Justified True Belief

Natural Theology

Arguments for Theism

Cosmological

Arguments from Causation

Kalam

(P1) Everything that begins to exist has a cause. Something cannot come into being from nothing.

(P2) The universe began to exist.

(C1) Therefore, the universe has a cause.

(P3) If the universe has a cause, then an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists who sans the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful. Personal: The first state of the universe cannot have a scientific explanation, since there is nothing before it, and therefore, it cannot be accounted for in terms of laws operating on initial conditions. It can only be accounted for in terms of an unembodied mind and his free volitions, a personal explanation.

(P4) The universe has a cause.

(C2) Therefore, an uncaused, personal Creator of the universe exists who sans the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and enormously powerful.

William Lane Craig and James Sinclair, "The Kalam Cosmological Argument," in Craig and Moreland (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Blackwell, 2009), ch. 3.

+ Quantum physics claims that on the subatomic level, so-called “virtual particles” come into being from nothing.

1. Indeterministic particles do not come into being out of nothing. They arise as spontaneous fluctuations of energy in a rich structure subject to physical laws within a subatomic vacuum. A vacuum is not nothing. Nothingness is the absence of anything whatsoever. As such, nothingness can have no properties, since there literally is not anything to have any properties. 2. A great many physicists today are quite dissatisfied with the traditional Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics. Most of the available interpretations of the mathematical formalism of Quantum Mechanics are fully casually deterministic.

+ The universe itself is eternal. It's always existed.

1. Philosophical Support -If the universe has always existed, the past events that occurred in history would be infinite. This would mean that for today to occur, every previous event would have had to happen. But if there is no starting point, it would be impossible to reach today, yet today clearly exists. This conclusion leads to absurdity. 2. Scientific Support -2nd Law of Thermodynamics: The universe is slowly running out of usable energy. If the universe had been here forever, it would have run out of usable energy by now. -The largely accepted BGV theorem, in modern cosmology, concludes there are no viable models of an eternal universe: "With the proof now in place, cosmologists can no longer hide behind the possibility of a past-eternal universe. There is no escape; they have to face the problem of a cosmic beginning." (Vilenkin, Many Worlds in One, p.176) "Almost everyone now believes that the universe, and time itself, had a beginning at the big bang." (Hawking and Penrose, The Nature of Space and Time, p.20)

+ What then caused God?

God is eternal, uncaused, self existent, who has no cause. God did not begin to exist.

+ This argument does not prove it is the God of the bible.

This is true. While it does show most of the attributes of the biblical God, it does not prove them all, and is not intended to. That said, if KCA is true it does rule out Atheism & Naturalism.

Contingency

(P1) Anything that exists has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause. (modest PSR) 17th century Leibniz original Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR): "no fact can be real or existent, no statement true, unless there be a sufficient reason why it is so and not otherwise."

(P2) If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is grounded in a necessary being.

(P3) The universe exists.

(C1) Therefore, the universe has an explanation of its existence (from P1, P3).

(C2) Therefore, the explanation of the existence of the universe is grounded in a necessary being (from P2, C1).

(C3) Therefore, a necessary being exists (God).

William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics, 3rd ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 104. Reasonablefaith.org. “Leibniz’s Cosmological Argument and the PSR.” https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/leibnizs-cosmological-argument-and-the-psr Alexander Pruss, "The Leibnizian Cosmological Argument," in Craig and Moreland (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Blackwell, 2009), ch. 2.

+ The universe is a brute fact. It just exists inexplicably and there is no explanation of it's existence.

From (P2), if it did have an explanation it could only be something spaceless, timeless, immaterial, and metaphysically necessary in it's existence. This could be one of two options with the features above: 1. Abstract objects like numbers. 2. Unembodied mind. Abstract objects like numbers by definition stand in no causal relation. The number 2 cannot causally effect anything. So it is impossible for a number or an abstract object to be the cause of the universe, from which it therefore follows that the cause of the universe is plausibly an unembodied mind or consciousness, which is what the theist means by God.

Teleological

Arguments from Design

Cosmic Fine-Tuning

(P1) The fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, or design.

(P2) It is not due to physical necessity or chance.

(C1) Therefore, it is due to design.

Collins, Robin. “The Teleological Argument.” Pages 202–81 in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Edited by William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Craig, William Lane. Reasonable Faith. 3rd ed. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008. [ch. 4]

+ TBD

TBD

Applicability of Mathematics

(P1) If God does not exist, the applicability of mathematics to the physical world is just a happy coincidence.

(P2) The applicability of mathematics to the physical world is not just a happy coincidence.

(C1) Therefore, God exists.

God and the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics. Reasonablefaith.org. https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/god-and-the-unreasonable-effectiveness-of-mathematics/

+ TBD

TBD

Moral

Arguments from Morality

The Moral Argument

(P1) If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

(P2) Objective moral values and duties do exist.

(C1) Therefore, God exists.

Craig, William Lane. Reasonable Faith. 3rd ed. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008. [ch. 3] Linville, Mark. “The Moral Argument.” Pages 391–448 in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology. Edited by William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

+ TBD

TBD

Ontological

Arguments from Being

Maximal Greatness

(P1) It is possible that a maximally great being exists.

(P2) If it is possible that a maximally great being exists, then a maximally great being exists in some possible world.

(P3) If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.

(P4) If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.

(P5) If a maximally great being exists in the actual world, then a maximally great being exists.

(C1) Therefore, a maximally great being exists.

Plantinga, Alvin, ed. The Ontological Argument. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965

+ TBD

TBD

Christian Evidences

Arguments for Christian Theism

Test

Common Objections

Objection Analyses to Christian Theism

Test

World Religions

Critical Analyses of Non-Christian Religions

Test

Public Theology

Critical Analyses of Societal Issues

Test

Philosophical Theology

Philosophical Analyses of Christian Doctrines

Test

Philosophy

Phileō Sophia - to Love Wisdom.

Epistemology

Knowledge and Justified Belief