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Arguments for the existence of God - Coggle Diagram
Arguments for the existence of God
Arguments that are based on experience are a posteriori
arguments based on knowledge are a priori
Cosmological argument
'Why is there something rather than nothing?'
we observe the universe towards the existence of God
Created by St Thomas Aquinas who created five different ways to prove the existence of God
First Way
- argument from motion or change (if you have moved from A to B then you have changed)
All things are in a state of change
Everything is a secondary mover
If all things are secondary movers then there must be infinite regression
If above is correct then there is no prime mover, without a prime mover there can be no secondary movers and then infinite regression is impossible
Therefore, there must be a prime mover. This being God
'the chain of movers cannot go on to infinity because then there would be no first mover and consequently no other movers' ~ Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Second Way
- argument for causation
There is no order of efficient causes
no efficient cause can cause itself
If there is infinite regress then there is no first cause
If these points are true then there can be no subsequent causes and infinite regress is impossible
Therefore there must be a prime mover - this being God
Criticisms of the first and second ways
Aquinas doesn't explain why there cannot only be secondary movers
In nature we have infinite series so why can't nature itself be an infinite series
it is too large of a leap to go from a first cause to God
Who made God - why does God have to be the first cause
everything is a secondary mover except God is a contradiction
Third way
- Argument for contingency and necessity
1) things are contingent
2) If everything is contingent, there must have been a time when nothing existed
3) Therefore nothing can come from nothing
4) therefore, there must be a necessary being
5) Every necessary being must have a cause either inside or outside itself
6) Imagine every necessary being had a cause outside itself
7) Therefore if (6) is true, then there is o ultimate cause of necessity
8) Therefore, there must be a necessary being which causes and contains all other necessary and contingent beings. This we will call 'God'
Criticisms of the Third Way
Why can't there be overlapping contingent beings going to infinity? - causes may have more than one effect e.g. (1) to (2)
There is no sense in which it proves the God of classical Theism
It assumes that infinite regress is impossible
Some might say it is meaningless to ask what caused the universe
Hume's criticism of the cosmological argument
"if the material world rests upon a similar ideal world, this ideal world must rest upon some other; and so on without out. It were better therefore never to look beyond the present material world"
we must not look beyond this world to anything metaphysical - the answers are in this world, otherwise we will end up going back to infinity
The fallacy of composition - Hum says that Aquinas has made a mistake in the way this argument was put together. Just because there is a common property to a group doesn't mean that property must apply to the group. Just because every series has a cause, doesn't mean the series itself has a cause
Hume also said that we have no experience of a universe being created and so we cannot talk about it meaningfully about it.
Hume questions why motion needs to have a starting point - why is infinite regression impossible
Ontological argument
The ontological argument comes from Anselm, Descartes and is challenged by Gaunilo and Kant
For medieval Theologians, the existence of God was a 'given' and no need for it to be debated
Necessary existence
if 'God exists' is a logical necessity then 'God does not exist' would be contradictory
If 'God exists' is a factual necessity, it implies that it is impossible for things to be as they are if God did not exist, and therefore it is actually not possible for there to be no God
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