Philosophy 12 slides

1. Metaphysics of God
Berkeley, Aquinas and more...

2. We have devoted time to considering… what is real?
Are our perceptions accurate? Do they reflect
reality? We’ve also pondered what it is to be
human? Is human consciousness real? Is it special?
Is it good?
Let’s push these metaphysical questions one step
further - Can humans perceive God? Is there a
higher power? Can we prove that God does not
exist? Can we prove that God does exist?

3. Quotes
“I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” - Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1939
“You must abandon your reason, know nothing of it, annihilate it
completely, or you will never enter heaven.” Martin Luther, 1483 - 1546
“ A religion that declares war on reason will not in the long run be able to
hold out against it.” Immanual Kant, 1724 - 1804
“The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by a kind of
religious feeling, which knows no dogma.” Albert Einstien, 1879-1955

4. How do our beliefs (or lack of a belief) in God affect
our understanding of:
● Science
● History
● Arts
● Ethics
● Each other?

5. Philosophy... on the Anthropomorphic God
Be wary of the danger of anthropomorphism.
Why must God be in the form of a (white) (old) man?
Instead of God creating man in his image, maybe we should think
and talk about it as the other way around:
Man creating God in his own image (and that we continue to
project human qualities onto God)

8. The Paradoxes of the God of the Philosophers
If we use a neutral, abstract notion of God, we run into some difficult
paradoxes.
1. The paradox of omnipotence - How could God create a being that he
subsequently could not control?
2. The paradox of change - how can a God who is perfect intervene in
human history to change things…. If he comes down from on high and
enters the human realm he immediately loses his perfect status.
3. The paradox of suffering - if God is all-loving and god is all-powerful why
can he not prevent profound suffering?
4. The paradox of free-will - if God is all-knowing, then he knows the past,
present and the FUTURE. This would make human free will impossible.

9. How do Humans believe in God?
What arguments do those of faith use?

15. Arguments FOR God

16. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274)

17. Aquinas - 5 Proofs of God

18. The Argument from Religious Experience
- A miracle happens!
- A vision happens!
- You survive a plane crash!
- Something you read in a religious text reflects something you see in real life
And, then, you believe…
Hume’s (Scottish philosopher) argument against this: it is never rational to believe
in miracles because the weight of evidence will always be against them.
Modern critique: Psychology - human need to believe… loaded.

19. The Argument from Design
- The order and and harmony of the universe could not have come about by
chance.
- Scientists of faith point to the exquisite design of eyes, the universe, etc…
Hume’s critique: most you can prove is an architect god, not a design god. And
the world is not necessarily perfect.
Modern critique: Science/Evolution

20. The Cosmological Argument
● Not based on the order of
the universe but on the fact
that it exists at all.
● There must be an
explanation.
● What caused the Big Bang?
● God?
● A feeling“There must be
something.”

22. George Berkeley’s A Treatise Concerning the
Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) presents
a form of Metaphysical Idealism which asserts
that there are two kinds of reality, idea and spirit.
Ideas are real because they can be perceived.
Spirit is real because it can have ideas, and because it can
perceive them.

23. Berkeley argues that ideas are derived from physical and mental perceptions,
from memory, and from imagination. The existence of an idea depends on its
being able to be perceived. An idea does not exist unless it is perceived.
According to Berkeley, "esse est percipi" ("to be is to be
perceived"). The existence of an idea cannot be separated
from its being perceived. If an idea or object is not perceived,
then it does not exist.

24. The perceiving, active being is referred to by Berkeley as the
mind, spirit, soul, or self. The existence of a mind or spirit
consists of the ability to have ideas and to perceive them.
Spirit, as it perceives ideas, is called the understanding.
Spirit, as it produces ideas, or as it mentally operates on
them, is called the will.

25. Berkeley argues that there is no substance other than spirit.
Substance is not material, but spiritual.
Matter neither perceives, nor is perceived. Therefore, matter does not
exist. What we describe as matter is only the idea derived from the
sensory perception of solidity, extension, form, motion, or other
physical properties of an object.
But the object only exists if it can perceive or is perceived, and
therefore its existence is ideal or spiritual.

26. Berkeley also argues that abstract ideas do not exist. General ideas of qualities
may exist, but these general ideas are only representations of particular ideas.
According to Berkeley, existence consists of the state of actively perceiving or of
passively being perceived. If something is not able to perceive or is not able to be
perceived, then it does not exist. Everything that can perceive, or that can be
perceived, exists. Everything that exists can either perceive or can be perceived.
Berkeley explains that spirit is not itself an idea but that it perceives and produces
ideas. Spirit is not itself perceived, but the ideas or effects produced by spirit are
perceived. Thus, in order for an idea to exist, there must be a mind or spirit
capable of producing or perceiving it. Nothing can exist without a perceiving mind
or spirit.

28. Berkeley also explains that spirit is not known by sensory
perception, but that its existence can be known by mental
perception. Perceiving beings can perceive the presence of
each other.
Berkeley argues that the existence of God can be perceived
by human beings. The spirit of human beings is finite, but the
spirit of God is infinite.
Berkeley also argues that our own existence as perceiving
beings depends on God. He maintains that everything that
exists is perceived in the mind of God.

29. Berkeley contends that in order for anything to exist, it must
be capable of being perceived. He argues that this does not
make the world less real.
Indeed, he contends that our ideas of the world are real, but
that the world cannot be proved to have an external reality,
and that if we approach the world in this way, then we may be
able to define valid principles of human knowledge.

30. So what does all that have to do with God?
GOD exists, therefore, in order to sense us
humans. If God did not perceive us, then we
would not exist.

31. Arguments AGAINST God

32. Problem of Evil

36. Louise Antony’s Arguments Against God
- Doesn’t believe in God like she doesn’t believe in
ghosts or magic. Denies all supernaturalism.
- Just because we cannot know everything is not a reasonable justification for
belief in God.
- (A lot of religion built on the insufficiency of human cognition.)
- So much disagreement across religions.
- The argument from evil is most persuasive.
- If a benevolent God made the universe then it would be much more good in the
world. It makes more sense that it is random “product of mindless natural laws.”
- Religious experiences are about humans having human experiences
- You can’t just say, “that’s my belief, and that’s that.”

37. L.A.: Well, I do wonder about that. Why do theists care
so much about belief in God? Disagreement over that
question is really no more than a difference in
philosophical opinion. Specifically, it’s just a
disagreement about ontology — about what kinds of
things exist. Why should a disagreement like that bear
any moral significance? Why shouldn’t theists just look
for allies among us atheists in the battles that matter
— the ones concerned with justice, civil rights, peace,
etc. — and forget about our differences with respect to
such arcane matters as the origins of the universe?

38. How do our beliefs (or lack of a belief) in God affect
our understanding of:
● Science
● History
● Arts
● Ethics
● Each other?