A Meaning for

Existence
Is there a supreme being who created
the universe?
Philosophical Response
In general, philosophers do not dispute or refute
the existence of a supreme being.
Philosophers disagree about the
meaning/concept of supreme being
Theism
Study of God or gods
Believe in a God who interacts with the universe
Deism
Believe that a God created this universe but
does not intervene with it.
Polytheism
Belief in many powerful gods.
Example. Ancient Greece
Monotheism
Belief in one powerful God
Belief in God as a being (personal)
Pantheism
God is impersonal
Supreme being that is everywhere and in
everything
Panentheism
God is everything.
Personalizing God distorts Gods reality.
How can you prove that God exists?
Western Traditional Responses
Ontological Argument
Argument is a priori no evidence from senses; only
concepts and reasoning
Defines God as a supremely perfect being
All powerful
All knowing
Self Causing
** If God does not possess existence, than God would be missing
an important feature that all existing things have because God is
perfect he must exist.
How can you prove that God exists?
Cosmological Argument
Is there a moment when the universe began?
It is impossible for anything to create itself.
There must be Cause to the cause-and-effect series
that is experienced therefore there must be a
supreme being
Critics: Big Bang Theory
How can you prove that God exists?
Design or Teleological Argument
Orderliness of the universe suggests an all powerful
agent must be responsible for its creation
Critics: Universe is deceptively orderly; more chaos
than order (collapsing galaxies, dark matter/energy,
black holes, etc.)
How can you prove that God exists?
Atheism rejects the idea of the existence of an
all knowing, all powerful, supreme being.
Humans are cruel
World is imperfect
Idea of a God fulfills humans psychological need for
security
Everything in nature can be explained by science
What is the meaning of life?
Why do humans exist? What is the meaning of
my life?
Nihilists life is meaningless
Theistic the meaning of life is part of Gods
plan and you must discover it
Non Theistic the meaning of life is what you
make of it. Humans are self-conscious and self-
defining.
What do you believe??
Task:
Read Pages 164-168
Define: Hard Determinism, Freedom, and Soft
Determinism
Read the Thought Experiment on Page 166. Write a
paragraph reflection on the idea of Free Will.