Glossary: Arguments for the Existence of God
A posteriori - Knowledge gained through sense experience (empirical evidence).
● Sense experience is problematic because we are inferring from our senses, but not everyone can sense
the same thing - our senses can be wrong, e.g., optical illusions show our senses are not always right - if
sense data is wrong, then the conclusion is probably wrong. Humans sense the world in a different way
(E.g., can’t see UV light) - human senses are limited, so sense data is/may be wrong.
● Can be a strength because everyone has access to it and it is the way we have always gained knowledge of
the world; we can also build on it (our current knowledge is the best it has ever been in human history -
we apply it to real life situations) - a posteriori arguments work in the real world.
A priori - Knowledge gained prior to (not through) sense experience.
Inductive - Premises are created that lead to a conclusion that leads to a probable truth, not a complete truth.
Even if the premises may be true, the conclusion is not always true.
Deductive - Premises that lead to a conclusion. If premises are true, the conclusions are guaranteed to be true
(only if the argument is valid). The conclusion is entailed in the premises due to the meaning of the words. If the
argument is valid and the premises are true, the argument is sound.
Abductive - Arguments to the best explanation.
Analytic - Whether a statement is true/false based on the meaning of the words. The OA analyses the concept of
God in the same way as other concepts, e.g., ‘bachelor’ contains the concepts of ‘man’ and ‘unmarried’ - these
concepts are entailed in the concept of ‘bachelor’. Our concept of God contains the concept of perfection, which
in turn contains the concept of existence, so God must exist.
Synthetic - Where truth value can only be determined relying on observation and experience - ‘all bachelors have
brown hair’ is true if the evidence shows this.
Inference - A conclusion reached through evidence and reasoning.
Analogy - An inference where information or meaning is transferred from one subject to another.
Sound - An argument that is not only valid, but begins with premises that are actually true.
Occam’s razor - The simplest explanation is usually the best explanation, e.g. Russell argues the simplest
explanation as to why the universe exists is that there is no explanation as to why the universe exists - “It is an
inexplicable brute fact”.
Reductio ad Absurdum - (Latin for ‘argument to absurdity’) A form of argument that attempts to show that a
given claim is false by showing that its acceptance leads to an absurd conclusion, i.e., an argument is disproved by
showing the absurdity of following it through to a logical conclusion - the argument is reduced to its absurdity
(only works if there is faulty logic in the argument) e.g., it would be absurd to say nothing exists now.
Teleological:
● Analogical - An argument from analogy, based on an analogy of the watch as the watch is ordered much
like the world; both are also regular and have purpose.
● Qua Purpose - Referring to how the world appears to show design in the way parts of it appear to be
constructed for a purpose.
● Temporal Order (Regularities of Succession) - Refers to orderly processes that operate the same way
every time, i.e., the laws of nature (always regular), e.g., the laws of physics.
● Spatial Order (Regularities of Co-presence) - Refers to the tendency for things to turn up together in
orderly patterns; examples of order in nature, e.g., the human eye.
A posteriori - Knowledge gained through sense experience (empirical evidence).
● Sense experience is problematic because we are inferring from our senses, but not everyone can sense
the same thing - our senses can be wrong, e.g., optical illusions show our senses are not always right - if
sense data is wrong, then the conclusion is probably wrong. Humans sense the world in a different way
(E.g., can’t see UV light) - human senses are limited, so sense data is/may be wrong.
● Can be a strength because everyone has access to it and it is the way we have always gained knowledge of
the world; we can also build on it (our current knowledge is the best it has ever been in human history -
we apply it to real life situations) - a posteriori arguments work in the real world.
A priori - Knowledge gained prior to (not through) sense experience.
Inductive - Premises are created that lead to a conclusion that leads to a probable truth, not a complete truth.
Even if the premises may be true, the conclusion is not always true.
Deductive - Premises that lead to a conclusion. If premises are true, the conclusions are guaranteed to be true
(only if the argument is valid). The conclusion is entailed in the premises due to the meaning of the words. If the
argument is valid and the premises are true, the argument is sound.
Abductive - Arguments to the best explanation.
Analytic - Whether a statement is true/false based on the meaning of the words. The OA analyses the concept of
God in the same way as other concepts, e.g., ‘bachelor’ contains the concepts of ‘man’ and ‘unmarried’ - these
concepts are entailed in the concept of ‘bachelor’. Our concept of God contains the concept of perfection, which
in turn contains the concept of existence, so God must exist.
Synthetic - Where truth value can only be determined relying on observation and experience - ‘all bachelors have
brown hair’ is true if the evidence shows this.
Inference - A conclusion reached through evidence and reasoning.
Analogy - An inference where information or meaning is transferred from one subject to another.
Sound - An argument that is not only valid, but begins with premises that are actually true.
Occam’s razor - The simplest explanation is usually the best explanation, e.g. Russell argues the simplest
explanation as to why the universe exists is that there is no explanation as to why the universe exists - “It is an
inexplicable brute fact”.
Reductio ad Absurdum - (Latin for ‘argument to absurdity’) A form of argument that attempts to show that a
given claim is false by showing that its acceptance leads to an absurd conclusion, i.e., an argument is disproved by
showing the absurdity of following it through to a logical conclusion - the argument is reduced to its absurdity
(only works if there is faulty logic in the argument) e.g., it would be absurd to say nothing exists now.
Teleological:
● Analogical - An argument from analogy, based on an analogy of the watch as the watch is ordered much
like the world; both are also regular and have purpose.
● Qua Purpose - Referring to how the world appears to show design in the way parts of it appear to be
constructed for a purpose.
● Temporal Order (Regularities of Succession) - Refers to orderly processes that operate the same way
every time, i.e., the laws of nature (always regular), e.g., the laws of physics.
● Spatial Order (Regularities of Co-presence) - Refers to the tendency for things to turn up together in
orderly patterns; examples of order in nature, e.g., the human eye.
