Philosophy 1- Beliefs About Deity:
Reasons Given in Support Of Belief
The Ontological Argument
God is 'That than which nothing greater can be conceived'
We cannot think of anything greater than God, and therefore God exists
St Anselm of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109 who first put forward the Ontological Argument
The Cosmological Argument
The universe must have come from somewhere
Christians believe it came from God
God is the 'First Cause'
The Big Bang Theory
A scientific theory which suggests that
the universe was created by a massive
explosion about 18 billion years ago
The 'First Cause'
St Thomas Aquinas
A philosopher and theologian who devised
several versions of the cosmological argument
Necessary being- theory that
God must exist because he
cannot not exist
The Teleological Argument
The world shows that it has been designed so it
must have been created of designed by someone
The Intelligent Design Argument
A theory which states that life is too complex
that it must have been designed by a higher
being and did not evolve by natural selection
Natural selection- a theory that tiny differences
and genetic mutations between creatures of the
same species can sometimes make one
individual slightly better suited to their environment
than others. This means that is survives longer
and has more offspring that will inherit this trait
Charles Darwin
A naturalist who developed
the theory of natural selection
The Argument from Experience
People can experience God which proves he exists
This could be through miracles, conversion, answered prayers or the numinous
Rudolf Otto
A Christian theologian who wrote about the idea of the numinous
Numinous is a mysterious power that
suggests the presence of a spirit or god
The Moral Argument
People have a basic understanding of 'good' and 'bad', 'right' and 'wrong'