and see for example
beauty
- ‘biologically superfluous accompaniment of the cosmic process’ tenants aesthetic
argument shows how beauty is found and is not necessary for human existence –
therefore must be God
Counter
- However beauty isn’t necessarily objective as tenant makes out
- Beauty can be subjective as many different cultures see different things as beautiful
and also ugly – if it is subjective then God hasn’t created this for us out of his
benevolence and omnipotence
- Some things that are beautiful actually have a purpose for survival
Mini conclusion
- They are not persuasive
Initial
- Using our own senses we can establish that everything has a cause
- A child has a mother etc
- Aquinas argument is therefore persuasive
Counter
- However this enters the fallacy of composition
- Hume and Russel states that it goes against logic to assume that because one thing
has a cause and effect that we can see, then everything must have that similar cause
and effect
- Even if everything on the universe had a cause and effect – how do we know that the
universe has a cause
Mini conclusion
- Craig comes to the conclusion that we cannot have an actual infinite as we can never
reach the infinite amount in a series – therefore the universe must have had a cause
and that cause is god
Initial
- They are not persuasive
- Hume’s arguments have been very influential as there cannot be empirically any
evidence for God
- Furthermore people may only believe in God up and until a scientifical explanation
comes about to explain what is missing – this can be seen over time by Darwin’s
theory of evolution
- Problems of induction – cannot predict future
Counter
, - However this can show how they are persuasive as of now. The idea that God
created the Universe seems very plausible when there is no other explanation
- Religious believers will be convinced that God is the only answer
