Before I start the paper there are a few points that must be established. First is a clear definition of Philosophy of Religion, which is the area of philosophy that applies philosophical methods to study a wide variety of religious issues including the existence of God. The use of the philosophical method makes Philosophy of Religion distinct from theology, which is the study of God and any type of issues that relate to the divine. Now there are two types of theology, Revealed and Natural Theology. Revealed Theology claims that our knowledge of God comes through special revelations such as the Bible, the Holy Spirit, and the Koran. Saint Thomas Aquinas indicates that Revealed Theology provides what he calls “Saving Knowledge”, which is knowledge that will res

1.) There was a time at which nothing existed, and

Paley next declares that it would not invalidate his conclusion if the watch sometimes went astray or was seldom right. The purpose of the machine would still be evident, and that it is not relevant for the machine to be perfect to prove that it has a creator. He concludes the watch analogy with the assumption, that no intelligent person would assume that the pieces of the watch were just a random combination of nature. The next concept Paley addresses is the idea of the watch being able to reproduce itself. Just because it can do this does not eliminate the fact that there must be a designer to establish the first in the line. We know that the watch has a designer because it demonstrates an end, a sort of purpose. Therefore there must be some artificer who understood its mechanism and designed its use. Paley in his final analysis compares the complexities of the human body to the watch to demonstrate that they both have a creator.

Farther Coplestone goes to defend the argument with the idea that if there were an infinite series of causes, this would still not do away with the need for a first cause. “Every object has a phenomenal cause, if you insist on the infinity of the series. But the series of phenomenal causes is an insufficient explanation of the series. Therefore, the series has not a phenomenal cause, but a transcendent cause….An infinite series of contingent being will be, to my way of thinking as unable to cause as one contingent being”(2) Bertrand Russell retorts that the demand to find the first cause of a series rests on the false assumption that the series is something over and above the members of which it is composed. This is an easy thing to do, taken that the word “series” is a noun and can easily be taken as an individual object. Yet it is absurd to ask for the cause of the series as a whole, and then proceed to ask the causes of the individual members. It is here in the causal argument do you see a blurring of the next type of Cosmological argument.

Numerous Philosophers, Immanuel Kant being one, have refuted Saint Anslems assertion. Kant’s main objection is that the argument rests on the idea that existence is a quality or property. He asserts that the word “exist” has a different meaning from property-words such as “green”, or “pleased”. He then goes on to state that only characteristics or qualities can clarify or describe a concept, and since existence is neither it cannot be utilized in the argument. Kant then points out that the concept of God existing cannot be derived from the definition of him being all perfect, just as the concept of a leprechaun or unicorn’s existence cannot be derived from it’s definition.

The first one is the causal or efficient cause. He starts by saying we find that things around us come into being as the result of activity of other things. These causes are in fact the result of yet other activities. Yet this causal series cannot go back to infinity, hence there must be a first member. This first member is not caused by any preceding member, and hence labeled God.

John Stuart Mills and other philosophers state that to claim that all natural objects require a cause in esse is illogical. Forces such as gravity, or particles, show no causes in esse. While most will grant particles did not cause themselves, it is not evident that these particles cannot be uncaused. Professor Philips admits that there is nothing self-evident about the proposition that everything must have a cause in esse. From this comment I am reminded about a snide remark Schopenhauer made about how the cosmological arguments treats the law of causation “like a hired cab which we dismiss when we reach our destination”(1). Back to the subject at hand, opponents of the argument state that after it’s restructuring, the argument still does not address the difficulties in which I have already pointed out.

Some topics in this essay:
Thomas Aquinas, Paley Paley, Richard Dawkin, Teleological Argument, John Locke, Bertrand Russell, Species” Darwin, Ontological Argument, Saint Anslem, Bertrand Russell’s, god’s existence, infinite series, teleological argument, ontological argument, existence god, causal argument, cosmological argument, prove god’s existence, causal series, prove god’s, type argument, infinite series causes, existence god cause, objects require cause, series series phenomenal,