Philosophical Answers to the BIG Questions

Try to imagine what it would be like to be God at the moment of creation. Notice that you have been alone for a very long time. In fact, you’ve been all by yourself for an infinite amount of time already! Suppose the set of integers represents time and zero designates the moment of creation. There are an infinite number of negative integers before zero. If you were happy to spend an infinite amount of time by yourself, what suddenly changed your mind?

The Spectrum of Answers• Theism- believes in the existence of an almighty God (or

gods) who made and governs all creation• Deism-believes there is an almighty God who created all

things, but does not believe in His specific direction or government in creation. A deist believes the Creator implanted in all things with certain immutable laws, called the Laws of Nature, which act per se, as a watch acts without the supervision of its maker.

• Agnosticism- believes that we can never attain adequate answers to the existence of God or the meaning of life. An Agnostic is neither theist, deist, nor atheist, as all these are past understanding.

• Atheism-disbelieves even the existence of a God. He thinks matter is eternal, and what we call “creation” is the result of natural laws

Theism- Aquinas• Thomas Aquinas• Presented five proofs of the existence of God– Argument from motion aka “the first mover”

• There must be a God because there must have been someone to start the universe

• Only an almighty divine could make creation ex nihilo (out of nothing)

– Argument from design • Your essence existed in God’s mind long before you were ever born.

As you go through life you make choices that change your existence, but not your essence because it determines the ultimate form that your life must take- determinism

• Life has objective value, meaning that our existence has a purpose independent of how we feel about it (why bad things happen to good people)

• http://www.youtube.com/embed/CwToalGJlF4

Deism- Aristotle• Think back to actuality and potentiality. If one follows

the cycle back to the beginning there had to be something ultimately actualized for the potential to move forward

• Called this the Unmoved Mover (Prime Mover) aka. God– Is eternal form without matter– Is the energizing form of the world (all things moved toward

the actualization of their potential, drawn by the energy of the supremely actual one, God)

– http://www.youtube.com/embed/V0LmZbeKU9k – Is not the creator of the world.

• Then who is the creator??

Deism- Aristotle• God did not create the universe, rather God is the universe

(remember Pantheism from Spinoza?) God is the universal Form (Yes, in this instance, form and matter are separate)

• Argues that the universe could never have a beginning by looking at the question of time– The present moment “now” is the dividing line between the past and

future. Every “now” had to have a past to qualify as a “now”. As a result, there could not be a first “now”

• Supports cyclicism which argues that the universe goes around in endless cycles (remember actuality and potentiality?)

• The universe is just a large quantity of matter and because time is measured by matter in motion (earth around the sun etc.) and time has existed forever, then matter must have been in motion forever as well

Other God centered theories• William Paley– Creationism: Only God could create a mechanistic system

as complex and beautiful as Earth and its inhabitants• Blaise Pascal– Fideism: God deliberately hides himself so that humans

have to rely on faith rather then evidence– Voluntarism: You are justified in believing something

because you want to believe that thing– Pascal’s Wager: Believing in God is a better bet

• Soren Kierkegaard– Christian Existentialism: God is the only way to avoid

despair in this life as all other things/desires won’t last and therefore are not worthy of our love

Agnosticism- Hume • David Hume is a Scottish philosopher best known for his

philosophical empiricism and skepticism– an approach that questions the possibility of certainty in

knowledge• Hume on God

– “If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning mater of fact and existence? No. Commit it to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.”

– “A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”• Unless we can back our claims with empirical evidence or

mathematical logical reasoning, we are not saying anything of substance

Atheism- Sartre • Jean-Paul Sartre• Asserts that there is no such thing as God– God is an idea like Santa Claus that societies have

popularized to prevent misbehavior or because they lacked the scientific sophistication to understand the world around them

• Because there is no divine creator, there is no ultimate plan for human beings, and therefore no individual destiny– The theistic belief in destiny enables people to make

excuses for themselves (“I guess it was my destiny to become a secretary, rather than a great writer.”)

• If this is the case then what is the point??

Atheism- Sartre • Life is meaningful through its existence-

Existentialism• While Thomas Aquinas (theism) asserted that

human essence precedes human existence, Sartre asserted that human existence precedes human essence. (ie. Life is what you make of it)– We are the only ones responsible for our own lives,

again any belief in the divine absolves us of this responsibility

– He believed that it’s beneath the dignity of a human being to believe that there’s nothing you can do about who you are- called this bad faith

Atheism- Sartre • Because there is no God or divine plan, humans

have free will, which according to Sartre, is the defining characteristic of human existence

• Life has subjective value- we have to impose meaning on our existence in order for it to have purpose and importance. How do we do this?– Making commitments and working on projects we

find satisfying. (You can spend you entire life counting blades of grass in a field if that is what you find satisfying)

• http://www.youtube.com/embed/AuhwATz1OHI

Other Atheist theories • J. L. Mackie: Religious Skepticism- the

existence of so much suffering in the world indicates that God does not exist. Why would an all powerful God need to include suffering as part of life?

• Richard Dawkins: Evolution- all life on our planet developed from basic chemical ingredients over a period of million of years. The world works perfectly because the imperfect elements die out. There is no role for God to play in evolution.