Cosmological Arguments
This argument says that anything that begins to exist must have a cause.
What is the Kalam cosmological argument?
This word means “about being or existence.”
What is ontological?
This Greek word means “purpose” or “goal.”
What is telos?
This kind of argument is based on making a smart choice, not proving something.
What is a pragmatic argument?
An event that breaks the laws of nature and is believed to be caused by God.
What is a miracle?
This philosopher came up with the idea of a “first mover.”
Who is Aristotle?
This thinker defined God as “the greatest being we can imagine.”
Who is Anselm?
He used a watch to explain how design in nature points to a designer.
Who is William Paley?
This wager asks whether you should believe in God even if you’re unsure.
What is Pascal’s Wager?
This philosopher said miracles can’t happen because natural laws never change.
Who is Spinoza?
A being that doesn’t depend on anything else to exist.
What is a necessary being?
This man said Anselm’s argument could also be used to prove a perfect island.
Who is Gaunilo?
This argument says nature is too complex to be random.
What is the design (teleological) argument?
This is what you gain if you believe in God and He turns out to be real.
What is eternal happiness (or heaven)?
He argued that miracles go against our experience, so we should doubt them.
Who is David Hume?
This is Aquinas’ argument that things move and must have been moved by something else.
What is the First Way?
He said that existence is not a real trait like height or strength.
Who is Immanuel Kant?
This scientific theory explains how life changes without needing a designer.
What is evolution (or natural selection)?
Some people say this wager is weak because belief just to be safe isn’t true faith.
What is an objection to Pascal’s Wager?
This response says not all miracle stories are fake — some might be true.
What is a reply to Hume?
People challenge this argument by asking, “Then who caused God?”
What is an objection to the Kalam argument?
He said that if God exists in one possible world, then He must exist in all.
Who is Alvin Plantinga?
He said we can’t compare the universe to a machine, so the argument doesn’t work.
Who is David Hume?
This is a flaw in the wager: it doesn’t consider all the different religions.
What is the “many gods” objection?
Miracles challenge this idea that nature always works the same way.
What is natural law?