For Friday, Monday, and Wed.

For Friday:

So far we have mostly been doing "philosophical theology," i.e., thinking about the concept of God, thinking about what God is like if He exists, thinking about the nature of various attributes of God, thinking about their relationships, and so forth.

Our next task is to think about whether God exists or not, whether there is an existing being that fits the description of God. So, is there an all-powerful, all-good, all-knowing being or not?

Here we turn to the arguments for God's existence and against, arguments for the conclusion God exists and the conclusion God does not exist. Monday we will look at Aquinas's arguments, his famous "5 Ways."

Friday, however, I want us to develop an informal list of the various arguments and reasons that you think motivate most people's belief or disbelieve in God's existence (as well as what motivates agnosticism, i.e., suspending judgment). So here are the questions:

• For people who believe that God exists, what reasons do, or would, they give to support their belief? A different question (how so?) is, What might cause people to believe in God?
• For people who believe that God does not exist, what reasons do, or would, they give to support their belief? A different question (how so?) is, What might cause people to believe there is not God?
• For people who have considered the question but neither believe nor disbelieve that God exists, what reasons do, or would, they give to support their belief? A different question (how so?) is, What might cause people to be agnostics?
  

We want to make lists of as many reasons as we can possibly think of. Try to be exhaustive. Anything you have heard or can imagine hearing is worth writing down.

The next question is whether which, if any, of these reasons are good reasons or not.

I asked JC to moderate and record.

For Monday:

Aquinas's 5 Ways; OPS due

For Wed:

Taylor and Hick on the Cosmological Argument; OPS due