Arguments for God
1. Argument one
2. Miracles:
a. A violation of the laws of nature (as we know them)
b. ISSUE: All religions have miracles
i. So… who is right?
c. Expectations are different for miracles.
i. Miracles are personal and hard to prove.
1. Usually based on testimony
2. Could be exaggerated/mistaken?
3. Moral Values:
a. Absolute Values need an Absolute (unchanging) Foundation
b. God is the absolute foundation of moral values
c. ISSUE(S):
i. Maybe there are no moral values
ii. Maybe there are other foundations for moral values
1. like… human decency
4. “Ontological” Argument:
a. St. Anselm, Descartes, Leibniz, & Hartshorne
b. Based on the concept of God
i. God is the greatest conceivable being
1. “…A being greater then which none can be conceived”
a. Meaning: such a being cannot, NOT exist.
2. To say a perfect being might not exist, is saying that this perfect being isn’t
perfect.
a. Perfection of necessary existence
c. ISSUE: critics say this is simply a play on words.
5. Teleological Argument/Intelligent Design:
a. Argument from design & order of the Universe
b. “Reveals” the world has a certain purpose
i. Example(s): acorns & squirrels
ii. Human nose
c. Fittedness of means to end
d. Goals are reached through means adapted to get to them
e. There must be a designer because there is too much to the design
6. Cosmological Argument:
a. “Aquinas” (Thomas of Aquino)
b. Based on the sheer existence of the Universe
i. “Why is there something rather then nothing?”
ii. Answer = God
1. God created _________. (everything)
c. Three Ways:
i. Argument from Motions
1. something cannot be both potentially and actually in motion at once…
therefore the starting force must be God
a. Locomotion
b. Qualitative Change
ii. Argument from efficient causality
1. If any one cause is taken away, there will be no effect.
2. “But if the series of efficient causes stretches back ad infinitum, there will be
no first efficient causes, which is patently not the case.”
iii. Argument from necessity & contingency
