Exam Questions!!

Here are the 31 I have gathered. There may be a few repeats, but at least here's one list of them!


1. What is the main problem with the cosmological argument for the existence of God?
a. Which god is it?
b. Who caused God?
c. Gods don’t exist.
d. People are just mad at God.

2. Who first articulated the ontological argument for God?
a. Saint Anselm
b. Saint Augustine
c. Deepak Chopra
d. Alexander the Great

3. What book undermined the argument from design?
a. On Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
b. The Republic by Plato
c. The Meaning of Relativity by Albert Einstein
d. The Flintstones by Hanna-Barbera Productions

4. Who made the argument from moral truth (the problem of evil) famous?
a. Christopher Hitchens
b. Plato in Euthyphro
c. Saint Augustine in Confessions
d. William James in The Will to Believe

5. The argument from pragmatism is well articulated in what author’s work?
a. On Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
b. Euthyphro by Plato
c. The Will to Believe by William James
d. The Tractatus by Ludwig Wittgenstein
e. None of the above

6. What is the essence of the teleological argument?
a. God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son.
b. God telepathically commanded pairs of animals to get on the ark.
c. The world gives the illusion of design so it had to have an intelligent designer
d. Nothing greater than God can be conceived

7. Julian Baggini in Atheism: A Very Short Introduction argues for:
a. Negative atheism
b. Positive atheism and naturalism
c. Stridency
d. Belief in God is a “properly basic belief.”

8. In Louise Antony’s piece commencing Philosophers without Gods, she says the most important thing that non-believes loose is:
a. The guarantee of redemption
b. Killing in the name of God
c. Telling non-believer’s children they’ll burn in hell
d. Petitionary prayer

9. One of the main points in Walter Sinnott-Armstrong’s Overcoming Christianity is that people many people hold certain religious beliefs simply because:
a. Their beliefs are true
b. They have thought through their beliefs
c. They will be killed or ostracized if they leave their faith
d. They accept religious traditions without questioning

10. Who recently proposed the Temple of Atheism?
a. Richard Dawkins
b. Christopher Hitchens
c. Deepak Chopra
d. Alain de Botton
e. Sam Harris


11. Clifford's "Ethics of Belief" and the wrongness of believing without evidence is now being popularized by what evolutionary biologist?
A: Richard Dawkins

12. What, according to Clark, defines the worldview of"naturalism"?
A: disbelief in a creator, a corollary of the rationally defensible claim that nature is all there is

13. What Christian museum displays “The Tree of Evolutionism”? this tree claims that everything evil stems from the teaching of the theory of evolution. Including: pornography, racism, sex education, feminism, drug abuse, Nazism, and humanism, etc.
A: The Institute for Creation Research Museum in Santee, California

14. Who is the quote in the title ("If God is dead, then everything is permitted") from?
A: Dostoyevsky

15. What is the difference between onto-religion/theology and "expressive" religion/theology?
A: Onto-religion/theology makes statements that are factual claims about how the world "is"

16. What does Dennett suggest is an awesome question to keep asking oneself to guard against faith, tradition, and dogma of all types?
Answer: "What if I'm wrong?"

17. What was the name of Aristotle’s most famous work on ethics?
A: Nicomachean Ethics

18. In Dostoevsky's novel, The Brothers Karamazov, what is Ivan's maxim?
A: If there is no god, then anything is permitted.

19. What is the title of Pascal's work that includes his infamous wager?
A: Pensées

20. 'In Plato's dialogue "Euthyphro", who is Euthyphro being questioned by on the nature of holiness?
A: Socrates!

21. What is the Divine Command Theory?

22. According to Baggini how can atheists have morals if God does not exist?

23. Who said he goes "one god further" than those who reject Zeus, Apollo, et al?
A. Richard Dawkins

24. John Harris says respect for persons does not entail respect for ______.
A. Beliefs

25. Which atheist has been repeatedly billed as "the most hated women in America?"
A. Madalyn Murray O'Hair.

26. (T/F) The "greater good" defense is one of the more frequent objections put forward against the Euthyphro dilemma.
A. True.

27. F.H. Bradley famously remarked that "_______ is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct."
A. Metaphysics.

28. Plato says that philosophy begins in ________.
A. Wonder.

29. Who are the Four Horsemen of New Atheism?
A. Richard Dawkins, Dan Dennett, Sam Harris, and Hitch.

30. Who said "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it?"
A. Voltaire

31. God is ________.
A. ???