PHIL 201 EXAM 3 Question and answers
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What are "arguments" for God's reality? - correct answer ✔- 1. All arguments
are logical patterns of thinking. Thinking is how we process our experience
(seeing, feeling, tasting, listening). They are the reasons we give ourselves
and others for anything.
- 2. God is unique: infinite, immaterial, person
- 3. So arguments for God's existence will be from effect to cause since we
can have no direct, repeatable observation of God himself.
- 4. They are based on common experience or observation available to
everyone.
An overview of the history and types of the Cosmological Arguments: - correct
answer ✔- A. The simple argument of Aristotle and Thomas
- B. The Kalam Argument (Wm. L. Craig)
- C. Sufficient Reason Argument (Clarke, Leibniz)
The (Simple) Cosmological Argument ala Thomas Aquinas: - correct answer
✔- A. What we observe in this universe is contingent
- B. Any sequence of causally related contingent things cannot be infinite.
- C. So: The sequence of contingent things must be finite.
- D. So: There must be a first cause in the sequence of contingent causes.
First: - correct answer ✔- = no prior = uncaused = independent = divine
Cause: - correct answer ✔- = related = to all other causes as primary =
cause of all = omnipotent
,Paul's Argument: - correct answer ✔- Romans 1:20... "His eternal power and
divine nature have been clearly seen, being misunderstood from what has
been made, so that they are without excuse."
- "What has been made" = 'madness' of things = contingency
Objections to the Contingency Argument: - correct answer ✔- 1. The first
cause is not God.
- 2. The first cause is too impersonal.
- 3. What caused God?
- 4. There are infinite sequences.
- 5. The universe is itself it's own first cause.
Teleological Argument: - correct answer ✔- Is any inductive reasoning that
moves....
from the evidence for order, structure, adaptedness, functionality, fine-tuning,
value, beauty, intentionality, or any other design indications
to the reality of a creative and intelligent source, cause, or agent
(PHASE 1)
Pre-philosophical observational inferences from order and beauty to God....: -
correct answer ✔- 1) Specific examples of design point to an intelligent
source
(Zeno: Nature exhibits the "seeds of a rational animal")
- 2) Generalization to macro-level: The world as a collection, including human
productions (as scale models), needs Mind/Soul/Logos/God.
(PHASE 2)
Modern philosophy:
, Classic Example:
Standard objections: - correct answer ✔- Simple inference becomes an
explicitly analogical argument
- Wm. Paley, "Natural Theology" (1802) - explicit and strong analogy between
naturally ordered and human engineered products
- David Hume, "Dialogues" (1779) - weak and biased analogy: the order is
natural.
Paley's Analogy: - correct answer ✔- Every indication of contrivance, every
manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of
nature; with the difference, on the side of nature of being greater and more,
and that in a degree which exceeds all computation.
Hume's Basic Objections: - correct answer ✔- 1) You cannot argue from
parts to whole - universe itself is not much like human artifacts.
- 2) There is only one universe with which to make comparisons - insufficient
base.
- 3) Analogy leads to anthropomorphic God - finite, corporeal, multiple,
male/female.
- 4) Analogy fails to include source of evil.
Hume's Objections: - correct answer ✔- In sum, the analogy is because...
- 1) It rests on biased (e.g. evil) and insufficient evidence (e.g. only one
universe).
- 2) Natural laws and descriptions of processes provide a sufficient causal
explanation.
<----->
- 1) The analogy holds with reasonable strength.
- 2) Hum only displaces the information.
- 3) Natural law fails to explain causally.
verified to pass 2025
What are "arguments" for God's reality? - correct answer ✔- 1. All arguments
are logical patterns of thinking. Thinking is how we process our experience
(seeing, feeling, tasting, listening). They are the reasons we give ourselves
and others for anything.
- 2. God is unique: infinite, immaterial, person
- 3. So arguments for God's existence will be from effect to cause since we
can have no direct, repeatable observation of God himself.
- 4. They are based on common experience or observation available to
everyone.
An overview of the history and types of the Cosmological Arguments: - correct
answer ✔- A. The simple argument of Aristotle and Thomas
- B. The Kalam Argument (Wm. L. Craig)
- C. Sufficient Reason Argument (Clarke, Leibniz)
The (Simple) Cosmological Argument ala Thomas Aquinas: - correct answer
✔- A. What we observe in this universe is contingent
- B. Any sequence of causally related contingent things cannot be infinite.
- C. So: The sequence of contingent things must be finite.
- D. So: There must be a first cause in the sequence of contingent causes.
First: - correct answer ✔- = no prior = uncaused = independent = divine
Cause: - correct answer ✔- = related = to all other causes as primary =
cause of all = omnipotent
,Paul's Argument: - correct answer ✔- Romans 1:20... "His eternal power and
divine nature have been clearly seen, being misunderstood from what has
been made, so that they are without excuse."
- "What has been made" = 'madness' of things = contingency
Objections to the Contingency Argument: - correct answer ✔- 1. The first
cause is not God.
- 2. The first cause is too impersonal.
- 3. What caused God?
- 4. There are infinite sequences.
- 5. The universe is itself it's own first cause.
Teleological Argument: - correct answer ✔- Is any inductive reasoning that
moves....
from the evidence for order, structure, adaptedness, functionality, fine-tuning,
value, beauty, intentionality, or any other design indications
to the reality of a creative and intelligent source, cause, or agent
(PHASE 1)
Pre-philosophical observational inferences from order and beauty to God....: -
correct answer ✔- 1) Specific examples of design point to an intelligent
source
(Zeno: Nature exhibits the "seeds of a rational animal")
- 2) Generalization to macro-level: The world as a collection, including human
productions (as scale models), needs Mind/Soul/Logos/God.
(PHASE 2)
Modern philosophy:
, Classic Example:
Standard objections: - correct answer ✔- Simple inference becomes an
explicitly analogical argument
- Wm. Paley, "Natural Theology" (1802) - explicit and strong analogy between
naturally ordered and human engineered products
- David Hume, "Dialogues" (1779) - weak and biased analogy: the order is
natural.
Paley's Analogy: - correct answer ✔- Every indication of contrivance, every
manifestation of design, which existed in the watch, exists in the works of
nature; with the difference, on the side of nature of being greater and more,
and that in a degree which exceeds all computation.
Hume's Basic Objections: - correct answer ✔- 1) You cannot argue from
parts to whole - universe itself is not much like human artifacts.
- 2) There is only one universe with which to make comparisons - insufficient
base.
- 3) Analogy leads to anthropomorphic God - finite, corporeal, multiple,
male/female.
- 4) Analogy fails to include source of evil.
Hume's Objections: - correct answer ✔- In sum, the analogy is because...
- 1) It rests on biased (e.g. evil) and insufficient evidence (e.g. only one
universe).
- 2) Natural laws and descriptions of processes provide a sufficient causal
explanation.
<----->
- 1) The analogy holds with reasonable strength.
- 2) Hum only displaces the information.
- 3) Natural law fails to explain causally.
