Dialogue Education
2009
Does God Exist?
THIS CD HAS BEEN PRODUCED FOR TEACHERS TO USE IN THE CLASSROOM. IT IS A CONDITION OF THE USE OF THIS
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CD THAT IT BE USED ONLY BY THE PEOPLE FROM SCHOOLS THAT HAVE PURCHASED THE CD ROM FROM DIALOGUE
EDUCATION. (THIS DOES NOT PROHIBIT ITS USE ON A SCHOOL’S INTRANET).
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Contents
Page 3 - Video Presentation Richard Dawkins –The God Delusion
Page 4 - Defining the Questions
Page 6 - The Problem of the supernatural
Pages 9 and 10 - Arguments for the Existence of God
Pages 14 to 15 - Ontological Arguments
Page 16 - Kalam Argument
Page 19 -Teleological Arguments
Page 20 - Alvin Plantinga’s response to the Problem of Evil
Page 24 to 27 - Arguments against Belief in God
Pages 28 to 30 - God Exists ! This can be demonstrated.
Page 32 - God exists ! This cannot be demonstrated or refuted.
Page 34 - Video Presentation - Alastair McGrath response to Richard Dawkins
Page 35 - Community of Inquiry “Does God Exist?”
Page 36 - Video Presentation Song “What is God was one of us?”
Page 37 - Bibliography
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YOUTUBE Video Professor Richard
Dawkins talking about his book “The God
Delusion”
Click on the
image to the left.
You will need to
be connected to
the internet to
view this
presentation.
Enlarge to full
screen
3
Does God Exist?
• What are the arguments that have been offered for the existence of
God? Are they like other kinds of philosophical arguments? Are
they a priori arguments? a posteriori arguments? Transcendental
arguments? Inferences to the best explanation? Are some
arguments for the existence of God better than others? If so, what
are they and why? Can we infer the existence of God from the idea
of God alone– without any appeal to experience? Or would it be
better to try and infer the existence of god from the effects of god
supposedly evidenced in the world? What are the arguments for
the existence of god meant to establish, anyway? Is the existence of
god something that can be demonstrably proven? Or are the
arguments for the existence of god only probabilistic arguments?
Are they meant to convince non-believers to join the club? Or are
they primarily intended to provide the believer with some kind of
rational basis for their own theological beliefs?
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Does God Exist?
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The term "God“ in the Western Philosophical tradition typically refers to a
monotheistic concept of a supreme being that is unlike any other being. Classical
theism asserts that God possesses every possible perfection, including such
qualities as omniscience, omnipotence, and perfect benevolence. Other
philosophical approaches take a logically simple definition of God such as "the
prime mover" or "the uncaused cause", or "the ultimate creator" or "a being than
which nothing greater can be conceived" from which the classical properties may
be deduced. By contrast Pantheists do not believe in a personal god. For example,
Spinoza and his philosophical followers (such as Einstein) use the term 'God' in a
particular philosophical sense, to mean (roughly) the essential
substance/principles of nature.
The existence of God is discussed in similar terms outside the Abrahamic
traditions. In the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism, reality is ultimately seen as
a single, qualityless, changeless being called nirguna Brahman. Advaitin philosophy
introduces the concept of saguna Brahman or Ishvara as a way of talking about
Brahman to people. Ishvara, in turn, is ascribed such qualities as omniscience,
omnipotence, and benevolence.
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Does God Exist?
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy which studies the nature, origin, and scope of
knowledge. One cannot be said to "know" something just because one believes it.
Knowledge is, from an epistemological standpoint, distinguished from belief by
justification.
Knowledge in the sense of "understanding of a fact or truth" can be divided in a
posteriori knowledge, based on experience or deduction, and a priori knowledge from
introspection, axioms or self-evidence. Knowledge can also be described as a
psychological state, since in a strict sense there can never be a posteriori knowledge
proper (see relativism). Much of the disagreement about "proofs" of God's existence is
due to different conceptions not only of the term "God" but also the terms "proof",
"truth" and "knowledge". Religious belief from revelation or enlightenment (satori) falls
in the second, a priori class of "knowledge".
Different conclusions as to the existence of God often rest on different criteria for
deciding what methods are appropriate for deciding if something is true or not; some
examples include
• whether logic counts as evidence concerning the quality of existence
• whether subjective experience counts as evidence for objective reality
• whether either logic or evidence can rule in or out the supernatural.
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Does God Exist?
• The problem of the supernatural
• One problem posed by the question of the existence of a god is that traditional
beliefs usually ascribe to God various supernatural powers. Supernatural beings may
be able to conceal and reveal themselves for their own purposes, as for example in
the tale of Baucis and Philemon. In addition, according to concepts of God, God is
not part of the natural order, but the ultimate creator of nature and of the scientific
laws.
• Religious apologists offer the supernatural nature of God as one explanation of the
inability of empirical methods to decide the question of God's existence. In Karl
Popper's philosophy of science, the assertion of the existence of a supernatural God
would be a non-falsifiable hypothesis, not in the domain of scientific investigation.
The Non-overlapping Magisteria view proposed by Stephen Jay Gould also holds that
the existence (or otherwise) of God is beyond the domain of science.
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Does God Exist?
• Proponents of intelligent design (I.D.) believe there is empirical evidence
for Irreducible complexity pointing to the existence of an intelligent
creator, though their claims are challenged by most of the scientific
community. Some scientifically literate theists appear to have been
impressed by the observation that certain natural laws and universal
constants seem "fine-tuned“ to favour the development of life (see
Anthropic principle). However, reliance on phenomena which have not yet
been resolved by natural explanations may be equated to the pejorative
God of the gaps.
• Logical positivists, such as Rudolf Carnap and A. J. Ayer viewed any talk of
gods as literal nonsense. For the logical positivists and adherents of similar
schools of thought, statements about religious or other transcendent
experiences could not have a truth value, and were deemed to be without
meaning.
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Does God Exist?
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Arguments for the existence of God
The cosmological argument argues that there was a "first cause", or "prime
mover" who is identified as God. It starts with some claim about the world, like its
containing entities that are caused to exist by other entities.
The teleological argument argues that the universe's order and complexity are best
explained by reference to a creator god. It starts with a rather more complicated
claim about the world, i.e. that it exhibits order and design.
The ontological argument is based on arguments about a "being greater than
which can not be conceived". It starts simply with a concept of God. Alvin
Plantinga formulates this argument to show that if it is logically possible for God (a
necessary being) to exist, then God exists.
The mind-body problem argument suggests that the relation of consciousness to
materiality is best understood in terms of the existence of God.
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Does God Exist?
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Arguments that some non-physical quality observed in the universe is of fundamental
importance and not an epiphenomenon, such as justice, beauty, love or religious experience
are arguments for theism as against materialism.
The anthropic argument suggests that basic facts, such as our existence, are best explained
by the existence of God.
The moral argument argues that the existence of objective morality depends on the
existence of God.
The transcendental argument suggests that logic, science, ethics, and other things we take
seriously do not make sense in the absence of God, and that atheistic arguments must
ultimately refute themselves if pressed with rigorous consistency.
The will to believe doctrine was pragmatist philosopher William James' attempt to prove
God by showing that the adoption of theism as a hypothesis "works" in a believer's life. This
doctrine depended heavily on James' pragmatic theory of truth where beliefs are proven by
how they work when adopted rather than by proofs before they are believed (a form of the
hypothetico-deductive method).
Arguments based on claims of miracles wrought by God associated with specific historical
events or personages.
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Does God Exist?
• Traditionally arguments about the existence of
God has been dealt with by theologians and
philosophers.
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Does God Exist?
• Two fold distinction in Philosophy
• a priori arguments- Argue for the existence of
God from reason.
• a posteriori - Infers the existence of God from
effects referring to some empirical evidence.
(through the senses)
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Does God Exist?
• a priori arguments- Ontological Argument
Anselm Late 11th Century
• a posteriori arguments include the
Cosmological argument, Teleological
Argument and Design Argument.
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Does God Exist?
Ontological Argument• a priori version of arguing for the
existence of God
• Anselm 11th Century Monk- We can derive the
conclusion that God exists by reflecting on the
concept of God.
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Does God Exist?
St Anselm’s Ontological ArgumentPremise 1- I have a ideal concept of “that beyond
which nothing greater can be conceived.”
Premise 2- That which exists in reality and not just
in the mind is greater than that which exists only
in my mind. If God exists only in my mind God
would not be that which only exists in my mind.
Conclusion- Therefore God exists in reality.
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Does God Exist?
Kalam Argument- Averose
Premise 1-Whatever begins to exist has a cause
of its existence.
Premise 2 -The universe began to exist therefore
the universe has a cause of its existence.
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Does God Exist?
Arguments to support Premise two
The universe began to exist therefore the universe has a cause of its
existence.
Empirical argument- You could quote physicists to support premise two
….the big bang theory supports this premise.
A priori argument –
Premise 1- An ‘actual infinite’ cannot exist.
Premise 2 - An infinite temporal regress of events is an ‘actual infinite’.
Conclusion – An infinite temporal regress of events cannot exist.
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Does God Exist?
The 20th Century Philosopher, William Craig
distinguishes between;
•A potential infinite
•Abstract infinite – Hibert’s Hotel- has an infinite
number of rooms- Library contains an infinite
number of rooms.
•Actual infinite- We cannot have an actual infinite.
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Does God Exist?
Teleological Arguments - Design Argument
William Paley- 18th Century
Premise 1 - A watch has order complexity , simplicity
mutual co-operation of parts, works towards an end and
has a designer.
Premise 2 – the world has order complexity , simplicity
mutual co-operation of parts, works towards an end and
has a designer.
Conclusion -Therefore God is a designer.
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Does God Exist?
Problems• The Philosopher, David Hume pointed out the
problem of disorder. Earth quakes, Tsunamis
tornados, cancer etc.
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Does God Exist?
• Alvin Plantinga response to the Problem of
Evil• Plantinga's argument has two basic stages. In this first stage he argues that
the a-theologian has failed to demonstrate that God and evil are logically
incompatible. In the second stage he argues positively that the existence
of God and the existence of evil are logically consistent. He does so by
constructing a model that includes both the existence of God and the
existence of evil. Among other things, his model of the freewill defence
includes the possibility of "trans-world depravity." His conception of transworld depravity amounts to the claim that there is at least one possible
world in which an individual has morally significant freedom and does at
least one morally wrong action.
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Does God Exist?
Richard Swinburne argues for the existence of
GodPremise 1- If there was a God it is likely that a
world created by him would be ordered,
beautiful, uniform, complex etc.
Premise 2 – the world is well ordered, beautiful,
uniform, complex etc.
Conclusion – therefore there is a God.
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Does God Exist?
Other Important Arguments
• Pascal's Wager
“Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion
posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that
even though the existence of God cannot be
determined through reason, a person should "wager"
as though God exists, because so living has potentially
everything to gain, and certainly nothing to lose.
Wikipedia 23/09/08
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Does God Exist?
• Arguments against belief in God
• Each of the following arguments aims at
showing either that a particular subset of gods
do not exist (by showing them as inherently
meaningless, contradictory, or at odds with
known scientific or historical facts) or that
there is insufficient reason to believe in them.
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Does God Exist?
Arguments against belief in God
Deductive arguments
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Deductive arguments attempt to prove their conclusions by deductive reasoning from true premises.
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The Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit states that because "God" is omnipotent and omniscient he is also
infinitely complex. This makes his spontaneous appearance or existence far more unlikely than the
universe simply coming into existence, which has a finite complexity. It also states that design fails to
account for complexity, which natural selection can explain.
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The belief that God created the universe and God just exists makes too many unproven assumptions,
therefore using Occam's Razor one can "shave" off the unnecessary assumptions, leaving the universe just
exists. The theistic response to this statement is that Occam's Razor applies only in philosophy not logic,
and has no bearing on whether God or Gods exist.
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The omnipotence paradox suggests that the concept of an omnipotent entity is logically contradictory,
from considering a question like: "Can God create a rock so big that he cannot lift it?" or "If God is all
powerful, could God create a being more powerful than itself?".
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Another argument suggests that there is a contradiction between God being omniscient and omnipotent,
basically asking "how can an all-knowing being change its mind?" See the article on omniscience for
details.
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Does God Exist?
• Arguments against belief in God
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The argument from free will contests the existence of an omniscient god who has free will - or has allotted the same
freedom to his creations - by arguing that the two properties are contradictory. According to the argument, if God
already knows the future, then humanity is destined to corroborate with his knowledge of the future and not have true
free will to deviate from it. Therefore our free will contradicts an omniscient god. Another argument attacks the
existence of an omniscient god who has free will directly in arguing that the will of God himself would be bound to
follow whatever God foreknows himself doing in eternity future.
The Transcendental argument for the non-existence of God contests the existence of an intelligent creator by
suggesting that such a being would make logic and morality contingent, which is incompatible with the presuppositionalist assertion that they are necessary, and contradicts the efficacy of science. A more general line of
argument based on this argument seeks to generalize this argument to all necessary features of the universe and all
god-concepts.
The counter-argument against the Cosmological argument ("chicken or the egg") takes its assumption that things
cannot exist without creators and applies it to God, setting up an infinite regress This attacks the premise that the
universe is the second cause (after God, who is claimed to be the first cause).
Theological non-cognitivism, as used in literature, usually seeks to disprove the god-concept by showing that it is
unverifiable by scientific tests.
It is alleged that there is a logical impossibility in theism: God is defined as an extra-temporal being, but also as an
active creator. The argument suggests that the very act of creation is inconceivable and absurd beyond the constraints
of time and space, and the fact that it cannot be proven if God is in either.
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Does God Exist?
Arguments against belief in God
Empirical arguments
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Empirical arguments depend on empirical data in order to prove their conclusions.
The argument from inconsistent revelations contests the existence of the deity called God as described in scriptures -such as the Jewish Tanakh, the Christian Bible, or the Muslim Qur'an -- by identifying apparent contradictions between
different scriptures, within a single scripture, or between scripture and known facts. To be effective this argument
requires the other side to hold that its scriptural record is inerrant, or to conflate the record itself with the God it
describes.
The problem of evil contests the existence of a god who is both omnipotent and omni-benevolent by arguing that such
a god should not permit the existence of evil or suffering. The theist responses are called theodicies.
The argument from poor design contests the idea that God created life on the basis that lifeforms exist which seem to
exhibit poor design. For example, many runners get a painful "stitch" in their side due to poor placement of the liver.
The argument from non-belief contests the existence of an omnipotent God who wants humans to believe in him by
arguing that such a god would do a better job of gathering believers.
The argument from parsimony contends that since natural (non-supernatural) theories adequately explain the
development of religion and belief in gods, the actual existence of such supernatural agents is superfluous and may be
dismissed unless otherwise proven to be required to explain the phenomenon.
The analogy of Russell's teapot argues that the burden of proof for the existence of God lies with the theist rather than
the atheist/skeptic.
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God exists and this can be demonstrated
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church, following the Thomist tradition and
the dogmatic definition of the First Vatican Council, affirms that it is a
doctrine of the Catholic Church that God's existence has been rationally
demonstrated. For the proofs of God's existence by Saint Thomas Aquinas
see Quinquae viae. Many other Christian denominations share the view
that God's existence can be demonstrated without recourse to claims of
revelation.
• On beliefs of Christian faith, theologians and philosophers make a
distinction between:
• doctrines arising from special revelation that arise essentially from faith in
divinely inspired revelations, including the life of Christ, but cannot be
proved or even anticipated by reason alone, such as the doctrines of the
Trinity or the Incarnation, and
• doctrines arising from general revelation, that is from reason alone
drawing conclusions based on relatively obvious observations of the world
and self.
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Does God Exist?
• The argument that the existence of God can be known to
all, even prior to exposure to any divine revelation,
predates Christianity. St. Paul made this argument when he
insisted that pagans were without excuse because "since
the creation of the world [God's] invisible nature, namely,
his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in
the things that have been made". In this Paul alludes to the
proofs for a creator, later enunciated by St. Thomas and
others, but that had also been explored by the Greek
philosophers.
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Does God Exist?
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Another apologetical school of thought, a sort of synthesis of various existing Dutch and American
Reformed thinkers (such as, Abraham Kuyper, Benjamin Warfield, Herman Dooyeweerd), emerged in the
late 1920s. This school was instituted by Cornelius Van Til, and came to be popularly called
Presuppositional apologetics (though Van Til himself felt "transcendental" would be a more accurate
title). The main distinction between this approach and the more classical evidentialist approach
mentioned above is that the presuppositionalist denies any common ground between the believer and
the non-believer, except that which the non-believer denies, namely, the assumption of the truth of the
theistic worldview. In other words, presuppositionalists don't believe that the existence of God can be
proven by appeal to raw, uninterpreted (or, "brute") facts, which have the same (theoretical) meaning to
people with fundamentally different worldviews, because they deny that such a condition is even
possible. They claim that the only possible proof for the existence of God is that the very same belief is
the necessary condition to the intelligibility of all other human experience and action. In other words,
they attempt to prove the existence of God by means of appeal to the alleged transcendental necessity
of the belief -- indirectly (by appeal to the allegedly unavowed presuppositions of the non-believer's
worldview) rather than directly (by appeal to some form of common factuality). In practice this school
utilizes what have come to be known as transcendental arguments. In these arguments they claim to
demonstrate that all human experience and action (even the condition of unbelief, itself) is a proof for
the existence of God, because God's existence is the necessary condition of their intelligibility.
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Does God Exist?
Arguments against belief in God
Inductive arguments
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Inductive arguments argue their conclusions through inductive reasoning.
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The atheist-existentialist argument for the non-existence of a perfect sentient being states that if existence
precedes essence, it follows from the meaning of the term sentient that a sentient being cannot be
complete or perfect. It is touched upon by Jean-Paul Sartre in Being and Nothingness. Sartre's phrasing is
that God would be a pour-soi [a being-for-itself; a consciousness] who is also an en-soi [a being-in-itself; a
thing]: which is a contradiction in terms. The argument is echoed thus in Salman Rushdie's novel Grimus:
"That which is complete is also dead."
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The "no reason" argument tries to show that an omnipotent and omniscient being would not have any
reason to act in any way, specifically by creating the universe, because it would have no needs, wants, or
desires since these very concepts are subjectively human. As the universe exists, there is a contradiction,
and therefore, an omnipotent god cannot exist. This argument is espoused by Scott Adams in the book
God's Debris.
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The "historical induction" argument concludes that since most theistic religions throughout history (e.g.
ancient Egyptian religion, ancient Greek religion) ultimately come to be regarded as untrue or incorrect, all
theistic religions, including contemporary ones, are therefore untrue/incorrect by induction.
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Does God Exist?
God exists, but this cannot be demonstrated or refuted
• Others have suggested that the several logical and philosophical arguments for
and against the existence of God miss the point. The word God has a meaning in
human culture and history that does not correspond to the beings whose
existence is supported by such arguments, assuming they are valid. The real
question is not whether a "most perfect being" or an "uncaused first cause" exist;
the real question is whether Yahweh or Vishnu or Zeus, or some other deity of
attested human religion, exists, and if so, which deity. Most of these arguments do
not resolve the issue of which of these figures is more likely to exist. Blaise Pascal
suggested this objection in his Pensées when he wrote "The God of Abraham, God
of Isaac, and God of Jacob — not the god of the philosophers!". Philosophical
debate has also included Pascal's Wager, the idea of belief without evidence,
based on possible rewards in the afterlife.
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Does God Exist?
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Some Christians note that the Christian faith teaches "salvation is by faith", and that faith is reliance upon
the faithfulness of God, which has little to do with the believer's ability to comprehend that in which he
trusts.
The most extreme example of this position is called fideism, which holds that faith is simply the will to
believe, and argues that if God's existence were rationally demonstrable, faith in its existence would
become superfluous. Soren Kierkegaard argued that objective knowledge, such as 1+1=2, is unimportant
to existence. If God could rationally be proven, his existence would be unimportant to humans. It is
because God cannot rationally be proven that his existence is important to us. In The Justification of
Knowledge, the Calvinist theologian Robert L. Reymond argues that believers should not attempt to prove
the existence of God. Since he believes all such proofs are fundamentally unsound, believers should not
place their confidence in them, much less resort to them in discussions with non-believers; rather, they
should accept the content of revelation by faith. Reymond's position is similar to that of his mentor,
Gordon Clark, which holds that all worldviews are based on certain unprovable first premises (or, axioms),
and therefore are ultimately unprovable. The Christian theist therefore must simply choose to start with
Christianity rather than anything else, by a "leap of faith." This position is also sometimes called
presuppositional apologetics, but should not be confused with the Van Tillian variety discussed above.
An intermediate position is that of Alvin Plantinga who holds that a specific form of modal logic and an
appeal to world-indexed properties render belief in the existence of God rational and justified, even
though the existence of God cannot be proven in a mathematical sense. Plantinga equates knowledge of
God's existence with kinds of knowledge that are rational but do not proceed through proof, such as
sensory knowledge.
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YOUTUBE Video Professor Alistair McGrath
talking about his book “The Dawkins
Delusion”
Click on the
image to the left.
You will need to
be connected to
the internet to
view this
presentation.
Enlarge to full
screen
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Community of Inquiry Discussion
• CLICK ON THIS LINK
FOR THE STIMULUS
MATERIAL FOR A
DISCUSSION ON THE
ONTOLOGICAL
ARGUMENT FOR THE
EXISTENCE OF GOD.
(You might like to
print this material
out and distribute it
to the class.)
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In the song “One of us?” by Alanas Morisette,
God is not found through reason but through
contact with the poor and under privileged.
Click on the
photo for
video
Footage
(You need to
be
connected to
the internet)
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Bibliography
• Polkinghorne, John. Science and Christian Belief. (Stuttgart, 1908)
• Swinburne, Richard (1997). Is there a God?. Oxford University Press. ISBN
0198235453.
• (A. Stöckl, Geschichte der neueren Philosophie, (Stöckl, loc. cit., 199 sqq.)
• Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, Pascal Boyer,
Basic Books (2001) Introduction To Materialist Apologetics
• Baake, David. "Cosmological Arguments Against the Existence of God".
Retrieved on 2007-01-12.
• For the proofs of God's existence by Saint Thomas Aquinas see Quinquae viae.
• Plantinga, Alvin (1974). The Nature of Necessity. New York: Oxford University
Press.
• Richard Dawkins is the most famous contemporary example, in a line
stretching back through Russell and Marx to the 18th Century
• Wikipedia- The Existence of Godhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existence_of_God
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