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    If theism is true, there is a strong case that universal ... — Carmelics
    Home/Afterlife & Death
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    If theism is true, there is a strong case that universal or near-universal human desires are desires for which satisfaction is possible.

    Afterlife & Death
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.If theism is true, human life is the product of an evolutionary process designed by a God who loves and cares for humans.
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    • 2.A loving God who designed humans would plausibly design them with desires aimed at genuine and attainable goods.
      ?

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    • 3.The presumption must therefore be that widespread or universal desires are aimed at some genuine and attainable good, however inadequate individual conceptions of that good may be.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Evolutionary processes, even divinely guided ones, select for reproductively advantageous desires, not desires tracking metaphysical truths about attainable goods.
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    • 2.A desire for immortality or eternal life could be a byproduct of adaptive fitness-enhancing death-aversion, not evidence of a satisfiable teleological aim.
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    • 3.Aquinas's own framework distinguishes natural inclinations from supernatural ends, making the inferential bridge from universal desire to attainable good require additional theological premises not contained in bare theism.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The argument from universal desire commits a quantitative fallacy: widespread cross-cultural desires for vengeance, domination, or ethnic superiority are not thereby evidence of attainable goods a loving God designed humans to pursue.
      ?

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    • 2.If the theist restricts the premise to only 'deepest' or 'properly ordered' desires, the argument becomes circular, presupposing the very theological anthropology it was meant to establish.
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    Afterlife & Death

    Related

    A desire for immortality or eternal life could be a byproduct of adaptive fitnes...A loving God who designed humans would plausibly design them with desires aimed ...Aquinas's own framework distinguishes natural inclinations from supernatural end...Evolutionary processes, even divinely guided ones, select for reproductively adv...
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    If the theist restricts the premise to only 'deepest' or 'properly ordered' desi...If theism is true, human life is the product of an evolutionary process designed...The argument from universal desire commits a quantitative fallacy: widespread cr...The presumption must therefore be that widespread or universal desires are aimed...

    Similar

    The presumption must therefore be that widespread or universal desires...81%If theism is true, human life is the product of an evolutionary proces...78%Comparativists could pair comparativism with a preferentialist view th...74%The present world is intended for human beings destined to enjoy etern...73%

    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: afterlife
    View source passageHide passage
    Suppose, on the other hand, that theism (or some view close to theism) is true. On this supposition, human life is not the accidental product of mindless forces that have operated with no thought to it or to anything else. On the contrary, human life (and the life of other rational creatures, if there are any) is the product of an evolutionary process, which was itself designed to produce such beings, by a God who loves them and cares for them. If this is so, then there is a strong case to be made that desires which are universal, or near-universal, among human beings are desires for which sat...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit