...existence of God (18) The Ontological Argument is an a priori and deductive argument which attempts to prove God’s existence. It is also a reduction ad absurdum argument which shows that the existence of God could not be denied because to do so would involve adopting an illogical argument. It was formed by St. Anselm (1033-1109), but is still a strong argument for the existence of God today. Anselm firstly argues nothing greater than God can be conceived and secondly, it is greater to exist than not to exist. He next explains that if we conceive of God as not existing, then we can conceive of something greater than God. To conceive of God as not existing is not to conceive of God. Anselm states that it is inconceivable that God doesn’t exist and therefore God exists. Anselm thought that not believing in God is ridiculous, claiming it is better to exist in the mind and in reality than to just exist in the mind. Existence is a predicate of perfection. Therefore God must exist in reality. ‘The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’’ (Psalm 14).Anselm stated that even an atheist must have a definition of God because even the suggestion that God does not exist requires the concept of God. It seemed logical to conclude that to argue that there is no God; even the fool must understand the concept of God. Since the greatest thought must have an equivalent reality to be greater than even the least significant thing in reality for God to be the greatest thought, God must exist. Anselm...
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...Augustine believed that time did not exist while God created the world but that time was something that the people wanted to believe, that it only existed in our minds just as the past and the future do. One of his biggest beliefs was the existence of God since he became a Christian. Letting people know what he believed was the truth was something he was willing to do every day, of course believing was difficult if you did not have an open mind or have the passion of a religion. It takes a lot to believe in something that you do not know if it’s true or not. Argument: Being in the Christian religion you would think that you believe in God, not true. There are those that call themselves Christians but have no belief in the existence of God or of saints. Augustine was making sure that his belief in God got around with words that to him we’re in fact true. Like it is stated on chapter 5 Pg. 84;( the capacity of the human mind to grasp eternal truths implied the existence of something infinite and eternal apart from the world of sensible objects, an essence that in some sense represented the source or ground of all reality and of all truth.) Logic: Do you think there is a God? That’s the real question. The first two humans to step into this world did not create themselves or this world that we live in. Augustine’s same concept was that God did in fact exist or does for those reasons. You don’t have to be a Christian to believe that God does exist. The strengths in the story...
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...Does God really exist? Is a question that brings a lot of controversy, because some people believe that God does exist and some people believe that he doesn’t exist? Based on the way that I was raised and brought up in a Baptist church I believe that God does exist. McCloskey believes differently than I do; and feels that God is not real. I suggest that you use your own reason and judgment and decide what feels true to your heart. McCloskey refers to the arguments that Christians used to defend God as being above all and the creator a lie based on the fact that evil still exist in this cruel world. God is said to be a man of peace and love but yet evil still exist in this world. “God is supposed to be omnipotent and has the power to stop evil.”(The Problem of Evil) McCloskey believes that the world exist because of evolution and not because it was created by God. The world consist of objects that has no purpose of why it exist and seems to be non compatible with anything in the physical matter that could have caused it to exist, so therefore the only explanation is the existing of a contingent being which would make it necessary for the existence of a necessary being; which is God. Indisputable means undeniable true, valid, or accurate and examples of design and purpose are not needed for proof for the existence of God because we are humans who are not always correct, because we were created to make mistakes. “The natural bodies which lack knowledge but yet act for an end,...
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...the proof of God necessary? Proofs are used to prove, using a deductive method, that a given necessarily exists. Proof is often like geometry there are given and certain rules is used to arrive at a conclusion of why that given is true. The proof for the existence of ‘God’ has an ultimate goal to prove that God logically and ‘necessarily exists’. If the proof is successful, any rational person cannot find fault in the claim that God does exist. Within the proofs ‘god’ must necessarily exist not just contingently exist. An example of contingent existing would be a balloon is in my hand; prior to making this balloon the balloon did not exist and after the balloon pops and disintegrates it too will not exist. This balloon has contingent existence and it is not necessary. The proof that God exists must be a necessity and should be stronger than evidence that ‘God’ does exist. Something had to create the universe because it did not always exist, therefore God must exist. Many people dispute, thus saying that there is not actual proof that God does exist but that is where faith comes in the picture. Which argument for the existence of God is strongest and why? There are a few strong arguments for the existence of God. First there is the ontological argument which states that it is quite likely that a flawless being does exist. In theory a being such as that couldn’t be perfect unless it in essence did in fact exist. Therefore a perfect being must exist, which is one...
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...big issue which occurs in problem of evil is that how God and evil can exists together, for instance if God exists, then there should be the prevention of evil, and if evil exists in the world that shows that God does not exist. This problem is logically explained by the Augustine in this paragraph. All powerful, all knowing and perfectly nice God would not allow any evil or suffering in the world. Augustine considers God as “completely innocent of evil”, the almighty all powerful God all good wouldn’t create anything evil or do anything evil. Evil is although a corruption in the good created by the God. It is not anything that God created by itself but it is the beings who did corruption in the good, which leads that to evil. Evil and bad deeds...
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...that words exist. It would be foolish to pull out a dictionary and to try to prove to the person that makes such a claim that words exist. It is clear that He is, as we examined last month, suppressing a truth that is evident to all. He is a fool. He instead needs to be shown how foolish and contradictory such a claim is. It is self-refuting. You cannot claim that words do not exist without using them. This is what we must show this person to show them how ridiculous a statement this is. What do we say when someone says they do not believe in God? Do we respond in the same way? Not usually. Usually we respond by trying to give a list of evidences to the truth that God exists, when the Bible says that they already know that God exists. Instead, we should be responding with the same attitude that we would respond with if someone said they didn't believe in words. Just as the person who is suppressing the truth about the existence of words, so to is the one who claims that God does not exist. Remember what God says in Romans 1 (which we looked at last week)? Everyone is without excuse for rejecting the God they know exists. They are foolish for doing so. You cannot even make the argument that God does not exists unless God DOES exist, let alone prove it. This subject will be what we study today. I have titled this sermon, "Proof that God Exists." The proof that I will show this evening is not like the arguments that we would commonly hear people use to prove God exists, such as...
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...Augustine on God and Time I chose to do Augustine on God and Time. Augustine’s views are that things have happened in history can only be things that are in our minds, things that are present are only true because we can see them, and things that are going to happen in the future are only our expectations of what will happen. With this belief, Augustine believes that God only exists within time. Augustine is using his logic to come up with a theory as to why God decided to create the world in the time that he did and not at some other time. This lead him to wonder what exactly is time and how did it become to exist. By wondering about these questions he had to look into Christianity. He states that “before God created us there was no time”. What led him to this theory of no time existed before we were created, just because there was no history before our existence. The arguments strength is that it is a good theory as to how time did become to exist if not for us. But just because there is no coexistence before us does not mean that time was not in existence. If time did not exist then how was God able to become and exist whether it was on earth, in heaven, or in the past without time? Many people could ask questions of this forever, but most people chose to believe what is written in books or what there is proof of. The weakness of this theory is that the past exists not in our minds but in fact due to documented reports written and kept safe just so we can have a history...
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...Dr. Dan Wigley Word Count: 1998 Proving the Existence of Traditional God The existence of a traditional God is one of the most debatable topics in the world of philosophy. The answer to this question revolves around our behavior, the view of the world and perception of the future. This paper argues that it impossible to prove either way whether God exists or not. The world may not have meaning and purpose to us, besides, our existence may not stop at physical death. On the other hand, if God does not exist, we could probably be not accountable to some supernatural being. Life could be all that we have, and we might be compelled to live our lives as we deem fit. Traditionally four salient...
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...omniscient God cannot exist in a world with so much evil. The argument is used by them to prove that Christianity is “internally self-contradictory and thereby to be rejected” (Feinberg, 413). So, the problem of evil is explaining that a perfect, all-powerful, and all-loving God can exist in a world with so evil. First, natural and moral evil need to be distinguished. Natural evil is defined as “evil which occurs in the process of the functioning of the natural order” (Feinberg, 414). People are not responsible for these happenings; they are simply victims and no one is to blame. The devastation that resulted from Hurricane Sandy is a perfect example of such evil, along with afflictions such as cancer and earthquakes. Moral evil, on the other hand, is defined as “evil produced by activities of moral agents” (Feinberg, 414). This evil stems from intentional action, such as murder, stealing, and adultery. Natural evil is part of the consequences of moral evil that resulted from the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. The vast amount of evil that exists in the world is not because God created it, but because man allowed it. Man was not created with a built-in evil nature; he was created with a free will that was exercised to purposefully sin. God gave Adam a choice to do right or wrong and he failed in Genesis 3:6 by disobeying God. The moment Adam chose to sin in Eden he “brought tragic spiritual, physical, and social deprivation to the entire human race” (Demarest, 435). God did...
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...explain. The evils that exist are moral and non-moral evils. The moral evils that exist are poverty, oppression, persecution, war and injustice. The non-moral evils that occur frequently but not usually on a daily basis are earthquakes, hurricanes, storms, flood, drought, and blight (philosophy. Lander.edu/intro/hick.stml). These evils happen with thousands of people dying daily for no reason. The problem of evil is a touchstone of any religion. The direct confrontation with evil results in suffering, and thus endless questions about the meaning of life. That is why all religions have to give a proper answer regarding the origin, nature and end of evil (www.comparativreligion.com/evil.html). Many people think these occurrences are evil and why does God allow them to happen. To believe in God is difficult because of all of the evil that he allows. This is because many evils (for example, the suffering of children) seem to serve no justifiable purpose. Therefore, these kinds of evils count against the existence of God. These evils are called gratuitous (or pointless) evils. (http://www.equip.org/articles/addressing-the-problem-of-evil-). The pointless evils that exist show that God may not exist. The different religions of the world justify that a God does exist. Many religions of the world believe that you cannot have good without evil because it helps to keep things balanced. Brihaspati, the guru of the gods says: "All creatures, even gods, are subject to passions....
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...Essay 3 7/22/2015 I think that God does not exist. if God exists, if it is material, it should be seen. But I have never seen it before. if God is immaterial, that everyone can create their own God in their hearts; if God had not the slightest effect on the material world, he exists only in the spirit of the believer, this means that God does not exist in this world, like a young man, he does not like all the girls, and the girls fall in love with his own spirit, so the presence of the girl in the end does not exist? there is no reliable evidence that the existence God, therefore God does not exist. Evil exists, because the world is not peaceful, many people still suffer from war and disease. suffered physical pain is evidence of the existence of evil. at the same time, there is evil in the human, many of whom are followers of God, if God exists, then he should be good, he should do something to stop the war, or to prevent a war. he should go to cure people of illness, he should punish the wicked person. but we do not see God do these things. war still occur from time to time, the doctors treating the patients, the wicked persons are punished by law, majorities people make their own efforts to live better. When I finished reading, I think the same as i did before. my biggest problem of the existence is that if God exists, why is there evil? God is moral, he should avoid and stop the evil. philosophers to explain the existence of God are inadequately. they explained from...
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...Arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others for thousands of years. Inphilosophical terms, arguments for and against the existence of God involve primarily the sub-disciplines of epistemology (theory of knowledge) andontology (nature of god) and also the theory of value, since concepts of perfection are connected to notions of God. The debate concerning the existence of God is one of the oldest and most discussed debates in human history. A wide variety of arguments exist which can be categorized asmetaphysical, logical, empirical, or subjective. The existence of God is subject to lively debate in philosophy,[1] the philosophy of religion, and popular culture. The Western tradition of the existence of God began with Plato and Aristotle, who made arguments for God's existence that would now be categorized as cosmological arguments. Later, Epicurus formulated the problem of evil: if God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent, why does evil exist? The field of theodicy arose from attempts to answer this question. Other thoughts about the existence of God have been proposed by St. Anselm, who formulated the first ontological argument; Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Aquinas, who presented their own versions of the cosmological argument (thekalam argument and the first way), respectively; Descartes, who said that the existence of a benevolent God was logically necessary for the evidence of the senses to be meaningful;...
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...the existence of God is a confounding problem that has captured the interest of people for many centuries. From the point of view of human suffering, it is possible to argue that the existence of evil and suffering in the world is a basis to challenge the existence of God Johnson explains this problem using the example of a six month old infant who perishes in an inferno. “Can we consider anyone as good who had the power to save this infant from painful death and did not” (Johnson, p.1). According to the arguments put forward by atheists, the existence of God is not compatible with the existence of evil. The existence of God would require that evil would not exist in the world. Therefore, conversely, since evil exists and leads to Human...
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...existence of God, with involving components of reasons including the fact that whatever begins to exist has a cause, no thing has placed itself in motion, and that everything that exists is either contingent or necessary. The Cosmological Argument involves many sub-arguments that help validate it and prove that it is correct. One of these arguments is entitled the ‘Kalam Cosmological Argument’. This argument is used to prove that there was a beginning in time, by saying that an infinite number of days has no end, but today is the current end in history right now. If there were an infinite number of days, it would be impossible for today to have occurred. This involves the...
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...Introduction How did God get here? Richard Dawkins, among other atheists, thinks he has the ultimate proof that God doesn't exist. If God created a complex universe, wouldn't it take an even more complex entity to have created God? However, such logic assumes that time has always existed, rather than being merely a construct of this universe. Rich Deem Who created God? It is an age-old question that has plagued all those who like to think about the big questions. Having grown up as an agnostic non-Christian, it provided me with a potential reason why there might not be any god. Various religions tend to solve the problem in different ways. The LDS church (Mormonism) says that the God (Elohim) to whom we are accountable had a father god, then grew up on a planet as a man, and progressed to become a god himself. Many other religions have claimed that gods beget other gods. Of course the problem with this idea is how did the first god get here? This problem of infinite regression invalidates such religions. Christianity claims that God has always existed. Is this idea even possible? Does science address such issues? Christianity's answer Christianity answers the question of who made God in the very first verse of the very first book, Genesis: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) This verse tells us that God was acting before time when He created the universe. Many other verses from the New Testament tell us that God was acting before...
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