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The Gale–Pruss cosmological argument: Tractarian and advaita Hindu objections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2016

RICHARD McDONOUGH
RICHARD McDONOUGH*
Affiliation:
Arium Academy, Arts and Social Sciences, 51 Cuppage Road, #06-23, Republic of Singapore 229469
*
e-mail: rmm249@cornell.edu, wittgensteins_poker2007@yahoo.com
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Abstract

The article criticizes Gale and Pruss's new cosmological argument (hereafter GP) which purports to prove that the world is created/designed by a powerful intelligent necessarily existing supernatural being (not the full-fledged God of theism). First, the article employs a ‘necessitist’ counterexample to GP's modal premise, S5. Second, it is argued that GP presupposes a restricted range of possible accounts of the generation of the universe. Third, it is argued that GP's argument that the creator is a necessary being is flawed. Fourth, it is argued that GP's argument against Quinn's objection, modelled on the advaita Hindu view of creation by an impersonal being, also fails.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , December 2016 , pp. 513 - 523
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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