PHIL 1200 -While walking down the hallway

PHIL 1200 -While walking down the hallway

Subject: General Questions    / General General Questions    

Question
PHIL 1200 – Introduction to philosophy
First short paper assignment (5 points)

In two double-spaced pages or less, respond to ONE of the following two topics. Make
sure you address all the questions raised in the topic you choose.
This is not a research paper, and you should not use any sources outside the readings
covered in class and your own reasoning (in fact, it is important that most of your paper
presents your own thoughts on the issues discussed).
In case you use some material from the Perry and Bratman textbook, the additional
readings, or the class notes, make sure you reference them (the textbook page number or
lecture date would suffice for this).
Topic A:
While walking down the hallway in the University’s Biology Department, you come
across an astonished professor who hugs you and then shouts: “There is a God! And I
have the proof for this!” When you ask what his proof is, the professor takes a yellow
leech-like fish out of his pocket and proclaims: “This is the Babel Fish, the most curious
and amazing fish in the universe. The fact that the Babel Fish exists is a dead giveaway
for God’s existence.” He then walks away without any further comment.
a) What kind of argument could the professor have in mind?
b) Suppose you are a determined atheist. What could a reply to the professor be?
(For a further description of the Babel Fish, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Babel_fish_(The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy)#Babel_fish.
For a short video describing the Babel fish, see http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6ptQGX__rd0
Please do not base any argument on the fact that the Babel Fish does not exist. Just
assume it does).
Topic B:
You are a faithful believer in God’s existence and goodness. Your atheist friend
Mortimer, who has been recently fired for a trivial reason, on the same day his car was
vandalized and his phone stolen, meets up with you and claims that the existence of a
supremely benevolent and omnipotent God is incompatible with the existence of evil
people in the world.
You reply that the existence of moral evil is a consequence of the freedom of choice that
God has given to all humans. We would not be free, you claim, if God made it impossible
for us to choose to do evil. But, the fact that we actually make such choices is our fault
and not God’s.
At this, Mortimer replies that there are many things that people are free to do, yet they
never (or almost never) choose to do. For example, Mortimer could choose to spend the
entire afternoon counting how many blades of grass his lawn has, out of his free will.
Yet, he would never do such a thing, and most other people would not choose to do so,
either. Why, then, couldn't God make a world in which people are free to do evil and yet
never (or, at least, almost never) choose to do evil? Does this not show that God is either
not omnipotent or not supremely benevolent?
What is your answer to Mortimer’s argument, in favor of God’s omnipotence and
benevolence?