Philosophy
Read the assigned reading from the chapter. Then choose ONE of the questions below to answer. Answer the question you chose in a minimum of TWO paragraphs. Use your course texts and the course slides to help you respond to the topic, and when you quote and summarize from the course texts, include information about the page reference.
Question Choices:
Be sure to explain your answers and give reasons for your views. You should cite the textbook and use brief quotations and summaries from the textbook in your response.
1. Do you believe in God? If so, can you state reasons for your belief? Do you think your belief is rational? Would you believe in God whether or not you had good reasons? Explain your position on these questions.
2. Would you consider yourself an agnostic or atheist? If so, do you have reasons for your lack of belief in God? Is your lack of belief rational? Do you think that believers are irrational? Explain.
3. What is William Paley’s teleological argument? Do you think the analogy between a watch and the universe is strong enough to prove the existence of a designer?
4. What is the argument from evil? Do you think the existence of evil shows that God doesn’t exist? Why or why not?
5. Some philosophers and theologians believe that reason is a gift from God and should be used in the search for truth about God. Do you agree?
6.. What is Aquinas’s first-cause argument? Does it prove the existence of the traditional God of theism?
Does it prove that the universe had a first cause?
7. What is Craig’s cosmological argument? Critique its two premises. Are they true? Explain why you think they are true (or false). If the argument is sound, what does it prove? Does it prove that God exists?
8. What are the relevant similarities and differences between Paley’s watch and the universe? Is the watch analogy a good one?
9. Are Hume’s criticisms of the design argument cogent? Does he successfully refute it?
10. Are the assumptions behind Anselm’s argument justified? That is, are there good reasons for accepting them?
