Existence Of God Essay

This essay will be examining the key arguments for the existence of God, in order to discuss the claim that “it is wrong to believe in anything without sufficient evidence”- with reference to the non-existence of God. It will be exploring both a priori and an a posteriori argument for the existence of God. It will solely be concentrating on the Theological argument, Cosmological argument and the Ontological argument, in order, to analyse their significance and contribution in vindicating the claim for the existence of God. The essay will begin by providing a clear philosophical characterisation of the God of Classical Theism, in order to accurately evaluate the arguments for his existence. The essay will explore varying interpretations and observations by scholars, in order to reach an accurate judgement on whether there is sufficient evidence provided to prove or disprove the existence of God.

Whether or not God exists is a question that has perplexed many for hundreds of years. Nowadays, the importance of science and reason has led to any assumption or theory put forward to also need sufficient proof or evidence for it to be taken seriously. The debate over the existence or non-existence of God is no exception; even for those who do not believe in God, it is necessary for them to define Him, if only to use the definition to construct arguments against His existence. The God of Classical Theism is characterized as an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent being who keeps an epistemic distance from that which occurs on Earth (Ahluwalia, 2008). This, however, is only a rough definition of him, and many have argued that due to the nature of philosophical language it is impossible or even nonsensical to talk of God (Ahluwalia, 2...

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...ment. He argued that existence could not be treated as a predicate as Anselm believed. According to Kant, a predicate must give information about something, otherwise it merely instantiates the claim, rather than adding to our understanding of it (Kant, 2002). Descartes appeared to anticipate this dispute, consequently, pointed out that Kant’s objection is not valid as it fails to take into account the unique nature of God, who is not a contingent thing as he necessarily exists or possesses ‘aseity’ (Harrelson, 2008). Gottlob Frege continued Kant’s argument by distinguishing between ‘first-‘and ‘second-order’ predicates. He critics the argument by suggesting that both Anselm and Descartes treat existence as a first-order predicate (which tell us about the nature of something), when it is actually a second-order predicate (which tell us about concepts) (Oppy, 2007).