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Belief, uncertainty and unbelief

Belief, uncertainty and unbelief. Arguments for the existence of God. Aristotle (384-322 BCE ). Aristotle and the Prime Mover. All movement depends on there being a mover. By movement, Aristotle was referring to all change (growth, melting etc.)

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Belief, uncertainty and unbelief

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  1. Belief, uncertainty and unbelief Arguments for the existence of God

  2. Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

  3. Aristotle and the Prime Mover • All movement depends on there being a mover. • By movement, Aristotle was referring to all change (growth, melting etc.) • The result is a chain of events with each movement being caused by a mover.

  4. There must be a beginning to all of this… • The chain of events cannot continue infinitely. • This must be an eternal substance, immune to any change (cannot decay or die). • Must be unmoved (not moved by anything else) • Aristotle called this unmoved mover the Prime Mover.

  5. Aquinas (1224 – 1274)

  6. St Thomas Aquinas • He felt Aristotle’s logic was compatible with Christianity and often quoted him in support of his arguments about God. • He put forward his own Cosmological argument, three different ways.

  7. ONEMOTION • Any kind of motion, including any change of quality or quantity. • This chain of movements cannot go back infinitely. • There must be a first mover which is itself unmoved. • This Prime Mover is God.

  8. TWOCAUSE • Cause and effect in the world. • Nothing can be the cause of itself. • Aquinas rejects an infinite chain of causes. • There must be a first uncaused cause. • This first cause is God.

  9. THREECONTINGENCY • Everything that begins to exist has a cause. • The universe began to exist. • The universe must have a cause…

  10. If time were infinite.. • There would be a time when nothing existed… • This is because of contingency • If something is contingent it by definition cannot continue forever…

  11. If there was a time when nothing existed… • Something must have caused things to exist. • This thing must be necessary. • This necessary being is God. • God is necessary because if God didn’t exist then nothing else would exist.

  12. Challenges David Hume 1711-76

  13. Hume • We only know what we experience. • We experience cause and effect in the world. • This leap from experienced cause and effect to the cause of the universe is IMAGINED. • The mind has connected the two events – induction. • This is not evidence of God.

  14. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

  15. Kant • The idea that everything in the world has a cause only applies to sense experience. • This cannot apply to something we have not experienced. • It is impossible for anyone to have knowledge of anything outside time and space.

  16. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

  17. Russell • Fallacy of composition • This means ascribing properties of the parts of a whole to the whole. • ‘Objects within the universe are created. The universe is created.’

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