Teleological And Ontological Argument

1992 Words 8 Pages

In discussions of the Teleological and Ontological arguments, one controversial issue is whether existence is a predicate or not. On one hand, the Ontological argument contends that existence is a predicate to perfection. On the other hand, Kant disputes that existence is not a “real predicate” to perfection because it does not give attributes to explain the existence of God, therefore, making existence a special case. I will be discussing the idea of a special case and how the Ontological argument fails to recognize the idea of it, where the Teleological argument strongly supports the idea of a special case by the idea of the intelligent designer. The Teleological argument avoids the idea of a predicate by explaining the attributes of why …show more content…
The existence of God rides on the claim that the universe is so intricately designed that only the work of an intelligent creator or namely God could have caused this to happen. Its main focuses are on the concepts of nature and reality, which are used to explain the existence of God. It does this by displaying how the universe is so intricately designed, that there is no way that something of that caliber could have occurred randomly, therefore, the existence of some sort of intelligent designer or being must be true. In the textbook, Damascene provides us with insight on the way the natural world is ordered in such a way that “nature is made up of things with opposite or contrary natures: fire and water, earth and air . . .” (Solomon & McDermind 135). Damascene shows us that not all the time does everything work on its own, but rather it need something or someone to keep it in order, thus being God, an intelligent designer. Textbook illustrates this well by stating that there must exist a being who binds the world together, without the help of a divine being the world would not be able to run in such an order without the whole world blowing up. This shows that the Teleological argument shows more support for the existence of God, but rather than stating God exists and including the word “exist” in the characteristics to support God’s existence, it gives a more detailed explanation. Kant’s objection doesn’t apply to the Teleological argument because it is going into details about existence and how an intelligent designer (God) must have created the world. The ideas from the Teleological argument support the idea of existence being a special case by giving existence attributes to support what existence

God In Descartes: The Idea Of God

For example, we know that 2 and 2 make 4, despite there being no proof of it.] [Another obstacle Descartes must surmount to convince the sceptics to believe in his philosophical system is the fact that having an idea of God does not mean that He actually exists.] [Descartes responds to this challenge with something he calls “the light of nature” (cite). According to this “light of nature,” “there needs to be at least as much reality in the idea as there is in the cause of that idea” (cite). Given that we have an idea of God, the light of nature says that something equally as powerful of more powerful had to have caused it.…

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Leibniz's Argument Against Descartes

By saying that since God created him, He is in charge of his judgement is faulty because it creates the assumption that God is right there with us when we make decisions, which is not true. Instead Descartes could have made his argument stronger if he used final causation, which is what Leibniz believed would have been the better way of explaining theories concerning God. Since we cannot know exactly what God looks like and how he acts, it is better to use final causation because he would have been able to say that God created us with the ability make decisions and have judgement, but He does not have control over when and where we make these decisions. He just knows that we will make them. If Descartes had said it like that he would have been able to focus on his main goals of science, instead…

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Analysis Of Descartes Argument For The Existence Of God

Descartes replies by arguing that by referring to an idea of God, he means what is perceived in the mind and that he uses the term idea because it is used in philosophy to reference perceptions in the mind (Third Objections: CSM II 126-7). Descartes argues that Hobbes should provide his own idea of God and that he is only using the term idea in a manner that suits his argument, which is a __ fallacy. Though I believe Descartes response to Hobbes here is valid, I still find premise 1 questionable because it assumes that all humans have the same specific ideas about God, which may not be true especially considering Descartes does not provide…

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Descartes Problem Of The External World Analysis

The following paper is an attempt to address why Descartes uses the proof of a perfect being, God, as a possible solution to the “Problem of the External World.” The paper will define the “Problem of the External World,” Connection Principle between intrinsic and representative reality, importance of thought, and objections. The “Problem of the External World” as presented by Descartes questions if it is reasonable for him to be able to know about the external world, or be certain that there is a physical world beyond the ideas in the mind. I believe that Descartes does not wholly doubt the existence of the external world, but suggests that he cannot be certain that his perceptions of the external world are not misrepresented by the…

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Analysis Of Moral Argument For God's Existence

Question No. 1 Answer: Notwithstanding the traditional contentions for the existence of God, one issue has taken the type of a contention against God's existence: that issue is the problem of evil. One version of the problem of evil takes a purely logical structure: that is, it tries to demonstrate that the existence of evil and suffering is conflicting with certain traditional qualities of God. These qualities are omnipotence and goodness. Since God has both the methods and the motive to avoid or evacuate evil, it is hard to see why it ought to exist by any means.…

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Evil And Evil: The Problem Of Evil

This supports the argument of the Problem of Evil’s second and fourth premise that claim that God would have the ability to eliminate all evil and God would have the knowledge to ensure that evil would never exist. Also, according to Stanford University, “One problem with an appeal to libertarian free will is that no satisfactory account of the concept of libertarian free will is yet available” (Tooley). Meaning that it is not known if humans actually have free will or if it is only an illusion of free…

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Avicenna And Thomas Aquinas Analysis

Both Avicenna and Thomas Aquinas articulately explain the nature of the Divine Intellect in their respective works The Salvation, “Metaphysics” and Summa Contra Gentiles: Book One: God. They offer arguments that contrast one another concerning the divine intellect, and in particular, God’s ability to intellect singulars. Despite the convincing nature of Avicenna’s proofs, Aquinas effectively proves God’s knowledge of singulars by a sound argument that supports God’s knowledge of singulars, a proof that necessitates this reality, and in turn, provides an argument that undercuts the necessity that God cannot intellect singulars. For this topic, complexity often ensues when explaining how an eternal and unchanging God knows the changing individuals…

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An Overview: Does God Exist?

Even though demonstrating th eesistence of God in utterly impossible. He passes a cross a vital message about the nature and existence of God. The central argument that Taylor gives is the existence of God thourgh theist ideologies. He does not, however, believe in christianity. Taylor bases his conclusions on philosophy and available evidence from concepts that he builds up.…

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An Analysis Of Rene Descartes And The Cogito Argument

If we question if our clear and distinct perceptions are reliable, and answer that with the fact that God exists, we also can question how we know God exists—our answer being that our clear and distinct perceptions prove it. In order to successfully reach a valid argument, it needs to be based off of fact rather than assumption. The way that Descartes goes about his reasoning is through deduction, yet his deduction goes on into an infinite circle of assumption. Descartes premises leading to him to his conclusion regarding his essence being a thinking thing is continuously reinforced by the existence of God. However, this existence of God is assumed and reciprocates with his acknowledgement of clear and distinct…

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Freewill Argument

Both Mackie’s logical problem of evil and his further dismissal of the freewill hypothesis incorrectly focus on God in terms of his power, not of the knowledge that controls it. I will not make the same mistake. So, I will regard every exertion of power as an exertion of knowledge for God must have reasons behind exerting power. If there is no smart reason to exert power, as is the case for the freewill system, no exertion of power should be expected. God must first fulfill his omniscience.…

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Teleological And Ontological Argument

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