Term
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Definition
| It is universal and all who don't believe it are mistaken. (should be followed) |
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Term
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Definition
| God is the author of moral law. Moral rules hold because, and only because, God says so. |
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Term
| Shafer-Landau on laws & law makers |
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Definition
| Not all laws require a law maker. Ex: gravity |
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Term
| How Craig thinks God's "moral nature" provides the foundation for moral goodness |
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Definition
| If our character is like his nature, it is morally good because of that |
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Term
| Craig on divine commands and moral duty |
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Definition
| Our moral duties are not good b/c God commands them. They are good b/c in doing them we resemble God. A divine command gives you a moral duty, in the absence of a diving command we do not have them. You can make a moral evaluation in the absence of a moral duty. |
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Term
| Why Craig thinks if there were no God, there would be nothing special about humans |
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Definition
| If God does not exist, we do not have a sound foundation for morality. Human beings are accidental by-products of mindless natural processes & will soon cease to exist. |
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Term
| Is it plausible to say that love and justice were not good w/o God? |
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Definition
| Notion of morality does not exist in a godless universe |
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Term
| What does Craig mean by "moral accountability" |
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Definition
| You will be held responsible by God for the choices you make. Being moral ultimately benefits. |
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Term
| Why does Craig think it is senseless to perform acts of self-sacrifice if there were no God? |
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Definition
| Without God there is not ultimate moral accountability--no eternal rewards and punishments. Prudential reasons are more rational in a godless universe. |
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Term
| How does Craig think the "scales of God's justice" are balanced? |
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Definition
| Our relationship with God (contradicts moral accountability) |
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Term
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Definition
| The maximum possible degree of power; most power a being could have. |
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Term
| Conditional power & Power to choose |
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Definition
| Have conditional power: if I choose to drink a can of paint, I would succeed in doing so. Lack power to choose: I am unable to choose to drink a can of paint b/c I have an overwhelming aversion to do so. |
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Term
| Why would a maximally powerful being have to be able to do evil? |
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Definition
| Must be able to choose between good and evil to be maximally powerful |
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Term
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Definition
| Can God build a stone so big that he cannot lift it? |
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Term
| How might POS be resolved if God has the power to give up maximal power? |
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Definition
| God could give up his conditional power |
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Term
| How might POS be resolved if God does NOT have the power to give up maximal power? |
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Definition
| Impossible entity--there is no such tone because if he is maximally powerful, he could |
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Term
| What is a moral test, and how would it work in the case of a contemporary person who said God commanded him to kill a child? |
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Definition
| God tests an individual's willingness to obey him by commanding him to do something unthinkable and possible against his nature. If the person is willing to obey God no matter what, then they pass the test. |
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Term
| Why is Abraham praised in Genesis 22? In Hebrews 11? |
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Definition
| Trying to sacrifice Isaac; Having faith in God |
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Term
| 3 Different Views of the Bible |
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Definition
| 1-Biblical Inerrancy. 2-Human writings with no special claim to authority. 3-Divine inspiration with human error. |
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Term
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Definition
| The attempted & deliberate extinction of an ethnic group |
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Term
| 2 arguments against biblical inerrancy |
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Definition
| 1-God lacked morally sufficient reasons for commanding genocide. 2-The reasons given in the Bible are bad reasons. (Are there morally sufficient reasons? Is it plausible to suppose these reasons are good?) |
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Term
| Mill's point: "I will call no being good who is not what I mean when I apply that epithet to my fellow-creatures" |
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Definition
| If the word "good" is to mean anything, it must have some implications to what God would do. |
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Term
| Why did John Calvin think we should not "inquire into the causes of Divine will?" |
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Definition
| "The will of God is the highest rule of justice" |
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Term
| C.S. Lewis's "reversal of moral standards" |
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Definition
When we encounter God's standard of goodness, we see that ours was an
approximation of God's standard, but a poor one. So we need not fear that in
encountering God's standard all that we believed morality to be was in fact a lie. Rather, we will finally understand what it is that we were striving towards in our own moral judgments and actions. "It is like a perfect circle compared to a child's first attempt to draw a wheel." |
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Term
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Definition
| Putting something in terms of something else; answering by example |
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Term
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Definition
| 1-Living things are like machines in the complexity, intricacy, and adaption of their parts to perform various functions. 2-Machines are the product of intelligent design. 3-This strongly suggests that living things are also the product of intelligent design. |
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Term
| What is Hume's Cleanthes version of the design argument? |
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Definition
| Cleanthes tries to establish design for the universe as a whole. |
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Term
| Hume's Philo's criticisms to Cleanthes |
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Definition
| We only observe the small operation sin our tiny part of the universe; not enough data. We only observe thins in the developed state of the universe. |
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Term
| 3 Central theses of the theory of evolution: |
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Definition
| 1-Natural selection, random mutation, common ancestry. 2-Seems to show what looks like design isn't. 3-Compatible w/ belief in God, but doesn't require it. |
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Term
| Why does it seem the theory of evolution undermines Paley's argument? |
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Definition
| It has implications for the origin of life. |
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Term
| Why is it not an objection to the theory of evolution to say that we never see life spontaneously emerging from non-living stuff? |
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Definition
| Evolution does not provide an answer to the origin of life, only to the origin of human life. |
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Term
| Collins' "Fine-tuning" Argument |
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Definition
| 1-There are 25 or so basic physical constants that had to exist to make life possible. 2-The probability that fine-tuning is by chance w/o God is extremely low. 3-This is the sort of thing that God might do. 4-Fine tuning is more likely given the existence of God than by chance. |
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Term
| Collins "Prime Principle of Confirmation" |
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Definition
| Where O is an observation and H1 and H2 are competing hypotheses, if P(O/H1) is greater than P(O/H2) then evidence provided by O favors H1 over H2. |
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Term
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Definition
| The probability of the data given the hypothesis |
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Term
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Definition
| The probability that it is true given everything apart from the data |
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Term
| What is the many universes hypothesis? |
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Definition
| The Universe Generator argues that a physical process generates universes, and that each contains differing values for energy density constants and differing lower-level laws of physics |
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Term
| Collins' 2 objections to the many universes hypothesis |
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Definition
| 1-The theistic hypothesis is a "natural extrapolation from what we already know." 2-The universe generator seems like just the sort of thing that would need to be designed. |
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Term
| What point was Leibniz trying to illustrate with the beginningless series of a textbook? |
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Definition
| The mere fact that each member of a beginningless series is explained by the previous one does nothing to explain why there was never any such series at all |
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Term
| Principle of Sufficient Reason |
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Definition
| "There can be no fact real or existing, and no statement true, unless it has a sufficient reason why it should be thus and not otherwise. Most frequently, however, these reasons cannot be known by us." |
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