Shaleah, Jordan, Danielle, and Christina

TOK 11A

Introduction

What is the meaning of life?

Why do innocent people suffer?

Is death the end?

Preliminary Distinctions

Theism (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)

a) universe governed by God
Pantheism (Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism)
a) God is everything, everything is God.
Atheism
a) Denies Gods existence
Agnosticism
a) Neither asserts nor denies

The God of the Philosophers

I. Anthropomorphism: 'in the form of man'

II. The God of the philosophers: God in abstract
language

a. omnipotent: all powerful

b. omniscient: all knowing
c. omniamorous: all loving

Paradoxes

I. Omnipotence
II. Change
III. Suffering
IV. Free-will
Logical positivists: Empirically falsified or verified.

Religious Experience

The most direct argument for the existence of God is

that which claims actual experience of God.
Other arguments rely on some form of logical
persuasion
How should we interpret religious experience?

People tend to interpret them in terms of their own

cultural traditions.

Miracles

An extraordinary event which is brought about by Gods

intervention in the natural order of things
Miracles are not merely an extremely unusual event, but
violate the laws of nature.
Humes Argument against Miracles: It is never rational to
believe in miracles because the weight of evidence must
always be against them.

According to Hume, it is always more likely that the

witnesses to a claimed miracle are mistaken than that the
laws of nature should suddenly stop working.

The Argument from Design

The order and harmony of the universe could not have come
about by chance, but must have been made by an intelligent
creator. Eg: on page 412
Humes Criticisms: The most the argument from design can
prove is the existence of an architect god - not a creator god.
The Theory of Revolution: A way of explaining the
complexity and harmony of nature without having to appeal
to a designer God.

Physics and the New Argument

from Design

Physicists have drawn attention to the mysterious fact that

the universe is not only orderly, but orderly in such a way
that it can be understood by human beings.
To the religiously inclined, this suggests that there is some
kind of rational plan behind the universe.
Hypothesis: a universe designed by an intelligent creator, or
an infinity of universes.


Terminology
Cosmological Argument: An argument for the existence of God
that is based on the fact that the universe exists at all, not the order
of the universe.
Free-will Defence: This says that God gave human beings free-will,
and that we have misused our freedom to inflict suffering on one
another.
Omniscient: Knowing everything.
Problem of Suffering: If God is all-loving, why would He want us
to suffer?
Christina

The Cosmological Argument

Science can only go so far back into history as the Big Bang,
which causes a question to arise that no one can answer, What
caused the Big Bang?
The cosmological argument claims that nothing can come from
nothing therefore forcing us to believe that the universe was
created by God.

1.

2.

Some Alternatives

The universe has always existed. The possibility that the Big Bang is the
result of a Big Crunch and that the universe has been expanding and
contracting forever in an endless series of cycles.
The Big Band was the uncaused first cause. This includes denying that
everything has a cause and that the Big Bang was an uncaused event, that
the universe was born by a wrinkle in the fabric of nothingness. To many it
makes more sense to believe that God created the universe, rather than
believe that the universe was created by chance. This alternative also
makes people question, Then who made God?

It is absolutely possible that some people like the idea of a creator

God a satisfying explanation because it means that the universe has
a meaning and that our lives have significance.
Most would rather believe that we are part of a bigger plan, instead
of a cosmic accident in a meaningless universe.

The Problem of Suffering

One of the main arguments against there being a God has to do

with the fact that so many people in this world, on this planet,
suffer.
God is not just supposed to be all-powerful, but also all-loving.
Because God is all-powerful, He should prevent our suffering, and
because he is all-loving, He shouldnt want us to suffer.
It results to us concluding that either God doesnt care about our
suffering, suffering is out of His control, or it didnt turn out the
way He wanted it to be so He lost interest.
It ends with If God is an incompetent bungler, or a heartless
dictator, then He hardly seems worthy of worship.

The Free-Will Defense

Since 1500, an estimated 142 million people have died in more

than 600 wars all around the world. Have we really misused
the freedom given to us by God?
Look at starvation, undernourishment, and genocide, where is
God when it comes to these problems and why does He not do
anything? Can He do anything?
Does the free-will defence let God off the hook when it comes
to responsibility for suffering?
It is argued that if we are to have genuine freedom, then the
freedom to sin must be a real option.
Are we like characters in a novel to God?

Natural Suffering

Another problem with the free-will defence is that it only addresses the
suffering caused by humans, and not the suffering caused by nature (the natural
suffering).
Even though some religious believers preach about natures beauty, we could
just as easily discuss its cruelty. (Tornados, earthquakes, hurricanes, cancer,
malaria, scorpions.)
One argument to the existence of natural suffering is that we live in the best of all
possible worlds. This means that the world comes as a package deal, and that
without suffering it would be impossible to have a perfectly good world.
Advocates of this view say that the best world possible is not necessarily the happiest, but the
one that brings the most opportunity for growth and development.
Immanuel Kant, good cometh out of evil.
It is possible that natural suffering helps us grow and develop as individuals. (No pain, no
gain.)
Natural suffering brings people to heroism, valuing personal relationships, and simple
generosity.

Reason versus faith

- The existence of God

- Faith Positive, Negative and Neutral

- the conviction of things hoped for and the assurance of things not
seen (St Paul)
- The believing of propositions upon insufficient evidence (Sigmund
Freud)
- A kind of belief which is held with a strong emotional commitment
and concerns things that have great significance to the believer
(Lagemaat)

Is faith rational

According to Atheists
Problems arise How and why

Scientific belief = Rational

Pascals Wager
Religion = Irrational
Leap of faith between
irrational and rational
Science is concerned with the
how
Religion is concerned with the
why

The varieties of religion

Three different ways of responding to the fact that different religions contradict
one another
1.
2.
3.
-

One religion is true and all the rest are false

All religions are fake
All religions point towards the same underlying truth (religious pluralism)
3 reasons why option number 3 is attractive
It takes seriously the religious beliefs of millions of people
Admitting that the worlds religions are culturally conditioned
If embraced, it could reduced religious conflicts around the world.

Pantheism: the belief that God and nature are one