TCC: PHIL 1301: EXAM 4, REED

Aquinas' Five Cosmological Arguments: In the world there is an order of efficient causes. Nothing is its own efficient cause. It is not possible to go on to infinity. [Because there must be a first, an intermediate, and an ultimate cause. If there is no first cause there is no effect, and hence no ultimate cause.] Therefore, it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name God.

Efficient cause itself

Various Approaches to Doubt: No empirical evidence, perhaps none even possible.

Epistemological

Focus on humans and not god or an afterlife. Improve ourselves without God or religion

Humanism

______ thesis is that it is appropriate for our will - more generally, our passions - to influence us in certain situations.

James

Belief in one god

Monotheism

Distinction between mythological and logical thinking

Mythos/Logos

A ____ hypothesis is one that we take seriously to some degree - we have at least some slight tendency to believe and is of vital importance to us. The hypothesis that the next president will be a socialist may be unlikely, for example, but it probably has some plausibility for you. On the other hand, the hypothesis that Taylor Swift is the reincarnation of Jane Austen, or that mice snore in their sleep, is one that most likely exerts no pull on you whatsoever. The first hypothesis is live, though perhaps barely. The second is dead.

Live

A ______ option is one in which both hypotheses are live. Such is the case with belief in God or your future success in your career.

Living

There is a _______ problem: how to reconcile all these together with the existence of evil

Logical

Various Approaches to Doubt: The proofs for the existence of god are not compelling. That is, all of the arguments that have been given contain questionable premises (what is offered for support) or are invalid (they do not logically support what they claim to support).

Logical

Various Approaches to Doubt: The proofs for the existence of God(s) are not compelling.

Logical

Various Approaches to Doubt: In the absence of empirical evidence it is said that God cannot be proved to exist, but that God cannot be proved not to exist, so the believer and unbeliever are in the same position. Pascal and James said as much: "it is better to believe than not believe." But Russell says that the burden of proof falls on the believers and that not all unprovable positions are equally likely to be true. A teapot orbiting behind Mars is not likely to be true even if it can be possible. I leave it to you to decide what to make of this.

Logical/Ontological

Various Approaches to Doubt: The supernatural is an incoherent idea.

Logical/Ontological

There is a ________ problem: how to explain the great amount of evil and suffering

Magnitude

The distinction based on the belief or absence of belief that the material world is all there is

Materialism/Idealism

Kinds of Questions: Is there a God, or Gods, or a supernatural realm? What are the major conceptual views of God? (Theism, Deism, Pantheism.) What are the arguments for and against the existence of a supernatural Creator? What is the nature of God, or the gods? (Providence, Miracles)

Metaphysics

An option is _________ if the opportunity is unique, or the stakes are significant or the decision irreversible.

Momentous

All-knowing; can know everything, perhaps even the future (different versions)

Omniscient

An ________ is a choice between two hypotheses.

Option

If the watch is well-designed, which is obvious, then nature, in all its complexity, is also well-designed. The rhetorical question is, where else could such complexity and functionality come from? It must come from a designer: god. Who said this?

Paley

The watch implies a watchmaker; therefore, nature implies a naturemaker, that is, God. Keep in mind final causes or purposes and their priority.

Paley's Analogical Argument

God and the world are the same

Pantheism

The doctrine that God and Nature are one and the same thing.

Pantheism

Belief in many gods

Polytheism

James _______ , that is, his practical approach to philosophy, can be seen is his treatment of religion similar to his treatment of the determinism and free will debate.

Pragmatism

Aquinas' Five Cosmological Arguments: Everything in the world is in motion. Everything must be put into motion by something else. [Even things that move themselves are moving towards something.] This chain of motion cannot go on to infinity. Therefore, there must be a prime mover. This everyone understands to be God.

Prime mover

The idea that a transcendent God (Providence) intervenes in the world - perhaps in response to sacrifice, ritual, or prayer - on the part of humans. Often this is the most important attribute of a theistic god

Providential

Many gods have backgrounds or histories, often tying them together to other gods of the same religion to create a consistent religious framework and memorable stories.

Relational

the ______ the strong version, sees significance in the Finely Tuned Universe

SAP

Is the accumulated knowledge that previous generations have gathered and passed down to us. We must rely on it, for good or ill. A healthy society has a "proper" regard to the process of inquiry and this will generally produce reasonable beliefs.

Sacred or Social trust

Clifford's Four Sufficient Evidence: We will believe the wrong things. Obviously, false beliefs lead to indefensible action. If no one is challenged to back up his beliefs, then any belief is as viable as any other. If those beliefs lead to acts without support, or the belief that support is needed, then there is then no distinction between right and wrong actions. In short our ethics should be based on how the world really is, and that is a matter of science and empirical investigation.

T

Deism Core Beliefs: -Belief in a single creator based on reason - Human beings should be free to find, know and worship God in their own way. - All human beings are created equal under God, with the same natural rights

T

Hick describes a positive approach to living in a world of both evil and good - the process of soul building.

T

The Question of Belief: Evolved for belief in a god or gods. Part of our brain that is active during religious or mystical experiences. Discussions based on human psychology.

T

The Question of Belief: Foundation for meaning, human values, purpose. It provides transcendence, a way to escape the everyday world where we are too busy to ask the fundamental questions about our existence.

T

The Question of Belief: No purpose without God. One way to think about this is to ask the question whether one would prefer to live in a world with God and no afterlife, or in a world with an afterlife with no God

T

The Question of Belief: Personal reasons, such as desire for a relationship with something other and higher, or a way of dealing with death and loss. And of course many if not most believers do not require any philosophical or theological justification for their belief - faith.

T

The Question of Belief: Social and cultural reasons. Almost no traditional culture has existed without religion, the belief in a god or gods.

T

Thomas Henry Huxley coined the term Agnosticism. He emphasized we could not know whether God exists.

T

Aquinas' Five Cosmological Arguments: All things [inanimate as well] act for an end [have a purpose] They act not fortuitously, but designedly, to achieve their ends. They must be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence. Therefore, some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.

The Intelligent Director

Is usually the belief in a providential God with extraordinary powers. Example: the God of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Monotheism is belief in one god, polytheism in many gods.

Theism

Principle attributes: Mono- and poly-, anthropic or animistic, omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, and above all providential

Theism

The belief in a transcendent God with anthropomorphic attributes such as will, intention, foresight, but also possibly bias, jealousy and anger

Theism

The justification of the existence of a providential god and the existence of evil and suffering in the world.

Theodicy

There is no final number called infinity. There is always only the potential to increase. An actual infinity is something that does not exist, although, perhaps time, which is eternal, or space, which has no boundary, may be actually infinite, but neither of these has a physical existence. There can be no physical infinity because it would be actual. Who said this?

Aquinas

For example, Newton's work on physics, the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (known as the Principia), crystallized the idea of the solar system as a great clock. This in turn led many to see the entire world as a clock wound up by God and left to run on its own known as

Clockwork universe

Clifford's says in his 1877 essay, The Ethics of Belief, that, "It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence." By saying it is wrong Clifford is not saying speaking only from an epistemological point of view. He is making an ______ _______ ________

Explicit ethical judgement

A ______ option is one in which we have no other live options - where the choice between these two options is unavoidable if we are to choose at all

Forced

Absence of belief in gods and the supernatural

Atheism

Who was considered an Atheist?

Spinoza

How to reconcile or justify the existence of evil and suffering with a providential God who is supposed to be all-powerful and all-good? (Understand the attributes of God that are in question.) The logical problem and the magnitude problem. Numerous resolutions (understand at least two). John Hick - man-made evil and natural evil. World a test. Free will and soul building

Acute problem for a monotheistic faith

Don't know (originally "can't know")

Agnosticism

Belief in spirits that inhabit or animate things in the natural world, such as, the spirit of the tree, of the river, or of the mountain

Animism

Brandon Carter coined the term _________ ________ to highlight the obvious fact that we find ourselves in a universe that is suited for life. This fact imposes a selection effect on the kind of universe we can live in - it must be one suited for life since we are alive.

Anthropic principle

The gods are human like, or, at least have human attributes. These might be appearance, personality, psychological traits like jealousy or love, or simply consciousness, will and intention

Anthropomorphic

The same god may appear and be worshiped in many forms. For example, there are, in one tradition, ten avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu, all with different names, attributes, appearances, and legends. The ninth one is the Buddha

Atavistic

Evolution by natural selection is a blind watchmaker (no purpose aforethought to guide design); the complexity we see in nature is an emergent property of the process of evolution (as it is with the example of a natural language, such as English, which is complex but not designed by anyone).

Dawkins Blind Watchmaker

Belief that there is a god but that this god is not providential

Deism

No providential god but perhaps a creator

Deism

Various Approaches to Doubt: it is not clear how we could know whether supernatural beings exist, since we live in the natural world. This was Thomas Henry Huxley's point in coining the term agnostic. There is the widespread saying in science that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." The claim that there are supernatural beings is quite extraordinary. This requirement follows from the principle of parsimony, or Occam's Razor as it is often called, which says that we should prefer the simplest explanation, the one that makes the least assumptions and further demands on us, especially the demand that involves unverifiable assumptions.

Epistemological

Various Approaches to Doubt: there is no credible empirical evidence that there is a supernatural realm or that God exists. Briefly: absence of evidence is evidence of absence. What this means is that if there is no physical evidence for gods, then they probably do not exist. Not the best argument. You can use this argument about aliens (ETs) because we have no evidence that they exist, but they may well exist way out there, in a galaxy far, far away. But it does make some sense. If I say I have an indivisible green dragon in my garage you probably won't believe me. You may ask to see it. I can open the door. You see nothing and claim there is nothing there. I say "he's there, but is invisible. Only I can see him." And so on and so on. If you think about it, in the practical everyday world, claims that cannot be verified are generally ignored and should probably not be the basis of public policy, for example.

Epistemological

Kinds of Questions: What are the arguments for and against belief in a supernatural Creator? What is the validity of religious experiences, revelation for example? What is meant that someone "knows" God exists? Is there any knowable evidence of the supernatural? Can there be, in principle, evidence for the supernatural? What is the conflict between Faith and Reason? What is the contribution of science?

Epistemology

Timeless, without beginning or end

Eternal

Present at all times and never die; alternately, outside of time, without beginning or end

Eternal or Immortal

Various Approaches to Doubt: "religion is the opiate of the masses" said Karl Marx, meaning that religion is simply a tool employed by the ruling class for keeping everyone else in line. The doped masses do not understand what is happening to them and in any case are not in a state of mind to do anything about it

Ethical

Various Approaches to Doubt: The connection between morality and a law-giving god has significant logical problems. This leads many to believe that there is no need to believe in God to be good, that is, that a requirement of being moral is not belief in or following a particular religion. This eliminates one of the reasons many people do believe in God. This is evidenced by the numbers of people who believe that atheists cannot have morals.

Ethical

Various Approaches to Doubt: The harm religions have done - crusades, inquisitions, support of racism, support of the status quo, whatever it is - is cited to show that religion is a very human institution and that the gods are man-made. Of course, the question whether God exists and whether religion is a man-made institution are separate.

Ethical

Various Approaches to Doubt: The problem of evil and suffering. The logical problem of God and morality. Are actions good if only if commanded by God? That is, does God make something good by simply commanding it, as the Divine Command Theory holds? The harm religions have done. Religion as a tool of the ruling class.

Ethical

Kinds of Questions: What is the relationship between morality and religion? Divine Command Question - Are the commands of God good because God commands them, or are does God command them because they are good? What is the problem of evil? What are the resolutions and objections? Is religion needed for people to be good? Does religion cause because people to be good? Does religion cause people to be bad?

Ethics

The doctrine that we should not believe anything without sufficient evidence since we act on our beliefs and the consequences affect everyone

Evidentialism

The deistic god is often called the ______ ___ ___ ____, meaning the god needed to fill the gaps in our understanding of the world.

God of the Gaps

Various Approaches to Doubt: Belief in gods or the supernatural is found in almost all cultures. The number of gods that are no longer worshipped vastly outnumber the gods still worshipped. Eventually, as cultures change, the current gods will become historical curiosities just as Apollo is for us now

Historical

Various Approaches to Doubt: Religious myths are found in all cultures but have no credible evidential basis; they are born and die like cultural trends or like species. God no longer needed to explain the world because we now have science.

Historical

Various Approaches to Doubt: The supernatural is an idea dating to a time before science, based on ignorance of how the world works. It is no longer needed to explain how the world works, and so should be discarded (the god of the gaps that is not needed).

Historical

A _________ is anything that might be offered for us to believe -- that it will rain tomorrow. or that quarks are the ultimate particles, or that Taylor Swift is the reincarnation of Jane Austen.

Hypothesis

______ explicit aim is to provide a philosophical justification for faith. He sets forth the conditions in which he thinks that something like faith is appropriate and the reasons why it is appropriate.

James

________ begins his argument by pointing out that we have two goals when we form beliefs: One is to avoid error. The other is to believe the truth.

James

There are differences between man-made evil, the nasty and horrible things humans do to other humans, and natural evil, as one philosopher of religion, _______ _______, calls suffering.

John Hicks

Aquinas' Five Cosmological Arguments: Some things are more or less good, true, noble, measured as they more resemble the most good, true, noble. All things exist the more so that they become actual (true). The truest things are the most compete: warm, hot, and the truest, the cause, fire. Therefore, there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, the measure of their being good, better, best and every other perfection, and this we call God.

Most perfect being

Distinction based on the belief or absence of belief that there is something beyond the natural world.

Naturalism/Supernaturalism

The material world and the spiritual realm

Naturalism/Supernaturalism

Aquinas' Five Cosmological Arguments: Everything in the world appears to be contingent. [Not necessary that it exists; it could have not existed] Then everything at some point would not have existed. But the Universe exists, so there must be a non-contingent (necessary) being that does not depend on anything else for its existence, This all men speak of as God.

Necessary being

All good; wills the good, can only do good (different versions)

Omnibenevolent

All-powerful; can do anything; though sometimes limited in certain ways

Omnipotent

Present everywhere, not just in the temples where they were worshiped as in early Jewish or Egyptian religion

Omnipresent

Who said "God and Nature are one and the same." And by God or Nature he meant rocks, trees, zebras, humans, clouds and stars, but also, and perhaps more importantly, the laws of logic, mathematics, physics, psychology, and above all, ethics.

Spinoza

Those who subscribe to the _________ anthropic principle (the SAP or ''Wow!'') believe that the fact that the universe supports life is significant and is not an accident. It is too improbable to be a mere random selection effect. This of course leaves open the possibility of a creator. Many use this reasoning to argue for a designer, that is, God.

Strong

The most that can be gathered or what clearly explains something. We can't always attain this, so perhaps we should say reasonably sufficient. Belief on insufficient evidence "is stolen in defiance of our duty to mankind."

Sufficient evidence

Many gods from different religions are often merged to create a consistent religious framework when two cultures must live together or one takes over from another

Syncretic

Clifford's Four Sufficient Evidence: "No man's belief is in any case a private matter which concerns himself alone." Since we must rely on others, though what Clifford calls the social trust, this is all the more reason to be truthful. Our beliefs impact others. Their beliefs impact us. (See the excerpt below and the example of the ship owner.) We should therefore rely on the collected wisdom and knowledge that has been assembled in the past that benefits us and that will benefit others in the future. We also have an obligation to contribute to that social trust and not do anything that will jeopardize it or erode confidence in it.

T

Clifford's Four Sufficient Evidence: Insufficiently established beliefs encourage credulity and laziness with respect to the truth. This is to say that if people come to rely on beliefs without sufficient evidence, then they are more likely to believe anything that makes them feel good or already have a tendency to believe (the confirmation bias). Or, they become lazy thinkers and neglect the hard work of seeking and finding the truth in organized ways, that is, with science and logic.

T

Clifford's Four Sufficient Evidence: Neglect of the methods of acquiring truth - testing, questioning, experimenting, thinking critically - leads to slavery. Those who can be lied to easily can be led easily, even over a cliff. They become slaves to the masters who lie best. They become slaves to bad ideas.

T

Gods are separate entities from the world; they are above or superior to it

Transcendent

the ______, the weak version, sees our existence in a life friendly universe as simply a selection effect

WAP

Those who subscribe to the _______ anthropic principle (the WAP or "Of Course!") believe that the fact that the universe supports life is empty of meaning and that it is not the result of planning or foresight on the part of a conscious creative agency.

Weak

"It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence." Moral imperative to always obtain and support our beliefs and actions only with sufficient evidence. Four supporting arguments. Obligation to protect the sacred trust of knowledge. Application to religious belief?

William Clifford and The Ethics of Belief - Evidentialism

Can't have sufficient evidence but we want to believe and we must often believe to stay alive (the mountaineer). Our need to avoid paralysis. Our openness to live hypotheses. Legitimizes non-rational or emotional support for beliefs.

William James and The Will to Believe - Pragmatic Approach to Belief