From the arguments discussed in class‚ I choose to evaluate Thomas Aquinas’ Cosmological Argument. Aquinas offers a believable case for the existence of God through five arguments. The arguments are “a posteriori arguments” with five strategies (Aquinas 52). The first argues that there is an unmoved mover that originated all motion but the mover‚ itself‚ does not move. The second argument concludes: “there must be a first cause to explain the existence of cause” (Aquinas 52). The third argument says
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The Motionless Arrow: Aristotle’s Thoughts on Zeno’s Arror Argument Aristotle’s thoughts on Zeno’s Arrow Argument as represented in Chapter 9 of Aristotle’s Physics: A Guided Study can be understood in such a way that it might not be "next door to madness". In this chapter‚ Aristotle interprets Zeno’s argument of the Flying Arrow as "missing the mark". There are four premises for this argument‚ and in Aristotle’s opinion‚ premise three can be rejected. He does not believe that time is composed
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Aquinas’s Argument During the medieval time period Christianity was practiced by over one-third of the European population. At that time‚ all European philosophers had three different types of arguments to prove the existence of God: the Ontological argument‚ which stated that God‚ by nature‚ must exist; the Teleological argument‚ which stated that the world we live in was made by intelligent design. Therefore‚ a designer must exist to be able to make such a perfect world. Lastly‚ there is the
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The Design Argument Saint Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic Priest in the Dominican Order and a very important medieval philosopher and theologian. He wrote a book‚ SummaTheologiae‚ presenting five proofs of God’s existence. Each of Aquina’s arguments begins with an observation that is supposed to be easily understood by everyone. Aquina’s fifth argument for the existence of God is what has come to be called the Argument from Design. The Design argument is one of three arguments about the
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“Explain the argument from religious experience for the existence of God.”30 marks Expect different forms of the argument from religious experience‚ e.g. inductive argument‚ direct awareness‚ cumulative argument. Also expect reference to Swinburne’s principle of credulity and principle of testimony. Maximum Level 2 if summary of types of religious experience with no reference to argument for God. ------------------------------------------------- Level 7 for one fully developed argument‚ or two that
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Part B. The ontological argument is a convincing argument. Discuss. The ontological argument was first made famous in the 11th century by St Anslem from Canterbury and was later taken further by French philosopher Rene Descartes. The debate is an attempt to confirm God’s existence as a priori argument. It does not rely on observations of the world around us it simply uses logic and the idea that it is illogical to say that God does not exist as its main factor. There are three elements to St
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a. Outline the Key Concepts of the Design Argument [21 marks] The design argument is also referred to at the Teleological Argument stemmed from the Greek work ‘Telos’ meaning end or purpose. It is an ‘A posterior’ argument (from experience) based on our empirical senses and it is synthetic meaning that it is from observation. The argument is also inductive meaning there a number of possible conclusions. The main basis of the Teleological argument is based on a designer commonly known as ‘the
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doubt they are the work of choice or design?” (Socrates). The word ‘Telos’ is Greek for purpose. The Teleological argument thus argues that the universe is being directed towards a telos‚ an end purpose‚ and the posteriori evidence of an apparent intelligent design in the world. A posteriori argument is based on observations and/or experiences. Furthermore‚ the teleological argument is based on the character of the world and the universe. For example‚ our world is a place of such extraordinary interlocking
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Part 2: Proving God’s existence to an atheist- Teleological Argument First‚ some atheist arguments that may be brought up in the beginning is as follows: God is omnibenevolent and would thus desire to eliminate evil‚ and God is omnipotent and thus could eliminate evil. Evil exists in the world‚ thus God does not exist since evil exists. This is a common argument that may come up about the existence of evil in the world. Most of the evil in the world only occurs because we choose to create it. When
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The Cosmological Argument has been disputed over since the beginning of religion. Greek philosophers such as Plato‚ Aristotle‚ and other theologians have provided reasons for either their belief or disbelief of the existence almighty being; God. Thomas Aquinas adapted a personal answer for the controversial argument. Aquinas provides five ways for the existence of God that he devised through his observations and logical analysis. His arguments provide reasoning for many people that cannot believe
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