Lesson 6: Assignments
Required Reading
Chapter 8 in "The Science Before Science"
Written Assignment
What are Carl Sagan's main objections to the existence of God?
The first proof for God's existence starts with what undeniable truth? Why cannot an infinite chain of causes account for the effects we see?
The second proof starts from causality and proceeds to what?
The third proof is also analyzing efficient causality, but this time from necessity and contingency, what does it conclude to?
What mistake do modern physicists often make with respect to theories of everything such as String Theory? If what they say about them is true, that is they are necessary (cannot not be), what does this (absurdly) mean they must be?
What is the answer to Hawking's question? That is: What breathes fire into the equations?
The fourth proof leads one to see that all things have their being in the Supreme Being; it brings in formal causality and thus puts what part of Plato's thinking in its proper context?
Explain the transcendental "good."
How does the fifth proof manifest God's Providence?
From the five proofs what do we learn about God?
Who caused God?
Are angels Pure Act? Why or why not?
Can angels, of themselves, be destroyed?
What does "He who is" mean?
Can one think of God as not existing? Explain.
Explain why the mind cannot rest with changeable being that it confronts directly through the use of sensorial knowledge.
What evidence do the five proofs give that God is an interested God?
What are the two types of evil?
Explain how corrupt angels can be responsible for deadly genetic illnesses, if DNA errors are known to be the cause? Consider for example, the evolutionary process.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
