Ontological Argument for God

1
Ontological Argument for God

• proceeds from a premise about the very concept of
  God and concludes that God must necessarily
  exist.
• ontological because it examines the nature of
  being.
• ontological arguments are a priori because they
  are not empirical but conceptual.

2
Anselms Ontological Argument

• P1. God is that than which none greater can be
  conceived.
• P2. If God did not exist, then there would be
  something greater than God.
• P3. But no greater thing than God can be
  conceived.
• C. Therefore, God exists.

3
Criticism of Anselms Argument

• 1. What does greatness have to do with
  existence?
• 2. Who says we cannot think of anything greater?

4
Cosmological Argument

• proceeds from assumptions about causation and
  claims that there must be some ultimate cause,
  i.e., God.
• cosmological because it deals with the origin
  of the cosmos.
• is a priori because it deals with the nature of
  the concept of cause, not with empirical
  observations of cause and effect

5
Aquinas Cosmologial Argument

• P1. Nothing causes itself.
• P2. To take away the cause is to take away the
  effect.
• P3. If there were no first cause, then there
  would be no intermediate causes and hence no
  effects.
• C1. Therefore, there would be nothing.
• P4. But plainly there is something.
• C. Therefore, there must be a first cause, and
  this cause is God.

6
Criticism of Cosmological Argument

• If nothing can cause itself, what caused God?
• If something can cause itself, then P1 is false
• If we just name whatever causes itself God then
  there is no guarantee that this God will have
  the attributes of the Judeo-Christian conception.

7
Teleological Argument (Argument From Design)

• proceed from observations about the world to the
  conclusion that God exists.
• telos is Greek for goal or end. Thus the
  teleological argument seeks to prove that there
  is some goal or end in nature that must have been
  provided by God.
• Arguments from design are empirical or a
  posteriori arguments because they gather evidence
  from the world.

8
Paleys Teleological Argument

• P1. A watch can be seen to have a purpose and to
  be finely constructed to suit that purpose.
• C1. Therefore, we infer that there must be a
  watchmaker.
• P2. The world exhibits design to a much greater
  degree.
• C. Therefore, the world implies a (much greater)
  creator.

9
Criticisms of Paleys Argument

• 1. To criticize an argument by analogy one should
  examine the analogy and say how it might differ
  from the case in question.
• 2. Question begging e.g., where he assumes that
  there is an obvious purpose in the world.
• 3. How can one explain existence of evil?