Metaphysics

Atheistic naturalism must answer many question, but their answers are not further coming, dubious at best, or based on faulty reasoning. Questions such as to why is there something rather than nothing. The laws of logic. The beauty of mathematical principles, and there applications to the world around us. The necessary fine tuning of biological information. The fine tuning of the universe and earth to support life. What about consciousness? If chance is the father of all these questions, than…

Outline and critically discuss Descartes’ dreaming argument and evil demon argument Descartes’ presents two sceptical arguments as part of his hopes of laying a solid Epistemology based foundation on which the sciences can be built. While the arguments themselves are valid there are issues with Descartes’ logic both in the finer detail of what he writes and in the bigger picture of his arguments. The dreaming argument consists of a line of reasoning based on our lack of ability to firmly know…

How one defines their own reality speaks loudly of a person’s character. People are always attempting to decipher the riddle of “illusion vs. reality”, but have never come to a consensus on the issue. These opposing ideas stem from the way we distinguish what is real and what is not, which all relies on our own self-perception. In William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy Hamlet, the characters struggle with recognizing the deception that has managed to intertwine itself into their lives. The…

In this essay, the free will problem, pertaining to philosophical nature, will be introduced and explained so that the reader can grasp the foundation of this essay’s main focus. The main focus of this essay is A.J. Ayer and his argument for compatibilism. The argument for compatibilism, according to Ayer, is that a choice that one makes cannot be free unless it is caused. Ayer also suggests that a person can only be held morally responsible for their actions if they had the ability to choose…

Free will or Determinism? These are two sides of an argument that has endured many years of debate and thought. Determinism is the belief that whatever is going to happen or is happening was inevitable and “choice is an illusion” (Baumeister R. 2009), that we can completely predict a person’s behavior. We can’t even think or decide freely, we are constrained to act only as we are ordained to act (Pollard L. 2008). Sometimes the belief brings in the being of God and how people are already in a…

Explain natural law (25 Marks) There are different types of laws of nature, such as Eternal Law, Divine Law, Natural Law and Human Law. Natural law is the natural sense humans have that ‘good should be done and evil avoided’ it is where humans put themselves and uses as guidance for their conscience, leading them to the ‘right path’ Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384-322 BCE), believed in the Theory of Causes, meaning that everything had to have a purpose. Two of his four questions were ‘How was…

The Magic Lacking According to Oxford Dictionaries, magical realism defines as, "a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy". "Elsewhere" by Gabrielle Zevin kind of uses the magical realism writing technique. This book exhibits five out of the six factors of magical realism. It shows lyrical, almost poetic writing, it examines the aspects of human nature, extraordinary events are often accepted as…

Josue Ortiz Personal Creed Theology W4 October 19, 2015 1. Do you believe that a God exists? If so, explain why, using specific arguments and proofs from reason, science, logic, etc. A: I believe God exists, not only because the bible says He does, but because there proof and obvious facts that shows us that He exists. For example his creation is proof that He exists. It is scientifically proven that life cannot come out of nothing, therefore the fact that there is life in this world should…

David Hume’s Fork is one of the many answers to Descartes’ Challenge. The Challenge asks, “How do I know the outside world matches my sense data?”. Hume’s Fork responds by stating that there are only two types of “justified knowledge”, the knowledge being the certainty of what you know to be true, which is asked for in Descartes’ Challenge. The first type of knowledge is a synthetic, a posteriori claim, which we make based on the sensations we experience as raw, forced data. One example would…

The cosmological argument, in it’s simplest terms, can be broken up into a few understood points that make it what some to believe the answer to God’s existence. The same form of argument that the cosmological argument possesses can actually be applied to discrediting the existence of God. The origin of time and the relationship between an infinite set of causes and effects and if it has a creator both work together in forming good points against the credibility of the cosmological argument made…