Argument For The Existence Of God

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Argument for the Existence of God

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ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 2

Argument for the Existence of God

Various philosophers have been making attempts to present arguments that prove that

God exists. This has led to the development of a canon of classic arguments. Some of these

arguments are not in line with the Christian philosophy. Some Muslim and Jewish philosophers

have also contributed to the debate by making significant contributions that prove the existence

of God. Other philosophers who have contributed to the evidence that God exists are Aristotle

and Plato. This topic has been selected partially because of the ever-growing interest in the

philosophy of religion and theology to prove that God exists. The classic theistic proofs that are

presented in this case are refined and revived. They are presented in their revised form and thus

they have been defended afresh. As such, this essay uses such philosophies to prove that God

exists. These philosophical arguments aim at defending theism by exploring evidence for the

existence of God.

Arguments for the Existence of God

There are various arguments that are presented in this case. They are discussed as

follows.

Pascal’s Wager

This is an argument that supports belief in God. The argument is not based on the appeal

that God exists; it is based on an appeal to self-interest. According to it, believing in God is in

the interests of human beings (Monton, 2011). It claims that it is only rational that if people

believe in God.

The argument also presents various consequences that could result from either belief or

disbelief in God. This is done so as to support the claim that believing in God is in the interests

of people. It argues that believing in God leads to the receipt of an infinite reward on the final

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day when we go to heaven. It also adds that failure to believe in God does not make Him lose

anything. The argument also claims that failure to believe in God will lead to eternal punishment

in hell (Monton, 2011). As such, the rationale behind believing in God is that it is better for one

to believe in God and get eternal reward in heaven than fail to believe in Him and be punished in

hell. It also makes it clear that God does not lose anything if we fail to belief in His existence.

The Ontological Argument

This argument makes succinct attempts to show the existence of God by using abstract

reasoning in doing so. First, the argument presents explication that explains the concept of God.

It claims that when we talk of God, we are talking of a perfect being (Oppenheimer & Zalta,

2011). In other words, God is a perfect being. As such, this simply implies that God exists. The

concept of God implies this argument is analytic and uses arguments and reasoning to lead to the

conclusion that God exists.

The Cosmological Argument

This argument is sometimes not considered a perfect description of an argument.

Basically, it uses a general pattern of argumentation, referred to as logos, that is derived from

various facts on the world (cosmos) so as to explain the existence of God (Kragh, 2016). In this

case, God is described as a unique being. Some of the initial facts that are used in this argument

include the claim that various events and beings in the world dependent or contingent, the

universe is contingent and could have designed in another way, and that it is possible to explain

the Big Conjunctive Contingent Fact (Kragh, 2016). These facts are deductively or inductively

used by philosophers to make the inference that the universe was created by an unmoved mover,

a necessary being, or a God who existed long before the creation of the universe. This argument

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is also classified as part of the classical natural theology because it aims at proving that God

exists.

It is also worth noting that the argument is driven by human curiosity on why something

existing or why something else does not exist. This creates the need for what exists contingently

to be explained in an ultimate, full, and complete explanation (Kragh, 2016). In this case, it uses

the explanation of nature and the existence of the universe to justify the existence of God. It

claims that there must have been a God who created the universe. This argument has been

justified by various philosophers while others have criticized it due to its contingency approach

in explaining the existence of God.

The Teleological Argument

This argument claims that the existence of order in the world invokes the idea that there

must have been a being that created the world with a specific purpose in mind. This is because of

the complex nature of the universe (Mouzelis, 2016). One of the most astounding features of the

system is its scale. This has led to confusion among scientists on the laws of nature that govern

the universe. Additionally, the world always ensures that the right conditions are provided so as

to support life. Philosophers consider this as a remarkable phenomenon because the universe

might have been different in various ways. As such, it would not have been capable of

supporting life. As a result, philosophers claim that the universe cannot be that ordered just by

chance (Mouzelis, 2016). As a result, they conclude the nature and order of the universe is the

way it is due to its creation by God. It would be unsatisfactory to claim that it is by chance that

life exists in the universe. As such, this argument evidently defends the existence of God.

The Moral Argument

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This argument starts its defense of the existence of God by explaining the nature and

existence of morality and relating it to the existence of God. It also uses two forms in explaining

its courses. These are perfectionist and formal moral arguments.

The formal moral argument claims that the form of morality exists because it has a divine

origin. There are various sets of commands that are ultimately authoritative that govern morality

(Linzey, 2016). In this case, this form of moral argument claims that such commands must have

been set by a commander who had ultimate authority. In this case, philosophers have concluded

that this being with ultimate authority must have been God.

On the other hand, the perfectionist moral argument claims explains the existence of God

by setting up a problem. It questions why morality expects people to show perfection and expects

people to give more than they can offer (Linzey, 2016). Additionally, it questions why people

fail to live up to the expectations of morality of been perfect. The argument then suggests that

this paradox can only be solved by positing the existence of God.

The Argument from Religious Experience

According to this argument, people who have personal religious experiences can prove

that God exists. It is only possible for that which exists to be perceived, and so God exists

because there are people who have had a personal encounter or experience with Him. In this

case, religious experiences can only be used to prove that God exists by people who have had

such encounters with God (O'Leary, 2016). However, this has been proven by the fact that there

are various people who have testified that they have had such experiences. Some have

testimonies that they have had dreams and visions, while others have received miracles such as

healing, speaking in tongues, or rescue from catastrophic dangers. As a result of these numerous

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cases of testimonies on religious experiences, this argument has successfully proven that God

exists.

The Argument from Miracles

This argument is closely related to the religious experiences argument. However, it

claims that the existence of miracles is adequate prove that Christianity is true and that God

exists. The Bible is also believed because the ministry of Jesus Christ was characterized by

numerous miracles that he and his disciples performed (O'Leary, 2016). As a result of his ability

to perform miracles, it is true that the teachings that Jesus taught had been endorsed by God. The

greatest of all these miracles was the resurrection of Jesus Christ, three days after his death. This

has grown to form the firm foundation on which most believers have built their faith and their

ministries on the word of God.

This essay uses various arguments from philosophers to settle the hotly-debated issue on

the existence of God. As such, they have successfully shown that God exists.

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References

Kragh, H. S. (2016). Entropic creation: Religious contexts of thermodynamics and cosmology.

Routledge.

Linzey, A. (2016). Christianity and the Rights of Animals. Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Monton, B. (2011). Mixed strategies can't evade Pascal's Wager. Analysis, anr092.

Mouzelis, N. P. (2016). Back to sociological theory: the construction of social orders. Springer.

O'Leary, J. S. (2016). Religious pluralism and Christian truth. Wipf and Stock Publishers.

Oppenheimer, P. E., & Zalta, E. N. (2011). A computationally-discovered simplification of the

ontological argument. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 89(2), 333-349.

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