Faith Reason Anselm ontological argument Etymologies o Ontological Study of being Overall idea Idea of god as a perfect being god nesssecarily exist since existence itself is a perfection o Comsological Study of the universe Overall Idea Existence of universe god as first cause o MOST POPULAR Telological The explanation of everything based on idea of purposes or ends Overall Idea Evidence of intelligent design god as rational designer Natural theology knowing about gods existence based on universal human reason Naturalistic Perspective Nothing exists exept the physical universe what cant be scienfifically proven SUPERNATURALISTIC PERSPECTIVE There is more to reality than just the physical natural order i e something supernatural God the human soul immaterial consciousness free will etc God important bc perhaps most influential idea in human history Faith and reason incompatible Feidism Strong rationalism o Fedism Theist Faith is not subject to rational evaluation because it s purely a matter of the heart not intellect wrong attidute God an object of worship vs something wt try to prove by rational arguments o Strong rationalism Non theist faith is a wholly irrational attitude faith is contrarty to what reason our senses tell us about reality o Faith by definiation lacks evidence support for your belief Critical rationalism held by theists and non theists o Claims of faith can and must be subject to rational evaluation Theist 1 Faith always involves some reasons can never be totally blind cf faith in somebody or something e g sports team chair etc 2 Faith only goes beyond rather than contradicts our reason senses ATHEIST 1 Faith is subject to reason and reason shows faith to be not only unsupported lacking any basis but simply false St anslem must avoild 2 extremes just reducing faith to understanding and having faith w o any reasons at all A posteriori after experience arguments Arguments for God based on experience facts Examples Cosmological Teleiological A priori prior to experience arguments Arguemtns for god based on mere conceptual truths Ex Ontological Arguments A posteriori claims Calss is in Bartlett 65 the universe exists I don t arguments see any god A priori claims Bachelors are unmarried males triangles have three sides By definintion gos is the greatest possible being Anselm no one understanding what god is can think that he doesn t exist thoughts Bunny thoughts PEEING P1 We standardly define God as that being greater than which none can be conceived o Our traditional definition of god This is a conceptual truth ex bachelors are unmarried males P2 If I am thinking about God then God exists at least in my o God exists at least in my thoughts ex Santa Claus Easter P3 It is greater for something to exist in reality than just merely in our o 1st rationale Having independent existence power our having to depend on something else for our existence power o 2nd rationale Better for something good to exist in reality than just in our thoughts perfect day perfect humanitarian etc P4 If God is the greatest possible being then God must exist not merely in our thoughts but also in reality o Logically flows from p1 p2 and p3 C Therefore God must exist not merely in our thoughts but also in reality o Logically flows modus ponens Gualino Rowe Metaphysics what is there Episemology how we know it Strategies for criticizing ontological argument o Gualino Unsound because one of the premises is fales o Rowe Commints informal fallacy it begs the guestion Objections o 1 Anselm cant prove his arugments by appeal to scientific facts but just appleas to his mere opinons faith Reply Arent mere opinions since backed up by good reason Cant dismiss the view by saying merely anslems opion must give reasons why he is false and good reeaons for your contrary view o 2 Multpile definitons for God Why accept Anselm as correct1 Reply based on traditional definition anselms we can prove that god exists it is irrelevant that all other definitions fail to prove god exists o 3 Is it possible for us to think of god in 1st place Does the idea go beyond anything we can conciieve of Reply Don t need to fully comprehend idea just grasp basic concepts o Objection 4 in relation to p3 Gualino What about perfectly good things ex perfect islands Reply finite limited things can never be perfect Reply The idea of a perfect island is to indeterminate most trees animals Largest smallest Most least inhabitants o 5 Is Anselm entitled to P4 or C Yes seem to be purely matter of logic not opinion God as perfect being 3 O god o Infinite power omnipotent o Infinite knowledge omniscient o Infinite goodness omnibenevolence o Anselms addition to 3 O god Besides having 3 O s god must also necessarily exist ROWE exists o Objection P2 begs the question it already assumes that God Reply 1 P2 is not claiming God actually exists only that it is possible God exists Reply 2 It does seem possible that god exists just like possible for santa unicorns fountatin of youth to exist only things which cant exist are those which contradict themselves ex square circles 3rd strategy criticizing Ontological argument o The argument is invalid its conclusion doesn t logically follow from the premises o Revised Ontological argument P4 If god by definition is the greatest possible being then my idea of god must be the idea of a being that exists not only in my thoughts but also in reality C Therefore my idea of god must be the idea of a being that exists not only in my thoughts but also in reality Lessons from Anselms Ontological Argument o What is good about it It replaces a mistaken faulty idea of god with a correct one Faulty idea 3 O god who might exist that is if god exists then this is merely a possible fact Correct idea 3 O god who inevitably exists that is if god exists got must inevitably exist o Whats bad Fails to prove that anything in reality actually corresponds to this idea Rowe Main worry Input to Output we cant go from mere Illegitimate move Trying to go from a mere idea to ideas to reality reality Legitimate move 1 Idea to Idea TRUE ACHIEVEMENT OF ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT i e correcting our faulty conception of God Legitimate move 2 reality to reality Cosmological argument Existence of universe reality to God as necessary first cause reality Teleological Arguemnt Evidence of intelligent design in universe reality to god as the intelligent designer reality The Cosmological Arguemnent Deductive reasoning A type of reasoning process which