Arguments for Atheism and Theism

By Chris on November 18, 2005 | | TrackBacks (0)

I recreated a table made by Peter Kreeft in Does God Exist summarizing the popular arguments made for atheism and for theism, but it is pretty big so you will have to click on the link below to view it.

Arguments for Atheism Arguments for Christian Theism
  1. Evil exists
  2. Theism is unnecessary with the success of science
  3. The actuality of understanding God in epistemology or linguistics is impossible
  4. Objections to arguments for the existence of God
  5. Negative consequences of belief
  1. "common consent" or human authority
  2. Veracity of The Bible
  3. Ordinary religious experience
  4. Mystical EXPERIENCES
  5. Miracles, especially the resurrection of Jesus
  6. Demonstrated history in martyrs, saints and the Church's survival
  7. Argument from Jesus: like Son, like Father (John 14: 8-9)
  8. Anselm's "ontological argument": from idea of perfect God to its reality
  9. Descarte's psychological take on above: from idea of God containing all perfections to its reality
  10. Absolute moral law's existence (Newman, C. S. Lewis)
  11. The necessity of moral ideal of perfection (Kant)
  12. Negative consequences of atheism: everything is permissible
  13. Truth is eternal, therefore a Mind must be eternal as well (Augustine)
  14. "There is the music of Bach, therefore there must be a God"
  15. Evidence in the need for an ultimate meaning in life (Kierkegaard)
  16. Pascal's Wager: only way to win eternal happiness is in belief, only way to lose eternal happiness is in unbelief
  17. Every innate desire corresponds to a real object, and there is an innate desire for God (C. S. Lewis)
  18. Design: watch proves watchmaker (Paley)
  19. Design: why trust a logical thing formed by chance? (with regard to the human brain)
  20. Cosmology: Unmoving Mover must have began the First motion of universe
  21. Cosmology & "First Cause": 2nd cause (us) was caused, 1st cause (God) was uncaused
  22. Cosmology & mortality: without immortal being, all things will perish
  23. Cosmology & degrees of perfection: a Most Perfect Being is needed (18, 20-23 from Aquinas's "five ways")
  24. Cosmological "kalam" argument: universe's history must be finite because an infinite history is absurd (from medieval Muslim philosophers)
  25. Our existence is not essential, yet we exist, so a being must exist essentially to cause our existence (Aquinas)

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This page contains a single entry by Chris published on November 18, 2005 4:55 PM.

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