Week 9 Quiz

In this course, which work gives the ontological argument, the argument from the idea of a being than which nothing greater can be conceived?

Select one.

• Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
• Anselm, Proslogion
• William Paley, Natural Theology
• David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Dataset G sorts the ontological argument as a priori. Which reason fits that sorting?

Select one.

• Its premises concern an idea and what follows from it, with no observation
• Its first premise reports that some things are observed to be caused
• It reasons by analogy from the parts of a watch, found on a heath, to the parts of living things
• It argues about which belief is the prudent bet

Who wrote the work in which this line appears, and whose English words are these? "The existence of God can be proved in five ways."

Select one.

• Anselm's Proslogion, in Anselm's own English
• Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica, in Aquinas's own English
• David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, in the English Hume wrote it in
• Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica, translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province

Which work is the source of the watch on the heath, the course's thought experiment for asking whether order shows a designer?

Select one.

• David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
• Anselm, Proslogion
• William Paley, Natural Theology
• Blaise Pascal, Pensées

Which pair states Hume's objections to the design argument, as the course pins them from the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion?

Select one.

• A chain of causes cannot go back forever, and nothing causes itself
• Evil is inconsistent with a wholly good God, and suffering makes God unlikely
• The possible gain from believing in God is infinite, and the possible loss from believing is only finite
• The analogy is weak, and order would not show a single, perfect, or still-living designer

Dataset B, argument 6 (illustrative): "If the universe was designed, it shows order. The universe was not designed. So it shows no order." How is it keyed?

Select one.

• Valid, by denying the consequent
• Invalid, by denying the antecedent
• Valid, by modus ponens
• Invalid, because it runs the conditional backward from the consequent

True or false: in this course, the design argument and the cosmological argument are the same argument.

True or false.

• True
• False

Which statement gives the central claim of the logical problem of evil, as J. L. Mackie presses it in "Evil and Omnipotence"?

Select one.

• The existence of evil is logically inconsistent with the existence of a God who is wholly good and omnipotent
• The amount and kind of suffering make the existence of God unlikely, rather than impossible
• People who believe in God are responsible for the evil and suffering that the world contains
• A chain of causes that produces evil must begin with a first cause

Dataset G lists Pascal's wager with which kind and direction?

Select one.

• A priori, and for God's existence
• A posteriori, and against God's existence
• Prudential (about belief, not proof), and for belief
• Logical (inconsistency), and for God's existence

Select every argument that Dataset G sorts as a posteriori.

Select every option that applies.

• The ontological argument
• The cosmological argument
• The design argument
• Pascal's wager