Thomas Aquinas: The Conflict‚ the Harmony and the Saint During the High Middle Ages‚ Western Europe underwent rigorous reform. Through the rapidly increasing population and production of intellectual‚ artistic and spiritual works‚ thirteenth century philosophers‚ theologians and Christian thinkers were faced with a quandary. The central question was directed at “the attitude being taken toward Aristotle…by theologians committed to a Christian view of the nature of God‚ man‚ and the universe” (“St
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Ever wondered about your existence? Or what came first‚ the chicken or the egg? Although a plethora of philosophical arguments for God’s existence has been proposed by Christian‚ Jewish and secular writers‚ their arguments have limited rational thoughts to sufficiently prove God’s existence. In actuality‚ there is no level of rationality that is able to ascertain who or what is readily described as the ‘Alpha’ being due to our finite human knowledge. We are stuck in a mess of enigmas‚ contradictions
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“Explain the argument from religious experience for the existence of God.”30 marks Expect different forms of the argument from religious experience‚ e.g. inductive argument‚ direct awareness‚ cumulative argument. Also expect reference to Swinburne’s principle of credulity and principle of testimony. Maximum Level 2 if summary of types of religious experience with no reference to argument for God. ------------------------------------------------- Level 7 for one fully developed argument‚ or two that
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purpose in nature can be seriously plausible. Cosmological arguments begin with the bare fact that there are contingently existing things and end with conclusions concerning the existence of a maker with the power to account for the existence of those contingent things. Teleological arguments (or arguments from design) by contrast begin with a much more specialized catalogue of properties and end with a conclusion concerning the existence of a designer with the intellectual properties (knowledge‚
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Katie Wyatt 20th October Examine the key strengths of the Design Argument for the existence of God The Design Argument can be split into two sides: design qua purpose and design qua regularity. The key idea of design qua purpose comes from William Paley. He used analogy as the basis for his argument‚ noting how the complex design of a watch allows all the parts to work together perfectly to achieve its purpose. He then noted the complexity‚ order and purpose of the universe‚ stating that "every
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Douglas Gasking gave his arguments against the existence of God. Premise 1 of his argument looks fine. World is a greatest creation. If there is no world‚ then there is no human life. Premise 2 is also reasonable. The creation of a thing merely depends upon the two things- quality of the creation and ability of the creator. Because when we see any creation‚ first we talk about it’s quality. Premise 3 is logical in some sense. Let us take the example of a painting. There is a painter who is normal
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Explain the cosmological argument for the existence of God (25 marks) Thomas Aquinas famously formulated his version of the cosmological or "first cause" argument. According to this argument‚ the things which we see around us now are the products of a series of previous causes. But that series cannot go back in time forever. Thus there must be some first cause which was not itself caused by anything else. And that first uncaused cause is God. A lot of the argument is based on Aristotelian views
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the key concepts of the ontological argument for the existence of God (18) The ontological argument rests on the premise that the universe’s existence is contingent- it depends on something else to exist. The argument is deductive‚ analytic and a priori‚ and was first formed by St. Anselm‚ who prayed for a short argument that would prove God to be “that than which nothing greater can be conceived”. This prayer was called the proslogion and tried to prove God by means of reductio ad absurdum‚ which
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Critically examine one of Descartes ’ arguments for the existence of God Descartes ’ Meditation III provides a causal and cosmological argument that God exists. Having used the Method of Doubt in Meditations I and II in order to reject his false beliefs‚ Descartes assumes that the only things he knows at this point are the conclusions reached at Meditations I and II. Having also doubted judgements in arithmetic and geometry because of the possibility of the existence of an evil demon‚ Descartes wishes
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Thomas Aquinas was born in 1224 and died in 1274. He wrote The Summa Theologica‚ in which he creates a huge system integrating Greek philosophy with the Christian faith. It consists of three parts; God‚ “he gives five proofs for God’s existence as well as an explication of His attributes”1‚ ethics‚ “connection between the virtuous man and God by explaining how the virtuous act is one towards the blessedness of the Beatific Vision (beata visio)”2 and Christ‚ “Christ not only offers salvation‚ but
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