Existence of God

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  • Created by: GKaner
  • Created on: 13-03-17 17:41
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  • Existence of God
    • Teleological (Design) Argument
      • For
        • Universe is too complex to have come about by chance, therefore it must have been designed
        • Aquinas
          • Things that lack knowledge must be guided, therefore God must direct them
          • For an arrow to reach its destination, it must be pointed by the archer
            • Therefore we must be guided to our purpose by God, like the arrow
        • Paley
          • Anyone who has seen a pocket watch knows that it is too complicated to have come about by chance
          • The universe is infinitely more complex, so it must also have a designer
        • Tennant
          • Anthropic Principle
            • The universe is designed for human life
          • If even one thing was different, we oouldn't exist
            • The world is logical, and provides all the necessities for life
              • Someone must have designed this, and this person is God
      • Against
        • Hume
          • No proof there is only one god, or that it is the Christian God
            • God is described as benevolent, and yet our world is full of suffering
          • Similar effects do not always equal similar causes
            • Aquinas assumes we can infer the cause by looking at something else, and this is not always the case
          • We have nothing to compare it to, so we cannot say the Universe is ordered
            • Random things occur, such as earthquakes and natural disasters
            • There are no other universes observable, so we cannot say if it is ordered or disordered
          • Order does not always mean it was designed
            • Order may have surfaced from many random chances, such as evolution
            • If it were disordered, we could not exist
    • Cosmological (First Cause) Argument
      • For
        • Everything has a cause, and there cannot be an infinite regress of causes
          • There must be an uncaused cause, and this is God
        • Everything that exists is contingent - comes into and goes out of being
          • If this is true then at one point nothing exists, and since something cannot come from nothing, nothing must exist now
            • Since it is false to say nothing exists now, there must be a necessary (one who is eternal/ cannot not exist)
              • We call this God
      • Against
        • Who made God?
        • If there is a cause, why the Christian God?
        • The cause of the universe was the Big Bang, a random, uncaused event
        • The universe may be eternal/why can there not be an infinite regress
        • "I should say that the universe is just there, and that is all." - Bertrand Russel

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