Inductive arguments - question flashcards - Flashcards in A Level and IB Religious Studies

Quote: Thomas Aquinas on potentiality and actuality?

'Nothing can be reduced from potentiality to actuality, except by something in a state of actuality'

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Quote: Thomas Aquinas on efficient causes

'There is no case known in which a thing is found to be the efficient cause of itself; for so it would be prior to itself, which is impossible'

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Quote: Thomas Aquinas on the first efficient cause

'It is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God'

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Quote: Paley on the design of the watch/the universe

'Every manifestation of design which existed in the watch exists in the works of nature, with the difference, on the side of nature, of being greater and more'

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Quote: David Hume on why you cannot compare the universe to an artificial machine

'And does not a plant or animal... bear a stronger resemblance to the world, than does any artificial machine, which arises from reason and design?'

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Aquinas' First Way

Often referred to as 'motion'/'change'. When we observe the universe, things tend to be in a state of change. Things must be moved/change by something else. The sequence of changes must have a beginning, which is God

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What example did Aristotle use to explain potentiality and actuality?

A block of marble (potential) become a statue (actual) when acted upon by a sculptor (efficient cause)

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Aquinas' Second Way

Deals with the concept of cause and effect. The chain of cause and effect has a first cause - God

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What is the domino analogy?

The first domino (efficient cause) causes the second domino (intermediate cause) to fall, which then causes the third domino (ultimate cause) to fall

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Aquinas' Third Way

Deals with the concept of contingency and necessity. In order for contingent beings to exist, there has to be a necessary being that brought everything else into existence - God

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What example did Aquinas use to explain contingent and necessary beings?

The parent-child analogy. A child cannot exist without its parent, therefore it is contingent on it

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Outline the Kalam cosmological argument

Everything that begins has a cause of existence; the universe began to exist; therefore the universe has a cause of existence; no scientific explanation can provide a causal account of the origin of the universe, so the cause must be personal (God)

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What analogy demonstrates that actual infinities cannot exist?

The example of a library with infinite books is used. It has both infinite red and infinite black books. This would mean there is the same number of red books as there is in the entire collection, which is impossible

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Paley's watchmaker

The universe in which we live is so complex that it must have had a designer - the same way we would not assume a watch merely came to be, neither would we assume the universe just 'came to be'

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Aquinas' Fifth Way

Something that lacks intelligence cannot move towards its telos unless something with intelligence has moved it. The guiding intelligence in the universe is God

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What analogy does Aquinas use to explain his Fifth Way?

He uses the analogy of the arrow and the archer. The arrow cannot reach the target unless an intelligent force (the archer) moves it

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Tennant's anthropic argument

The fact that the world we live in provides precisely the things necessary for sustaining life is evidence that God exists, as is the fact that the world is observable and holds up to rational analysis

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Tennant's aesthetic argument

Humans can appreciate beauty, which is not necessary for survival. Our benevolent God wanted his creation to enjoy the world around them and so gave us this appreciation, for which there is no scientific explanation

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David Hume's response to inductive arguments: cause and effect

Just because we observe cause and effect in the universe does not mean that this rule applies to the universe itself (fallacy of composition)

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David Hume's response to inductive arguments: lack of experience

We have no experience creating a universe and therefore cannot talk meaningfully about it

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David Hume's response to inductive arguments: lack of evidence

There is not enough evidence to say whether the universe had a cause or what that cause may have been

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David Hume's response to inductive arguments: type of designer

Even if God could be accepted as the cause of the universe, there is no way to determine what sort of God he may be/whether he is the God of Classical Theism

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What analogy does David Hume use to show that we cannot determine what sort of designer the universe has if it does have one?

The shipbuilder analogy: our shipbuilder may lack skill, or there may be many shipbuilders, or the shipbuilder may have moved on to create a new ship. The shipbuilder is God/the designer and the ship is the universe in this analogy

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The big bang theory

Often used as proof that it was a random action that caused the beginning of the universe rather than God; it happened 14 billion years ago when a singularity appeared

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Evolution by natural selection

It was random chance that organised life in the universe; the reason that species are well-suited to their environment is because of evolution and natural selection, not due to a designer

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