Mr. Chapel – Sacraments - Discussion
“Handbook of Christian Apologetics”
Peter Kreeft & Robert K. Tacelli
CH. 3 – Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God
4) The Argument from Degrees of Perfection
 We notice around us that things vary in certain ways
o Ex. Lighter or darker shades of a certain color, the temperature outside on a
sunny day, the life of a person who is loved than the one who does not
experience love
 Therefore, we naturally arrange things in terms of more and less
o This means that we think of things in regard to their “distance” from the
extreme
 Ex. – a lighter shade of gray is closer to pure white and a darker shade
of gray is closer to black
 Therefore, we tend to understand things as either possessing “more”
or “less” of what the extremes posses in full measure
 Lets take a look at human beings
o Existing is better than not existing, correct?
 We can recognize that there are certain ways of living that enhance
our existence. Essentially, we realize that our being is enhanced by
the being of other things and we seek to obtain that lifestyle
 Ex. Intelligence being is better than unintelligent being, giving
and receiving love is better than a life that does not
 However, our being is not perfect and we only possesses to a certain
degree perfect existence
o Therefore, a “best” standard must exist that fully possesses all of the
perfections that we recognize belong to us as beings
 This “Being of all beings” or the “Perfection of all perfections” we call
God
 This argument assumes a real “better”, but aren’t all judgments of what is actually
better merely subjective?
o Asking this question answers it
o You would not have asked the question if you did not think that it was better
to ask the question than to not ask it
 Whether consciously or subconsciously, you asked this question
because you knew it was better to find the true answer
 You can speak subjectivism but it cannot be lived
5) The Design Argument
 Reflect for a moment on the order and beauty of nature
o Think about how intricate all of the systems that sustain our life our, think
about they have developed.
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o Think about how vast the universe is, think about how small we are in
comparison to it
 It takes light approximately 1 second to reach the moon from earth
 About 8 minutes from the sun to earth
 About 4 years to the nearest star
 100,000 years to span across the Milky Way
 2.5 million years to the Andromeda Galaxy
 This means that the stuff that we actually see in the sky does not
actually exist as we are observing it at that moment
The universe displays a staggering amount of intelligibility (info that can be
understood)
o Those things that we observe (existence)
o The way these things relate to other things outside of themselves
(coexistence)
o The way things exist and coexist display and intricately beautiful order and
regularity that fill the observer with wonder and awe
 Ex. Protein molecule  cell  eye
 Ordered parts of delicate complexity work together with
countless others
Either this intelligible order is the product of chance or of intelligent design
Not by chance
o We can only understand chance against the background of order
o When we say that something happened by chance we say so because it did
not occur according to our expectations
 Expectations arise from order
Therefore the universe is the product of intelligent design
Design only comes from a mind, a designer
7) The Argument From Contingency
 If something exists there must exist what it takes for that thing to exist
o Ex. The universe – a collection of beings in space and time – it most certainly
exists
 Therefore, something must exist that allows the universe to exist
 What it takes for the universe to exist cannot exist within the
universe or be bounded by time and space
 Therefore, what it takes for the universe to exist must
transcend both time and space
 Deny the first premise?
o You believe X exists (X represents the universe, the finite world around us)
o Y represents the immediate conditions necessary for X’s existence
 X exists only if Y exists (X’s existence is contingent upon Y’s existence)
 Reference argument #2 Efficient Causality
o Your logic is this:
 X exists; X can only exist if Y exists; Y does not exist
 Flawed
o The infinite condition that must exist in order for the universe to exist we can
understand as God
 At this time you may not regard this infinite condition as God but it
would be hard to deny that our existence is contingent upon an
infinite being that is not limited by matter
 We have been put in motion by something that exists outside
of our universe
***Through reason we have arrived upon knowledge that:
1) the universe has been created
2) that it is right now kept in being by a cause that is not bound to the limitations of
matter
3) this cause is a being that transcends the kind of being we humans directly know
a. We cannot physically experience this being and it is therefore difficult to
understand this being. Nevertheless, it is more reasonable to believe that
there is a God than to believe that there isn’t
***Now that we have answered the question of “does God exist?” The next question we will
attempt to answer is “who is God?”, “what are his attributes?”, “what is his plan for creating
the universe and establishing humans as set apart from the rest of creation?”
-What we have available to us to answer these questions is revelation (God’s
communication with man) that exists in the form of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition
-But first we will look to the person of Jesus Christ and his divinity