...Robin Collin’s argument for the existence of God is like previous arguments by past theologians and philosophers that look to the order of the natural world using one’s own senses coupled with reason to reach a belief in God. This type of argument is considered a form of teleology. Teleology is defined to look at the natural world with regards to its purpose or goal. Teleology then, using experience based reason (empiricism) to reach its conclusion. Robin Collins argument sets this up with a perspective of chance and incredible odds against things that could have been differently. Like Thomas Aquinas in the way that each event is dependent upon an event beforehand, Collins argues that each thing that exists is dependent upon the odds that the...
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...SUMMARY OF PALEY’S EVIDENCES OF THE EXISTENCE Joseph K. Olumullah Ivy Tech Community College PHIL 220-obh-h1-201420 Instructor: Jeff Dodge 09/29/2014 SUMMARY William Paley was born in England in 1743-1805 and was a trained Anglican priest. William wrote several books on both Christianity and philosophy. One of the notable books that he wrote was teleological argument for the existence of God. His argument has gone some changes in the past years, the latest being christened “intelligent design”. This argument is the same as design argument and the only difference being that latter concludes that there is higher power that is called an “intelligent designer while the previous doesn’t called it “intelligent designer. Paley argues that...
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...The Importance of God Descartes then, very quickly and cursorily, faces up to a major corner he seems to have painted himself into. How is he to have any reliable knowledge of the external world, when all his senses are deceptive and the only truth is his own inner process of thinking? How can his knowledge escape total self-consciousness, a thoroughgoing solipsism? The argument (or rather the summary sketch of the later argument) concerning God is the key stage which enables him to take this step. It is not uncommon for first-time readers of the Discourse to find this section rather problematic and to offer the comment that Descartes is here simply placating religious authorities rather than being sincere in his affirmations of belief. Whatever the nature of Descartes' religious beliefs (and there seems little evidence that his statements about them are not sincere), it's important to note that the paragraphs about God are an essential part of the philosophical argument, a necessary logical foundation for the method he is proposing. Without them, the certainty he is seeking would not be available. The argument for the existence of God is, in part, a traditional one, as Descartes acknowledges. Since he has ideas of perfection and all the flawless qualities of God, he questions where these might have arisen. As a limited and imperfect human being, he does not have those qualities himself. And they cannot have come from sense experience of nature or from outside...
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...provide evidence for the existence of God. Descartes gives this evidence through reasoning, starting out by describing how he comes to this conclusion of the existence of God. He does this by closing himself off mentally from the outside world, ignoring sight, hearing, and his other senses and looking deeply in himself (Cahn 496). This allows him to make an introspective look at God’s existence without the influences of another person. From this state, he organizes his thoughts and from his collective thoughts and reasoning, he deduces that God does exist due to his finite existence, a mere substance that is “not sufficient to explain my [Descartes] having the idea of an infinite substance, since I am finite, unless this idea proceeded from some substance which really was infinite” (Cahn 500) and the understanding that God is a substance that “is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent and supremely powerful” (Cahn 500). This basically means that since he should not be able to have the ability to think the way he does without either being an infinite being or having an infinite being put the thoughts into his head. This explanation appears to be extremely logical, but once it is analyzed several flaws in reasoning are picked up from the reading. I agree with most of Descartes reasoning on the existence of God, which I will clarify further, along with an explanation of the biggest flaw in Descartes’ argument. Descartes provides...
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...The Kalam Cosmological Argument: (KCA) Of the things debated in society, perhaps nothing is more hotly contested than the existence of a God. Over the course of time there have been many arguments made from many different angles. For example, an argument in favor of existence is the teleological argument also known as “fine tuning,” or the “argument from design” argues that the universe is so organized as to suggest the necessity of a designer. (1) Likewise there are many arguments against the existence of a God; perhaps the most well know is the “problem of evil” which argues if there is an omniscient, omnipotent and morally perfect being, he (or she) would know where evil is, have the power to destroy it, and being morally perfect would...
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...comparison, argument, and compromise. One well known user of this method was the scholar Thomas Aquinas. In Thomas’ book Summa Theologica, he proves that the existence of God is self-evident using this. Thomas offered The primary question that will be made an example of will be Question 2: The Existence of God. Seeing the Scholastic Method in these three articles will be an easy feat. With reading what he writes about and paying close attention to how he writes it, one can see strong elements of Scholasticism in his method of proving that God exists. Article One states the objections of the existence of knowledge, that God is “known”, as well as the existence of truth. Thomas gives these objections as examples proving that God’s existence is self-evident. He also states possible counter-examples so he may effectively counter the counter-examples with his “I answer that”. This statement of counter-examples show Scholasticism by making an agreement between two sides of the argument. Which is why he uses counter-examples as the “other side” of the argument that God’s existence is self-evident. Another form of the Scholastic Method is other books and or philosophers. Like one quote, Aquinas uses the verse Hebrews 11:1 which says “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen” in his first objection to demonstrate that knowledge of God’s existence requires some form of faith. In Article 2 Thomas Aquinas asks whether it can be demonstrated that God exists...
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...makes them question the existence of beings which leads to the concept of atheism. A.2. What is Atheism? A.3. One example of an atheist is Ram Samudrala. A.4. Who is Ram Samudrala? B. Issue B.1. Is the existence of god meaningful or meaningless? B.2. The theists say that god’s existence is meaningful because there would be nothing now; no motion and no existence, since he is the primary cause of all things and the primary mover. B.3. The atheists say that god’s existence is meaningless because believing in the existence of a god would be irrelevant since if this god, whom we assume that has free will, also gave us the same free will, then humans would just comply to his knowledge of the future thus humans’ free will contradicts an omniscient god or an all knowing god and from this, we can say that god is dead. C. Thesis Statement Therefore, the question of god is meaningless because humans have free will so their decisions are independent of god, and that he creates or promotes conflict. II. Body A. Argument 1: Humans have free will so their decisions are independent of god A.1. Introduction - Definition and concept of free will: capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various alternatives 1. God created a universe, which is random a) Randomness is a requirement for free will b) Life and universe as a game simulation (“The Sims”) c) Determinism is impossible for god because if god knows everything that...
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...supernatural (including God, spirits, souls and non-natural values) do not exist. Naturalists hold that all minds, the contents, powers, and effect of minds that are entirely constructed from or caused by natural phenomena. Following to argument from physical minds, scientists have many evidences that the human mind is a product of a functioning brain, which is entirely constructed from different interacting physical systems that evolved over time through the animal kingdom. In addition, mental and physical have a close relationship, so it means there is no mental happens that does not go with physical. Therefore, it is impossible to say that there are some souls and God exist. And, this argument is what we would expect if naturalism is true. According to argument from history of science, there is a single theme unifying the history of science, it is that naturalistic (non-supernatural) explanation work. The history of science has many examples of naturalistic explanations; however, there is no example’s supernatural explanations about naturalistic. Luckily, the naturalistic explanation is so successful that even these explanations also make scientific theists have to accept. Therefore, the history of science is some evidence for metaphysical naturalism and against theism that no supernatural being existed, including God. However, there are challenges to my worldview coming from the theistic worldview, such as the argument from necessity of God and the argument from religion experience...
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...SOURCE PAPER. 1. What is Christian Apologetics and why should we do it Apologetics is defined as "reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine." It is to be specific with this class, a branch of Christianity that deals with the aspect of defending the Christian faith against those who care to attack us. Apologetics comes from the Greek word “apologia” or in Greek: ἀπολογία which when translated mean a “defense especially of one's opinions, position, or actions”. Apologetics is therefore in reference to Christianity is a field in which apologists provide rational arguments with adequate information in order to defend their faith against objects provided by members of the secular society....
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...like, “If God is omniscient, omnipotent, or omni-benevolent, He would erase evil; however, evil exists, so God must not havethose qualities or exist Himself.”. I intend to argue that the argument above is invalid.For clarity, as well as restrictions to personal knowledge, I will approach this argument from a Judeo-Christian background. To start, I believe that the Problem of Evil can be broken up into sections: The existence of evil, the traits of God, and the ‘disconnect’. The existence of evil is a simple premise. Does evil exist--can we see examples of itin the world today? The next premise lays out some commonly-accepted (to Judeo-Christianity, at least) traits of God and seeks to confirm that...
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...this topic, a proper explanation of the allegory of the sun is needed. The origins of the allegory comes from a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, Plato’s older brother. Within this discussion, Socrates brings forth the idea that the sun represents the good, and that the sun is God-like. It is further explained that the sun “makes our sight see best and visible things best seen.” (Reeve & Miller 199) Distinguished facts about the sun and the good then come into view, as Socrates states even though sight and the light are thought to be like the sun, they are not quite the same as the sun. Furthermore, the sun “not only gives visible things the power to be seen, but also provides for their coming-to-be, growth, and nourishment… existence and being are also due to it.” (Reeve & Miller 200) Socrates believes that all things come into existence due to the sun/the good, but not only does it make everything visible, it also makes everything grow. With a brief summary of the allegory of the sun in mind, it is easy to suggest that this allegory makes perfect sense, and that in fact the sun/the good is being personified as Helios, giving the interpretation that the sun is God. While the sun represents the good, the good is seen as a source for light and visibility, more so a source for intellect. Furthermore, Socrates holds the sun responsible for giving us sight, and with the good enabling us to see, it enables us to have a capacity for knowledge....
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...Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary The Existence of God; Science As Justification Submitted to Dr. michael chiavone Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary In Partial Fulfillment Of The Requirements For THEO 626 D02 By Daniel Martin Student ID: L25178504 New Orleans, LA December 12, 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page I. Introduction 1 a. Thesis and introductory explanation b. Historical development of doctrine II. Arguments for the Existence of God 3 c. Cosmological Argument d. Teleological Argument e. Anthropological III. Atheism Versus Existence of God 11 f. Evidence used to disprove God’s existence g. The believers evidence to counter IV. Conclusion 13 h. Summary of the arguments i. Applications in the church today V. Introduction The existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, immutable, monotheistic God has come up against enormous resistance from the beginning of time. Early believers such as Moses, Elijah, Paul, and Peter all had to demonstrate that their God is the one true God at times. These believers even encountered persecution and ridicule for holding on to these beliefs at times. Nevertheless the challenges to these early believers tended to be demonstrating that their God was greater than their accuser’s god or gods. At times, it was through the words of men that the God of the Bible was shown to be greater, and other...
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...The author of this article, Steve Stewart-Williams was a psychology student in New Zealand when he wrote this in 2002. I did a little bit of research about him before finally choosing to reread his article with greater attention to detail, and I found out that he is now a psychology professor at a university in Malaysia. None of that information is really relevant to the article but I just thought it was an interesting bit to include. Now, when you take a look at his article "Life after Death" and just scan over the pages, it appears to be pretty self-explanatory. He goes over some of the most widely accepted beliefs for an afterlife and provides arguments both for and against them. He goes into much greater detail than that, of course. I will breakdown each section and try to give a sufficient summary....
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...• A section-by-section summary of the developing argument. • References A thesis statement Your essay should be a good philosophical argument. Such an argument, at minimum, provides good reasons in support of a conclusion. Thus, the first step in writing a good essay is to be clear of the conclusion, i.e. the claim that you are going to be defending. It should be possible to present the claim in no more than a sentence or two that tells the reader what it is that you will argue, and why and how. This is what is known as a thesis statement, and your essay outline should begin with this. A good thesis statement should: • Be no longer than a sentence or two • It should be something philosophically controversial (though not necessarily sensationalist), in that it should not merely be a statement of fact, nor of style, nor of context. • It should include a reference to the target idea or text. Examples: “Pascal’s (1632-62) famed defence of religious faith by appeal to the utility of believing in God rather than the truth of the belief is unsatisfactory since, although it professes to start from a position of metaphysical ignorance, in practice it smuggles in unwarranted assumptions about the utility of believing in the existence of God”. “Pascal argues that the practical advantage of believing in God outweighs the disadvantages, although this has been challenged by many critics who contend that the argument only succeeds if one conflates...
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...Eschatological goal of existence? Since the beginning of human existence there has always been some type of battle about faith, belief, and the existence of god. When this class first began I didn’t know what to expect due to my own personal beliefs and spiritual upbringing, but as the course went on I was open to different views and ways to look at what has been taught for years. Even today there is still the constant battle on whom and what is the true belief and god. But one thing is for sure we all strive for a common goal and that is to be in the grace of whatever Deity you believe in when your time on earth is done. The first thing that comes to question is your belief in the existence of God. For many the belief in god is a very challenging issue. There will always be an ongoing controversial discussion whether or not God exist. It is not unusual for people to say that it is impossible to prove the existence of God. This impossibility derives from the idea that if the observable phenomena is absent, therefore, it does not exist. In truth, how can one presume to observe the divine, something that exists in the heavens? Mere observation is clearly not a possibility when dealing with a transcendent being. Evidence in the existence of God is in every cause and effect. We understand that nothing happens in and of itself. Every event originates from a preceding event. Those events, if traced back, will ultimately find its foundation with God. There are many beliefs...
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