Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

Does God Exist? Which argument on the existence/none existence of God you think is the most convincing in chapter 6? Pick one movie to discuss this argument. Analyze one specific scene in the movie where spectators can clearly see this argument on the existence/none existence of God. The essay must be done in MLA format with a minimum of 500 words

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  • attachment

    chapter6.ppt

    Chapter 6
    The Problem of Evil and
    the Existence of God

    McGraw-Hill

    *© 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

    *

     

    The Problem of Evil and the Existence of God

    • How is it possible for there to be an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good God given that there is so much evil in the world?
    • What evidence is there that such a God exists?
    • Must we be created by God in order for our lives to be meaningful?

     

    *

    Types of Beliefs in God

    • Theist—one who believes in a personal god who rules the world.
    • Agnostic—one who neither believes nor disbelieves in god.
    • Atheist—one who disbelieves in god.
    • Deist—one who believes that god created the universe and then abandoned it.
    • Pantheist—one who believes that the universe is god.

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Biblical Truths

    • Modern archaeology has failed to find confirming evidence for many of the Bible’s historical claims.
    • Does this undercut the credibility of its non-historical claims? Why or why not?

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Deluded Believers

    • No major religion is believed by more than about 25% of the world’s population.
    • That means that over 75% of the human population is mistaken about the true nature of God.
    • How do you know you’re not in that 75%?

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Holy Scripture

    • Suppose you’re a space explorer who lands on a planet where there are a number of different religions.
    • Each religion is based on a holy book supposedly written by God.
    • To determine which, if any, of these books was written by God, what would you look for?
    • Do any of our holy books possess these characteristics? Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

    *

     

    Section 6.1
    The Mysterious Universe

    God as Creator

    *

     

    Cosmological Arguments for the Existence of God

    • Cosmological arguments for the existence of God attempt to derive the existence of God from the existence of the universe.

    *

     

    The Traditional Cosmological Argument

    Some things are caused.

    Nothing can cause itself.

    Therefore, everything that is caused is caused by something other than itself.

    The chain of causes cannot stretch infinitely backwards in time.

    If the chain of causes cannot stretch infinitely backward in time, there must be a first cause.

    Therefore, everything that is caused has a first cause, namely, God.

    *

     

    Problems with the Traditional Cosmological Argument

    • Even if there is a first cause, it doesn’t have to be God.
    • The notion of an infinite string of causes is no more self-contradictory than the notion of an infinite string of numbers.
    • So the universe itself may be eternal.

    *

     

    The Kalam Cosmological Argument

    Whatever begins to exist has a cause.

    The universe began to exist.

    Therefore, the universe had a cause, namely God.

    *

     

    Problems with the Kalam Cosmological Argument

    • Modern physics recognizes that some events have no cause.
    • The “big bang” could have been the result of a prior “big crunch” either in this universe or some other.

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Why a Universe?

    • God is eternal, but the universe seems to be only about 15 billion years old.
    • Why, after an eternity of time had passed, did God decide to create a universe?

    *

     

    Teleological Arguments for the Existence of God

    • Teleological arguments for the existence of God try to derive the existence of God from the design or purpose of things. Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

    *

     

    Thought Experiment: Paley’s Watch

    • Suppose you were walking across a meadow and came across a watch.
    • Could you believe that the watch had always been there?
    • Wouldn’t it be more reasonable to believe that someone had designed it for the purpose of keeping time?

    *

     

    The Analogical Design Argument

    The universe resembles a watch.

    Every watch has a designer.

    Therefore, the universe probably has a designer, namely, God.

    *

     

    Problems with the Analogical Design Argument

    • If God needs a universe to accomplish his ends, he is not omnipotent.
    • Even if there is a designer, it need not have any of the other attributes traditionally associated with God, such as omniscience or omnibenevolence.
    • The universe is as much like a living thing as a mechanism and living things reproduce without need of an external agent.

    *

     

    The Best-Explanation Design Argument

    The universe exhibits apparent design.

    The best explanation of this apparent design is that it was designed by a supernatural being.

    Therefore it’s probable that the universe was designed by a supernatural being, namely, God.

    *

     

    Problems with the Best-explanation Design Argument

    • Apparent design can also be explained by evolution.
    • Evolution is a better explanation than the God-hypothesis because it is simpler, more conservative, has greater scope, and is more fruitful.

    *

     

    Irreducible Complexity

    • A structure is irreducibly complex when it would cease to function if one of its components were removed.
    • According to Michael Behe, irreducibly complex structures “cannot be produced directly” by the processes of evolution.
    • Most biologists reject Behe’s claim.

    *

     

    Exaptation

    • The process by which a structure that originally served one function comes to serve another.
    • Darwin himself recognized that many systems are composed of parts that originally evolved for other purposes.
    • Thus irreducibly complex systems can arise naturally.

    *

     

    Self-organizing Structures

    • Structures that acquire structure without input from outside the system.
    • Some self-organizing systems, like the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, are irreducibly complex.
    • Thus irreducibly complex systems can arise naturally.

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Intelligent Design

    • Even if life on Earth is the result of intelligent design, the designer need not be God.
    • The Raelians believe that life on Earth is the result of a science experiment that was conducted by advanced aliens.
    • Which hypothesis – the God hypothesis or the extraterrestrial hypothesis – is the better explanation? Which does better with respect to the criteria of adequacy?

    *

     

    The Fine-Tuning Argument

    The universe seems to be fine tuned for life.

    If certain physical properties like the charge of the electron or the mass of the proton were slightly different, life couldn’t exist.

    The probability of these properties arising by chance is infinitesimally small.

    So they must be the product of a designer. Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

    *

     

    Problems with the Fine-Tuning Argument

    • According to Hawking and Spinoza, it may be logically impossible for the universe to have different properties.
    • According to Smolin, the laws of nature could be the result of natural selection.
    • Many physicists have shown that life could exist in universes with very different properties.

    *

     

    Supernatural vs. Natural Explanations

    • According to Duane Gish, “We do not know how the Creator created, what processes He used, for He used processes which are not now operating anywhere in the natural universe.”
    • You can’t explain the unknown in terms of the incomprehensible.

    *

     

    Evolution, Freedom, and Meaning

    • According to biologist Kenneth Miller, only if evolution is true can we have a meaningful relationship with God.
    • “Always in control, such a Creator would deny his creatures any real opportunity to know and worship him—authentic love requires freedom, no manipulation.”

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Human Design Flaws

    • From an engineering point of view, human beings do not seem to be very well-designed—we get bulging disks, fragile bones, torn ligaments, varicose veins, cataracts, hearing loss, etc.
    • Is this evidence against an intelligent designer?

    *

     

    Miracles

    • Miracles are a violation of natural law by a supernatural being.

    *

     

    The Argument from Miracles

    There are events that seem to be miracles.

    The best explanation of these events is that they were performed by a miracle worker.

    Therefore, there probably is a miracle worker, namely, God.

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Parting the Red Sea

    • An oceanographer and a meteorologist have shown that the Red Sea could have parted naturally as a result of a wind of the sort described in the Bible.
    • Does this undercut the notion that it was parted by God? Why or why not?

    *

     

    Problems with the Argument from Miracles

    • The miracle worker may not have any of the properties traditionally associated with God.
    • Something may seem to be a miracle simply because we are unaware of the natural laws at work.

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Jesus’s Miracles

    • Many of the “miracles” associated with Jesus were of the same kind performed by magicians of his day.
    • Origen claimed that they would have been fraudulent if used to make money but since Jesus used them to inspire religious awe, they must be real.
    • Is Origen’s reasoning cogent? Why or why not?

    *

     

    Thought Probe: The Fivefold Challenge

    • Five miraculous events recorded in the Bible are unconfirmed by archaeology:
    • (1) the parting of the Red Sea, (2) the stopping of the Sun, (3) the reversal of the sun’s course, (4) the feeding of thousands, (5) the resurrection of saints.
    • Is the fact that they are unconfirmed reason to believe that they didn’t occur?

    *

     

    The Argument from Religious Experience

    People have experiences that seem to be of God.

    The best explanation of these experiences is that they are of God.

    Therefore, it’s probable that God exists.

    *

     

    Thought Probe:
    Religious Experience

    • Michael Persinger has discovered that religious experience can be generated by activating the temporal lobes of the brain.
    • Does the fact that religious experience can be produced electronically undercut the claim that they are produced supernaturally? Why or why not?

    *

     

    Problems with the Argument from Religious Experiences

    • Religious experiences can be explained as the result of abnormal states of consciousness brought on by drugs, meditation, sensory deprivation, etc.
    • These explanations are better than the God hypothesis because they are simpler, more conservative, more fruitful, and have more scope.

    *

     

    Anselm’s Ontological Argument

    God, by definition, is the greatest being possible.

    If God exists only in our minds, then it is possible for there to be a being greater than God, namely a being like God that exists in reality.

    But it is not possible for there to be a being greater than God.

    Therefore, God must exist in reality.

    *

     

    Thought Experiment: Gaunilo’s Lost Island

    • Consider the most perfect island imaginable.
    • If it only existed in our minds, it wouldn’t be the most perfect island imaginable.
    • Therefore, the perfect island must exist in reality.

    *

     

    Existing in the Understanding

    • To say that something exists only in the understanding is to say that the concept of the thing doesn’t apply to anything in reality.
    • Contrary to what Anselm would have us believe, this doesn’t involve a logical contradiction.

    *

     

    Descartes’s Ontological Argument

    God, by definition, possesses all possible perfections.

    Existence is a perfection.

    Therefore, God exists.

    *

     

    Problems with Descartes’ Ontological Argument

    • The argument is circular because premise 1 assumes that God exists.
    • Premises 1 can be rewritten:
    • 1’. If God exists, then He possesses all possible perfections.
    • But then the conclusion becomes:
    • 3’. If God exists, then He exists

    *

     

    Thought Experiment: Edward’s Gangle

    • Suppose someone discovers a new animal—a gangle—that has eleven noses, seven blue eyes, bristly hair, sharp teeth and wheels in the place of feet.
    • Suppose now that someone says that, in addition, gangles exist.
    • Do we learn something new about the nature of gangles?

    *

     

    Problems with the Ontological Argument

    • Existence is not a property of things.
    • Existence is not always a perfection. (It’s not always better to exist than not to exist.)

    *

     

    Thought Probe:
    One More God

    • By some estimates, humans have worshipped more than three thousand different gods.
    • So monotheists disbelieve in many gods.
    • The difference between atheists and monotheists, then, is not that great: atheists believe in one less god than monotheists.
    • If monotheists are rationally justified in not believing in thousands of other gods, are atheists equally justified in not believing in the god of the monotheists? Why or why not?

    *

     

    Thought Experiment: Pascal’s Wager

    • If you wager that God exists, and He does, you win everything.
    • If He doesn’t, you lose nothing.
    • So you should wager that God exists.

    *

     

    Problems with Pascal’s Wager

    • God may not care whether people believe in Him.
    • God may punish those who believe on purely selfish grounds.
    • God may not like gamblers.
    • It may not be true that we lose nothing by believing in God.

    *

     

    Thought Probe:
    The Best Bet

    • Herb Silverman claims that if God exists, He would prefer to be with intelligent, honest, rational people who base their beliefs on evidence rather than faith.
    • So he proposes Silverman’s wager: “If God does not exist, one will lose nothing by not believing in Him, while if He does exist, one will lose everything by believing.”
    • Is this a better bet than Pascal’s?

    *

     

    Thought Probe:
    Alien Religion

    • Suppose that we are visited by aliens from outer space and find that they have no religion and have never heard of any of our gods.
    • Would this undermine the credibility of our religions?
    • Would it be appropriate to try to try to evangelize the aliens and convert them to one of our religious? Why or why not?

    *

     

    God and Science

    • The traditional arguments for the existence of God invoke God to explain various natural phenomena.
    • St. Augustine claims that’s a mistake: the Bible is a guide for our salvation, not a science text.
    • To acquire salvation, all that is needed is faith, not science.

     

    *

    Gould’s Non-overlapping Magisteria

    • Harvard biologist, Stephen J. Gould, agrees with Augustine: science and religion are non-overlapping magisteria.
    • Science is in the business of explaining the natural world, religion is in the business of providing meaning and value to life.
    • Thus, religion and science should not be in conflict.

     

    *

    Thought Probe: Goulder vs. Augustine

    • Anglican Priest and Professor of Biblical Studies, Michael Goulder, became an atheist because “God no longer has any real work to do,” meaning that He is no longer needed to explain anything.
    • Goulder, contrary to Augustine and Gould, believes that religion should be in the business of explaining the world, but that the explanations it offers are not worthy of belief.
    • Do you agree? Why or why not? Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion
  • attachment

    section2.ppt

    Section 6.2
    When Bad Things Happen
    to Good People

    God as Troublemaker

    McGraw-Hill

    *© 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

    *

     

    Evil

    • Evil is something that is a cause or source of suffering, injury or destruction.

    *

     

    Types of Evil

    • Moral—evil that sentient creatures suffer at the hands of other persons.
    • For example: Murder, assault, robbery, etc.
    • Natural—evil that sentient creatures suffer at the hands of nature
    • For example: Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, disease, famine, etc.

    *

     

    Necessary vs. Unnecessary Evil

    • Necessary evil is an evil that is necessary to prevent a greater evil or promote a greater good.
    • For example: Chemotherapy.
    • Unnecessary evil is an evil that is not necessary to prevent a greater evil or promote a greater good.
    • For example: Torturing innocent children.

    *

     

    The Argument from Evil

    There is unnecessary evil in the world.

    If there were an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good being, there would be no unnecessary evil in the world.

    Therefore, there is no all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good being.

    *

     

    Thought Experiment: Rowe’s Fawn

    • Suppose that in a distant forest, lightning strikes a tree, causes a forest fire, and burns a fawn to death.
    • How can an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good being allow such unnecessary suffering?

    *

     

    Theodicy

    • A theory that seeks to justify belief in God in the face of all the evil in the world is known as a theodicy.
    • Many different theodicies have been proposed over the years, and all seek to defend the claim that the evil in the world is necessary. Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

    *

     

    St. Augustine and the Free Will Defense

    • Evil is necessary for free will.
    • Objections:
    • It’s possible to have free will and not choose evil, e. g., God, Mary, Jesus.
    • If God’s creation was perfectly good, how could evil enter into it?
    • The evil caused by humans (moral evil) is only one sort of evil. There is also evil caused by nature (natural evil).

    *

     

    Adam and Eve and Original Sin

    • The forbidden apple contained the knowledge of right and wrong. So before they ate the apple, Adam and Eve couldn’t have known eating it was wrong.
    • But if they didn’t know it was wrong, was it right to punish them?
    • Even if it was right to punish them, was it right to punish all of mankind throughout eternity for what they did?

    *

     

    Is God’s Justice Different from Our Justice?

    • Voltaire: “How, you mad demoniac, do you want me to judge justice and reason otherwise than by the notions I have of them?”
    • John Stuart Mill: “I will call no being good, who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow creatures.”
    • If God is not good in our sense of good, then it is false to call him good.

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Karma

    • According to the law of Karma, whatever evil we do in this life will come back to us in another life.
    • Hindus claim that Karma can explain natural evil—those who suffer evil at the hands of nature had it coming to them.
    • Is this a better solution to the problem of evil than those offered by Christians?

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Is There Free Will in Heaven?

    • Heaven is supposed to be a place where there is no sin and thus no evil.
    • But according to the free will defense, there cannot be free will without evil.
    • So how can there be free will in heaven?

    *

     

    The Knowledge Defense

    • Evil must exist in order for us to know good.
    • Objections:
    • It’s possible to know evil without experiencing it, for example, Adam and Eve.
    • There is far more evil in the world than is necessary to give us a knowledge of it.

    *

     

    Contemporary Responses to the Indian Ocean Tsunami

    “This is an expression of God’s great ire with the world. The world is being punished for wrongdoing.”

    –Rabbi Schlomo Amar

    “The tsunami is a warning from God to reflect deeply on the way we lead our lives.”

    –Catholic Bishop Alex Dias

    *

     

    Contemporary Responses to the Indian Ocean Tsunami

    “The tsunami was divine punishment for America’s cloning, homosexuality, trying to make homosexual marriages, abortion, lack of God in the schools, and taking Jesus out of Christmas.” Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

    –Jennifer Giroux—founder, Women Influencing the Nation (WIN)

    *

     

    Thought Probe:
    Wrath of God

    • The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed more than 200,000 people, is a classic case of natural evil.
    • Some see this as evidence of God’s wrath.
    • Would an all-good, all-knowing, all-powerful being kill 200,000 of his children to punish them or teach them a lesson?

    *

     

    The Ideal Humanity Defense

    • Evil is necessary to improve the human race.
    • Objections:
    • There is little evidence that humanity has improved.
    • This conflicts with the principle that humans are infinitely valuable and thus should not be used as means to an end.

    *

     

    The Soul-Building Defense

    • Evil is necessary to make us better people.
    • Objections:
    • Suffering often does not necessarily improve one’s character.
    • Forcing others to do something against their will, even if it will benefit them, is a violation of their rights.
    • There is much more evil than necessary.

    *

     

    The Finite God Defense

    • Evil exists because God lacks one of the traditional properties associated with Him such as being all-powerful or all-good.
    • Objections:
    • If God is not all-powerful, He cannot perform miracles.
    • If God is not all-powerful, He may not be worthy of worship.

    *

     

    Thought Probe: God’s Goodness

    • American revolutionary patriot Thomas Paine claims that the Bible is so filled with cruel and vindictive acts, “it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon rather than the Word of God.”
    • Is Paine’s assessment a fair one?

    *

     

    Thought Probe:
    What If God Died?

    • If God is finite, it’s possible for God to die. In the trilogy Towing Jehovah, Blameless in Abaddon, and The Eternal Footman, science-fiction writer James Morrow explores this possibility.
    • Suppose God died. How would the universe be different? How would we tell that God no longer existed? Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

    *

     

    The Invisible Gardner

    • Suppose two explorers come upon a clearing in the jungle in which there are many flowers and many weeds.
    • One says that there must be an invisible, undetectable gardener, and the other says there is no gardener.
    • How does an invisible, undetectable gardener differ from an imaginary one?
  • attachment

    section3.ppt

    Section 6.3
    Faith and Meaning

    Believing the Unbelievable

    McGraw-Hill

    *© 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

    *

     

    The Leap of Faith

    • “Faith,” by definition, is “belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.”
    • Kierkegaard argues that belief in the Christian God must be a matter of faith because the notion of an immortal being becoming mortal is absurd.

    *

     

    Kierkegaard on Belief

    • Kierkegaard claims that you can make something objectively true by believing it passionately enough.
    • Objection: This is self-contradictory—a proposition and its negation could be believed passionately by different people, but both propositions couldn’t be true.

    *

     

    Kierkegaard and Russell on Belief

    • Kierkegaard: “Whoever is neither hot nor cold [who doesn’t believe passionately] is nauseating.”
    • Russell: “There is something feeble, and a little contemptible, about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.”

    *

     

    Evidentialism

    • Only beliefs based on evidence can be justified.
    • Some claim that you have a moral obligation to proportion your belief to the evidence.

    *

     

    Clifford and Huxley on Belief

    • “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything on insufficient evidence.” –W. K. Clifford
    • “It is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty.” –T. H. Huxley

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Blanshard’s Beliefs

    • Are Blanshard and Clifford correct in claiming that we have a duty to proportion our beliefs to the evidence?
    • Can you think of a counterexample, a case where it would not be right to proportion your belief to the evidence?
    • Should people who don’t proportion their belief to the evidence be ashamed of themselves? Why or why not?

    *

     

    James on the Will to Believe

    • When a belief can be decided on intellectual grounds, it’s wrong to believe on faith.
    • When a belief is a genuine option, and when believing it to be true can make it true, it’s permissible to believe on faith.
    • For example: By having faith that someone likes you, they may come to like you. Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

    *

     

    Problems with the Will to Believe

    • Beliefs don’t bring about changes in others, actions do.
    • The knowledge that acting as if we like someone can help make them like us is based on evidence.
    • Believing in God can’t help bring about the existence of God.

    *

     

    James on the Affirmations of Religion

    • First: religion says that the best things are the eternal things. “Perfection is eternal.”
    • Second: religion says that we are better off if we accept the first affirmation.
    • James claims that accepting the first affirmation will help us have a more personal relationship to the universe.

    *

     

    Thought Probe: James and Pandeism

    • Pandeism, like pantheism, claims that the universe is God.
    • Unlike pantheism, however, it claims that the universe is a person.
    • James claims that viewing the universe as a person would help give meaning to your life.
    • Do you agree? Why or why not?

     

    *

    The Meaning of Life

    • Some believe that our lives can be meaningful if and only if they are part of a divine plan.

    *

     

    Thought Experiment: God’s Plan

    • Suppose that God created us to serve as food for some more advanced creatures.
    • Would it make our lives meaningful to be eaten by those creatures?

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Meaning and Morality

    • It’s wrong to use people merely as a means to an end because that violates their fundamental right to self-determination.
    • If God created us for a purpose, it would seem that he is using us merely as a means to an end.
    • Is it immoral for God to create people in order to achieve a particular purpose?

     

    *

    Existentialism

    • According to Existentialism, “existence precedes essence.” Humans exist prior to and independently of any notion of who they are or what they should do.
    • Humans define themselves and create their own meaning by making choices.

    *

     

    Sartre on the Human Condition

    • Abandonment: no one can make our choices for us.
    • Aguish: we have to choose.
    • Despair: we have to live with the consequences of our choices. Philosophy Paper Essay Discussion

    *

     

    Barnes on the Human Condition

    • “No humanistic existentialist will allow that the only alternative is despair and irresponsibility.”
    • “The individual life may have an intrinsic value…whether the universe knows what it’s doing or not.”

    *

     

    Thought Probe: Meaning and Purpose

    • Some believe that their life can be meaningful only if they were created for a certain purpose.
    • Others believe that meaning can only come from within, that it can’t be imposed from without.
    • Which do you believe?

     

    *

    Religion Without God

    • Those who have a religious orientation toward life share four characteristics:
    • A sense of the numinous.
    • Deep feelings of love, joy, and peace.
    • A distaste of vanity and greed.
    • A desire to help others.
    • One need not believe in God to have these characteristics.

    *

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