Being in direct contact with a mind independent reality
Aristotle
Indirect Realism
The Veil of Perception
Primary Qualities
Shape
Size
Movement
Don't change
Pass straight through the veil
Secondary Qualities
Colour
Smell
Sound
Reflect off of the veil before being percieved
Changable
powers
Locke
Being in indirect contact with a mind independent reality
Locke
This can lead to sceptism about the existence of an external world
Idealism
The only things that exist are minds and ideas
I Think Therefore I Am
Philosophy of Religion
Arguments for the existence of God
Teleological
A posteriori, synthetic and inductive
Paley's Watch Analogy
When walking upon a heath kicking stones, a man comes across a watch. He picks it up and admires it. He claims that this watch is so complex and intricate, that it must have had a designer, a watch-maker. He then thought about the world and in a similar way he said, the world is so complex that it too must have a designer, a world-maker, God.
Against
Evolution
Provides an alternative theory as to how the world became so complex.
Ontological
Analytic
Against
Kant
Existence is not a predicate
Guanilo's Island
Anselm
God is that than no greater can be concieved
Real>Imaginairy
Descartes
God is perfect
Cosmological
Kalam et al
Everything that begins to exist has a cause, the universe began to exist, therefore something must have caused the universe.
Relies on contingency
Red Shift
Against
Brute fact
What caused God?
Aquinas
Implications of the existence of God
Problem of Evil
1. God is omnibenevolent
2. God is omnipotent
3. There is evil
Therefore God does not exist
Against
Additional premises
1a. A good thing eliminates a bad thing as far as it can
2a. There is no limit to what an omnipotent thing can do
3a. Good is opposed to evil
Therefore a good, omnipotent thing eliminates evil completely
Therefore God does exist
Omniscience
God does not exist
Free Will Defence
The only way to make all good people, is to deny them free will.
Natural Evil is due to fallen angels.
Against
Mackie
Swinburne
Evil exists for the greater good
Religious Language
Verification
If a statement cannot be proved analytically or empirically, then it is meaningless.
Statement fails under it's own conditions
Falsification
The Gardener
Two explorers came across a clearing. The first explorer saw the flowers and trees and said, "there must be a gardener of this beautiful garden". The second explorer sees the weeds and disagrees. They wait all day and all night, they set up electric fences and sniffer dogs. But the gardener doesn't show up. The first explorers is constantly adding attributes to his gardener, "He's invisible, unsmellable and intangible". The second explorer asks, "How is your invisible, unsmellable, intangible gardener any different from an imaginairy one?".
Flew
Cannot be falsified and so is meaningless
Against
The Partisan
Mitchell
During the time of a war a Partisan meets a stranger claiming to be the leader of the resistance. The stranger urges the Partisan to have faith in him, even if he is seen to be acting against the Partisan's interests. The Partisan is committed to a belief in the stranger's integrity, but his friends think that he is a fool to do so. The original encounter with the stranger gives the Partisan sufficient confidence to hold onto his faith in him.