Review of the 36 Arguments for the Existence of God #27. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE UPWARD CURVE OF HISTORY

[Pastor Jennifer v2]

27. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE UPWARD CURVE OF HISTORY
(by R Goldstein)
1. There is an upward moral curve to human history (tyrannies fall;
the evil side loses in major wars; democracy, freedom, and civil
rights spread).
2. Natural selection’s favoring of those who are fittest to compete
for resources and mates has bequeathed humankind selfish and
aggressive traits.
3. Left to their own devices, a selfish and aggressive species could
not have ascended up a moral curve over the course of history (from
2).
4. Only God has the power and the concern for us to curve history
upward.
5. God exists.
FLAW:
Though our species has inherited traits of selfishness and aggression,
we have inherited capacities for empathy, reasoning, and learning from
experience as well. We have also developed language, and with it a
means to pass on the lessons we have learned from history. And so
humankind has slowly reasoned its way toward a broader and more
sophisticated understanding of morality, and more effective
institutions for keeping peace. We make moral progress as we do
scientific progress, through reasoning, experimentation, and the
rejection of failed alternatives.

[Brock]

On Feb 23, 8:58 pm, Pastor Jennifer v2

<jennifer.s.jo...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> 27. THE ARGUMENT FROM THE UPWARD CURVE OF HISTORY
> (by R Goldstein)
> 1. There is an upward moral curve to human history (tyrannies fall;
> the evil side loses in major wars; democracy, freedom, and civil
> rights spread).
> 2.  Natural selection’s favoring of those who are fittest to compete
> for resources and mates has bequeathed humankind selfish and
> aggressive traits.
> 3. Left to their own devices, a selfish and aggressive species could
> not have ascended up a moral curve over the course of history (from
> 2).
> 4.  Only God has the power and the concern for us to curve history
> upward.
> 5.  God exists.

Again, the same limitations apply to this treatment:

* there is no one "THE ARGUMENT ...", rather it refers to a general
category of arguments, thus to defeat one specific example is not
adequate to dismiss the category
* the argument, to the degree it is a paraphrase, doesn't adequately
represent (either intentionally or accidentally) the argument as put
forward by a proponent, and faces the danger of being simply a straw-
man

Regards,

Brock