Lecture to sixth form philosophy students at Downe House School, 10th November 2015.
Antony Flew, Science & God - Handout
Antony Flew: ‘Science qua science cannot furnish an argument for God’s existence. But… the laws of nature, life with its teleological organization, and the existence of the universe – can only be explained in the light of an Intelligence that explains both its own existence and that of the world. Such a discovery of the Divine does not come through experiments and equations, but through an understanding of the structure they unveil and map.’
Cosmological Argument from the Finite Past
1) There was a first physical event2) Every physical event has a cause outside of itself 2i) Anything contingent must have a cause outside of itself 2ii) Physical events are contingent 2iii) Therefore, every physical events must have a cause outside of itself3) Therefore, the first physical event had a cause outside of itself4) The cause of the first physical event can’t have been a physical cause5) Therefore, the first physical event had a non-physical cause outside of itself
Dallas Willard: ‘the dependent character of all physical states, together with the completeness of the series of dependencies underlying the existence of any given physical state, logically implies at least one self-existent, and therefore nonphysical, state of being.’ - ‘The Three-Stage Argument for the Existence of God’, www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=42
Fine Tuning Design Argument
1) The fine-tuning of the universe is due to either physical necessity, chance, or design.2) It is not due to physical necessity or chance.3) Therefore, it is due to design.
1) Things exhibiting ‘specified complexity’ are probably designed2) The ‘fine tuning’ of the universe exhibits ‘specified complexity’3) The ‘fine tuning’ of the universe was probably designed
Design Argument from Biological Information
1) Things exhibiting ‘specified complexity’ are probably designed2) Life depends upon the ‘specified complexity’ of functional information encoded in genetic and epigenetic biological structures3) Therefore, the best explanation of life includes an appeal to design
Recommended Resources
http://antonyflew.com/www.reasonablefaith.org/www.peterswilliams.comWilliam Lane Craig, ‘The New Atheism and Five Arguments for God’ www.reasonablefaith.org/the-new-atheism-and-five-arguments-for-godAntony Flew with Roy Varghese, There Is A God (HarperOne, 2007)Rodney Holder, Big God, Big Bang: A Universe Designed For Life? (Lion, 2013)John C. Lennox, God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? (Lion, 2009)Stephen C. Meyer, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, 2009)Dallas Willard, ‘The Three-Stage Argument for the Existence of God’ www.dwillard.org/articles/artview.asp?artID=42Peter S. Williams, A Faithful Guide to Philosophy: A Christian Introduction to the Love of Wisdom (Paternoster, 2013)
