1 / 13

Arguments for The Existence of God

Arguments for The Existence of God. Ontological Cosmological Teleological. God’s Existence. Not subjective Not unprovable in principle Natural Theology: Knowing God through reason Biblical Theology: Knowing God through revelation. The Ontological Argument. A priori (vs. a posteriori)

ostinmannual
Télécharger la présentation

Arguments for The Existence of God

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Arguments forThe Existence of God Ontological Cosmological Teleological

  2. God’s Existence • Not subjective • Not unprovable in principle • Natural Theology: Knowing God through reason • Biblical Theology: Knowing God through revelation

  3. The Ontological Argument • A priori (vs. a posteriori) • God exists by definition • If you think about the concept of God hard enough, you’ll see that he must exist

  4. Descartes’ Version • God is a perfect being • A perfect being must contain all perfections • Existence is a perfection. • God exists.

  5. Anselm’s Version • Reductio ad absurdum • Indirect proof - show that atheism leads to a contradiction, so theism must be true

  6. Anselm’s Version • Assume God doesn’t exist • God exists only in the mind • The Greatest Conceivable Being (GCB) exists only in the mind • But this can’t be true because there is a greater being, which exists not only in the mind but in reality as well

  7. Anselm’s Version • The GCB exists ONLY in the mind • The GCB isn’t the GCB • A is not A <-- Contradiction • Atheism leads to a contradiction • Atheism is false • It’s not true that God doesn’t exist • God exists

  8. Anselm’s Version • Assume not-G. • If not-G, then GCB = not-GCB • Not-not-G • G

  9. Gaunillo’s Objection • The Greatest Conceivable Island Objection (Perfect Island, Lost Island) • Assume the GCI exists only in the mind. • If the GCI exists only in the mind, then a greater island can be imagined, which exists not only in the mind but in reality • The GCI isn’t really the GCI (contrad.) • The GCI must exist.

  10. Gaunillo’s Objection • Anselm: My argument doesn’t work for the greatest conceivable kind of type of being, just the greatest conceivable being in general. • Once the limiting, imperfect particulars of the island are eliminated, the Island starts to look like God.

  11. Kant’s Objection • Existence isn’t a property (real predicate) • The concept of a real $100 is the same as an imaginary $100; it’s just that one is instantiated. • Existence applies to a thing and it’s properties together; it is not itself a property.

  12. Malcolm’s Modal Version • God is a necessary being. • If God’s existence is possible, then it’s actual. • God’s existence is possible. • God must exist. • Objection: Maybe God’s existence isn’t possible

  13. Other Objections • God doesn’t’ exist in the mind. • Exist “in the mind” equivocates on the term “exists.” • The terms “greater” and “greatest” are vague, value-laden or assume a Platonic metaphysics with degrees of reality. • Which is greater Jupiter or the DNA molecule?

More Related