Pascal & Hume

Pascal & Hume

Philosophy 020E/1

October 5, 1999

Pascal’s wager &

Hume’s case for the "fool"

Summing up Anselm

Key is first premise

Anselm would say

To understand who God is

Is to know that he exists

This would be real understanding

A kind of mystical vision of God

St. Thomas Aquinas

Also born in Italy

1225-1274

Chief theologian of Catholicism

Aquinas’ five ways

God is the First Mover

God is the First Cause

God is the Necessary Cause

God is the Absolutely Perfect

God is the Designer of the Universe

We will concentrate on

First Cause & Designer

First Cause

Nothing can cause itself

Would have to exist prior to itself

So something must be Self Caused

That is who God is

Argument from design

Nothing happens fortuitously

As a fluke by chance

Things achieve their end by design

To explain this fact

We must assume the existence of

An Intelligent Designer of the universe

That is who God is

Aquinas’ replies to two objections

Problem of evil

God allows evil to exist

In order to create good

God a gratuitous hypothesis

Whatever happens happens because

God wills it to happen

Problem of predestination

William Paley’s argument

1743-1805

Teleological argument

Argument from design

Intuition behind the argument

Machu Pichu

Inca fortress city in Peruvian Andes

Writing on the sand at Lake Erie

Kilroy was here

Could not just be

Results of laws of nature

The argument

"Indication of contrivance"

Greatest in nature

So if we need designer to explain

Inca architecture & writing in the sand

Then we certainly need designer to explain

Nature’s marvels

Pascal’s wager

Blaise Pascal

1523-1662

Accepting God requires a leap of faith

We cannot prove God’s existence

God has no affinity to us

We cannot know his nature

Neither can we know that she exists

So if we do accept God’s existence

It must be on faith

We have to make a "bet"

We have to bet one way or the other

Pascal lumps atheism & agnosticism together

Reason no more "shocked" betting

One way or the other

We are creatures of habit

So we should adopt

The customs of a believer

We should bet on God's existence

If God does not exist

Believer & nonbeliever both "lose"

Result is the same

If God does exist

Only the believer "wins"

We stand only to win by believing in God

David Hume
The argument from evil

1711-1776

A critic of the powers of reason

The argument from evil

God is said to be

All-knowing

All-powerful

All-good

Such a being cannot exist

Given that evil exists

Hume’s argument

Evil exists (Premise 1)

God knows it does (Since he knows all)

He could prevent it (He can do anything)

A good being would prevent evil

If he could

So God cannot be good

But if God exists he is good