For this assignment i want you to focus on the existence of God. for part one please focus on Rene Descartes- “Argument from essence and existence”.
For this assignment i want you to focus on the existence of God. for part one please focus on Rene Descartes- “Argument from essence and existence”. Part two elaborate on it. Part Three- God exist Please to make establish these throughout the paper.
Below you will find the instructions for this paper. We have now seen a number of ways that philosophers have attempted to prove the existence of a divine being (God): St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument St. Thomas Aquinas’s Five Ways Argument from Motion Argument from Causation Argument from Contingency Argument from Degrees Teleological Argument (Intelligent Design) René Descartes’s Two Proofs Argument from the Idea of God (Second Meditation) Argument from Essence and Existence (Fifth Meditation)
We’ve also encountered several philosophical positions one could take in relation to the question of whether God exists: Theism: the view that God definitely exists, which can be proven Atheism: the view that God definitely does not exist, which can be proven Agnosticism: the view that there is not enough evidence to believe that God definitely does or does not exist To this list of three, we can add a fourth: Fideism: the view that God’s existence cannot be proven by rational argument, but must be, rather, a matter of faith The word “fideism” comes from the Latin word for “faith” (fides).
The main challenge for the fideist is to show why it’s adequate to base religious belief on faith, when, for most people, beliefs in other contexts would require more than faith. Here’s an example of a belief that most of us would not want to base on faith alone: I have a toothache and go to the dentist.
A visit to the dentist is rather costly, but I figure it’s a cost I have to pay, since my toothache isn’t going to go away. On my way inside the building a man standing near the door calls me over and tells me he is a licensed dentist and can treat my toothache for half the cost my dentist would charge. I ask to see some documentation of his qualifications and he tells me he left it at home. “But don’t worry,” he says, “I’m not lying. Just have faith that I know what I’m doing.”
Most of us would not accept the stranger’s word on faith. And we can imagine lots of similar examples. So why base religious belief on faith alone? What makes religious belief different? If it’s sufficient to believe in God based on faith, why don’t we base all of our beliefs on faith alone? In this writing assignment you will try to answer these questions about the proper basis of a belief in God.
The assignment consists of three parts:
PART ONE: Pick one of the arguments listed in section A and then explain how it’s supposed to prove the existence of God. This part is just explanation of how the author of the argument argues for his conclusion. (Please make sure you explain the argument in your own words, rather than borrowing heavily or copying from some other source.)
PART TWO: Provide an evaluation of the argument—that is, determine whether the argument succeeds or not, and why. (Here you are free to base your own evaluation on some of the criticisms we’ve considered, but make sure you distinguish clearly between what is your own original thought and any material from another source. If you’re referencing something from the textbook, page numbers are sufficient.)
PART THREE: Describe your own view of whether or not God exists AND whether you think it’s necessary to be able to rationally prove the existence of God in order to believe that God exists. In particular, do you think that fideism is the right view to take about God? Why or why not? (This part of the assignment should purely consist of your own thoughts.) Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.