PHILOSOPHY 100 Ted Stolze

1
PHILOSOPHY 100 (Ted Stolze)
Notes on James Rachels, Problems from Philosophy
2
Chapter Two God and the Origin of the Universe
3
A Working Definition of the Concept God
In the Abrahamic religious traditions (Judaism,
Christianity, Islam) believers usually regard God
as an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving
being.
4
NOTE Philosophical arguments for the existence
of God dont rely on sacred texts like the Bible
or Quran but primarily on human reason and
experience.
5
Arguments for the Existence of God

• First Cause
• Necessary Being
• Intelligent Design
• Religious Experience ()

Not covered by Rachels
6
The First Cause Argument
(1) Everything that exists must have a
cause. (2) The chain of causes cannot reach back
indefinitely. At some point, we must come to
a First Cause. (3) The First Cause we may
call God.
7
Objections to the First Cause Argument

• Buddhists reject the idea of a First Cause and
  argue that the universe goes through innumerable
  cycles (the concept of conditioned genesis)
• Why think that a First Cause would be all-good?
• Why think that a First Cause would be a person,
  as opposed to a non-personal consciousness or
  force like Brahman or Dao?
• Why worship a First Cause?

8
The Necessary Being Argument
(1) The universe is a dependent thing. It
cannot exist by itself it can exist only if it
is sustained by something that is not dependent.
(2) God, a necessary being, is the only thing
that is not dependent. (3) Therefore, the
universe is sustained by God.
9
Objections to the Necessary Being Argument

• Buddhists reject the idea of a Necessary Being
  and argue that everything is interdependent (the
  concept of conditioned genesis)
• Why think that a Necessary Being would be
  all-good?
• Why think that a Necessary Being would be a
  person, as opposed to a non-personal
  consciousness or force like Brahman or Dao?
• Why worship a Necessary Being?

10
Two Types of Intelligent Design Argument

• Best-Explanation
• Same-Evidence

William Paley (1743-1805)
11
The Best-Explanation Argument
(1) Either the wonders of nature occurred
randomly, by chance, or they are the product of
intelligent design. (2) Intelligent design
explains the existence of these things much
better than blind chance does. (3) Therefore,
the wonders of nature are best explained as
the products of intelligent design.
12
The Same-Evidence Argument
(1) We conclude that watches were made by
intelligent designers because they have parts
that work together to serve a purpose. (2) We
have the same evidence that the universe, and
some of the natural objects in it, were made by
an intelligent designer they are also composed
of parts that work together to serve a
purpose. (3) Therefore, we are entitled to
conclude that the universe was made by an
intelligent designer.
13
Objections to Arguments for Intelligent Design

• Could there be multiple designers?
• How orderly, harmonious, and beautiful is the
  universe really? (a Humean objection)
• Why think that a designer would be all-good?
  (another Humean objection)
• There is an alternative explanation for the
  emergence of natural order and complexity. (a
  Darwinian objection)

14
Darwin on Paley and Intelligent Design

• Although I did not think much about the
  existence of a personal God until a considerably
  later period of my life, I will here give the
  vague conclusions to which I have been driven.
  The old argument of design in nature, as given by
  Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive,
  fails, now that the law of natural selection has
  been discovered. We can no longer argue that, for
  instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell
  must have been made by an intelligent being, like
  the hinge of a door by man. There seems to be no
  more design in the variability of organic beings
  and in the action of natural selection, than in
  the course the wind blows. Everything in nature
  is the result of fixed laws.
• (The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, edited
  by Nora Barlow NY Norton, 2005 (1958), p. 73.)

15
Darwins Argument for Natural Selection

• (1) There is a geometrical increase in
  organisms.
• (2) The struggle for existence over survival
  leads to the emergence of variations in
  characteristics of members of a species.
• (3) There exists a heritability of
  characteristics.
• (4) Characteristics with survival value will
  be passed on to future generations.
• (5) Therefore, there exists a variation among
  and modification of species.

16
The Argument from Religious Experience

• 1. There are widespread reports by persons across
  time and culture who claim to have experienced a
  transcendent, divine reality
• 2. These persons couldnt all be mistaken or
  lying about their experiences.
• 3. Therefore, there exists such a transcendent,
  divine reality.

17
Objections to the Argument from Religious
Experience

• Religious experiences arent the same as
  perceptual experiences
• Religious experiences have naturalistic
  explanations

18
The Hiddenness of God Objection

• (1) We live in a world in which people persist in
  disbelieving God or having cruel views of God.
• (2) God does not appear to correct these states.
• (3) An all-good God would never allow a creature
  to seek God without finding God in an evident
  fashion.
• (4) Therefore, God does not exist.