Please choose one of the following questions to answer. Please type out the question you are answering at the top of your paper. The paper should be 1,000-to-1,200 words and is due during Session 8. The rewrite is due during session 12.
- Roger White describes a way to move from the seemingly bland observation that the universe is the sort of place whose physical laws allow it to contain living creatures like ourselves, to justified belief in the existence of God. Reconstruct his argument and describe what you take to be the best objection(s) to it. Does any of them defeat the argument?
- Some atheists reason like this: “If an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent entity existed then no terrible things would happen. But terrible things do happen. So no omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent entity exists.” Describe what you take to be the best objection(s) to this argument (you may, for example, want to consider the ‘things can always get better’ or ‘terrible things enable good things’ or ‘price of freedom’ objections we discussed in lecture). Does any of them defeat the argument?
- Some people think we need God in order to make sense of morality—that without God, the idea of goodness and badness is meaningless. Why would Socrates think that such a view is mistaken? In giving your answer describe in your own words “the Euthyphro dilemma.” If you were going to defend the position that we can make sense of morality by appeal to God, which horn of the dilemma would you take and how would you defend it against the apparent objection to it?
- If you’d like to write on any of the other topics we covered (faith, subjectivism, or objectivism) please consult with your TA about your plan.