1. A Meaning for Existence
Is there a supreme being who created the universe?

2. Philosophical Response
In general, philosophers do not dispute or refute the existence of a supreme being.
Philosophers disagree about the meaning/concept of “supreme being”

3. Theism Study of God or gods
Believe in a God who interacts with the universe

4. Deism
Believe that a God created this universe but does not intervene with it.

5. Polytheism
Belief in many powerful gods.
Example. Ancient Greece

6. Monotheism Belief in one powerful God
Belief in God as a being (personal)

7. Pantheism God is impersonal
Supreme being that is everywhere and in everything

8. Panentheism God is everything.
Personalizing God distorts God’s reality.

9. How can you prove that God exists?
Western Traditional Responses
Ontological Argument
Argument is a priori – no evidence from senses; only concepts and reasoning
Defines God as a supremely perfect being
All powerful
All knowing
Self Causing
** If God does not possess existence, than God would be missing an important feature that all existing things have because God is perfect he must exist.

10. How can you prove that God exists?
Cosmological Argument
Is there a moment when the universe began?
It is impossible for anything to create itself.
There must be Cause to the cause-and-effect series that is experienced therefore there must be a supreme being
Critics: Big Bang Theory

11. How can you prove that God exists?
Design or Teleological Argument
Orderliness of the universe suggests an all powerful agent must be responsible for its creation
Critics: Universe is deceptively orderly; more chaos than order (collapsing galaxies, dark matter/energy, black holes, etc.)

12. How can you prove that God exists?
Atheism – rejects the idea of the existence of an all knowing, all powerful, supreme being.
Humans are cruel
World is imperfect
Idea of a God fulfills humans psychological need for security
Everything in nature can be explained by science

13. What is the meaning of life?
Why do humans exist? What is the meaning of my life?
Nihilists – life is meaningless
Theistic – the meaning of life is part of God’s plan and you must discover it
Non Theistic – the meaning of life is what you make of it. Humans are self-conscious and self-defining.

14. What do you believe?? Task: Read Pages 164-168
Define: Hard Determinism, Freedom, and Soft Determinism
Read the Thought Experiment on Page Write a paragraph reflection on the idea of Free Will.