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14 Cards in this Set
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- Back
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"The watch must have had a maker... there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artifice or artificial who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer." |
Paley |
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"Rational people may rationally believe in God without evidence or argument." |
Clark |
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"It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence." |
Clifford |
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"[My] free-will defense claims that it is a great good that humans have a certain sort of free will...but that, if they do, then necessarily there will be the natural possibility of moral evil." |
Swinburne |
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"The various excuses theists offer for why God has allowed evil to exist have been demonstrated inadequate." |
BC Johnson |
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What is Pascal's Wager? |
Pascal believes that we don't have evidence for or against God, so we should believe God exists. Because he thinks that if you don't have evidence one way or the other, the rational thing is to believe what will bring you most happiness. Based off of this, he wants us to believe in God for selfish reasons like infinite heaven. |
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Explain W.K. Clifford's ship owner thought experiment, and hoe it is supposed to support his overall conclusion about the ethics of belief. |
Clifford thought his ship was safe, but he has no evidence nor reason to believe it was and everyone died. He connects this back with the conclusion that all beliefs, no matter how trivial they seem, have the potential to affect other people. So, he believes we have an ethical responsibility to ensure all of our beliefs are supported sufficiently by evidence. |
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What is Clifford's response to the claim that there is not enough time to gather evidence for all we believe? |
Clifford states that if you don't have time to gather evidence then you don't have time to believe. He believes that we shouldn't believe and that we should just remain agnostic as a solution. |
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Why, according to Clark, should we reject Clifford's maxim about the ethics of belief? |
Clifford believes that you shouldn't believe anything without sufficient evidence. Clark thinks we should reject Clifford's maxim about the ethics of belief because it would be impossibly time consuming to verify with sufficient evidence all the beliefs we need to navigate life. (Time Restraints) Also, even if we had unlimited time, we have to take some things for granted. (Cognitive Restraints) |
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Explain Clark's thought experiment about a stranger telling you your partner is unfaithful and how it is supposed to support his overall conclusion about belief in God. |
Clark's experiment uses a stranger telling you that your partner is unfaithful. No pictures included, no dates or names - just the assertion of your wife's unfaithfulness. Not having faith in your partner is bad for your relationship so you should believe in your partner and not a stranger. Needless to say, hiring a detective to track your partner's every move would undermine the relationship. Clark related this back to belief in God and how you don't need evidence to support beliefs. |
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What is the cosmological argument for the existence of God? |
Cosmological argument starts with ways 1 and 2 ; things exist and are changing, every change is brought about by preceding cause, an infinite regress of changes is impossible, therefore.. there exists a first cause, an unmoved mover and we call this cause, "God". |
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Even if the cosmological argument succeeds in establishing it's conclusion, why is it still insufficient as a proof of God's existence? |
The idea of an unmoved mover does not make any more sense than idea of infinite regress of changes. Even if the argument C succeeds in way 3, it does not establish that "God" is anything more than matter or energy or whatever the physical substrate of the universe is. |
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Why, according to Paley, does the existence of a watch need a more sophisticated explanation than the existence of a stone? |
A watch requires a more complex explanation because it is more sophisticated. Several parts are put together for the purpose to tell time and each piece has a specific funtion. Whereas a stone is simple and is basically the same on the inside and the ouside. This shows that the watch was unlikely just an accident since it is so complex. |
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Explain B.C. Johnson's baby-in-the-burning-house thought experiment and hoe he uses to attack what he calls "traditional theism". |
B.C. Johnson's thought experiment included a baby in a burning house and you see it happening and are able to save the baby, but you don't. Since you didn't save the baby (and you could've) you are a bad person, however, every day God has the choice to save babies and stop bad things from happening but he doesn't. Therefore, his conclusion is that He is not an all-loving or an all-good God. |
