Philosophy Questions: The Existence Of God

*1. Give Anselm’s version of the ontological argument for the existence of God and Descartes’s revision of that argument. Then explain Kant’s attack on the argument. Do you agree with Kant that existence is not a predicate? Can you think of any other apparent predicates that are not actual predicates? If existence is a special case, why?
*2. Hume argued that if God built the universe, He wasn’t a very good architect. Some theists respond that the universe was built as well as it could be and that any changes would make it only worse. Do you find this response convincing? The poet Wallace Stevens once wrote a letter to his wife claiming that “with a wishing lamp and a bucket of sand I could make a world better than this one.” Do you agree with Stevens? Can you imagine a better world? What would you change?
*3. Explain how the attack on Christianity developed from Marx and Nietzsche into Freud. What does Freud mean by the word illusion? Are illusions always bad? Could Christianity and other forms of religion be good, helpful illusions? How would Nietzsche respond?
*4. Explain Kierkegaard’s idea that “subjectivity is truth.” How might one attack this position? How might Tillich respond to the attack? Is belief a matter of the will, or is belief involuntary? Argue your response with examples.
5. Why did Albert Einstein maintain that “the cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research”? If the immense effort needed for pioneer work in the theoretical sciences arises from deep religious conviction, as Einstein said, then why aren’t all scientists amenable to their religious colleagues? Discuss Einstein’s viewpoint and why many scientists, as well as the general population, don’t seem to share it.
6. Discuss biochemist Lawrence Henderson’s statement “the biologist may now rightly regard the universe in its very essence as biocentric.” Do you agree with him that biological systems have very special requirements and that these requirements are met by nature, as if this “fit” cosmically evolved for the needs of living organisms? Do you agree that the fitness of the environment for life is too great to be accidental? Is the universe biocentric?
7. Analyze William James’s conclusion that it would be irrational to choose agnostic rules of truth seeking. James was denying that in the absence of sufficient evidence it was wiser to remain skeptical about the existence of God. He contended that the agnostic and the believer both have viable positions. It is no more logical to risk loss of truth (by not having faith) than it is to chance error (by having faith). Argue for or against James’s conviction that we all have the right to choose our own form of risk.
8. What is religion? Did humanity invent it or not? If so, for what purpose? What is distinctive about religion that sets it apart from other human endeavors? Do we, as a species, need it? Are the objects of one’s religious belief subjective and therefore beyond criticism? Or is there some objective fact of the matter?
9. Discuss Kant’s defense of belief in God as a matter of faith as well as a rational belief. How did he use the logical tools of reasoning toward this end? How does faith enter into the argument?
10. In what ways are Einstein and Nishitani’s arguments similar? What is Nishitani’s concept of objective “personal nihility”?