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Argument on the existence of God
Argument on the existence of God
The conflict between spirituality and science
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An argument that's been going for as long as religion has existed is the existence of God. There are always people out there that want the believers to prove to the non-believers that God exists. Thomas Aquinas is the one to start the idea that the non-believers should be the ones trying to prove to the believers why there is no God. Making the non-believers take the action to research the proof that God doesn't exist. Professor Ralph McInerny mentioned in his article, that believers are tired of having to answer the same old questions and doing the research to show non-believers that God does exist (p.1). For once, let's have the atheist do the work to show the proof there is no God. The reasons why the atheist should be responsible for proving
Thomas Aquinas thoughts can also be related to McInerny's arguments. Aquinas, in Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas, answers the question if it is possible to defend sacred doctrine. Aquinas begins this argument by talking about science and how non-believers would try to prove there is no God based on their knowledge through science; "As the other sciences do not argue in proof of their principles, but argue from their principles to demonstrate other truths in these sciences, so this doctrine does not argue in proof of its principles" (Aquinas, p.14). In this statement, Aquinas is informing readers that science always backs up facts with more scientific facts in order to prove that something is true. But when it comes to grind and gritty, science doesn't really prove that their scientific principles are correct or that the other scientific principles are
As McInerny and Aquinas mentioned earlier, it would be more beneficial for the non-believers to go out and look for the proof that God doesn't exist. Believers know why they decided to believe that there is a greater power behind all the beauty in the world. So having the non-believers go and search for the answer on the reality of God would help them find the knowledge about God through nature. By using natural theology, non-believers can use it to find the proof they need to show that God doesn't exist rather than making believers prove to the
...nough to support the idea of God’s existence, I consider the debate to have no winner, because, the arguments of Dr. Dacey are also strong enough to prove his position. However, in these debates the double answer is not possible, because in reality the existence of God can be true of untrue, without anything in between. In my opinion, God exists, and I strongly believe in His existence. I consider the question “Does God Exist?” to be the issue of faith, and there cannot be true or false arguments, because all the people are willing to decide, whether they believe in existence of God, or not. It is the inner choice of everybody, and sooner or later we will all find out the truth.
However, despite this when their belief is challenged, “They are able to show that it is not blind and unthinking”. Atheists don’t believe that any form of a God exists; they believe that everything (the world and its inhabitants etc) just appeared. The atheistic view says: “there is no explanation”.
Whether god exists or not has been in discussion for thousands of years, and an important discussion. Whether it is rational to believe in god or not is another story, like believing in god itself, this topic has brought many discussions. It is one thing to discuss whether god is real or not and it is a complete other to discuss whether it is rational to believe in god or not. I believe that while there may not be any convincing evidence or arguments that God does exist, I do still believe that it is still rational to believe that god does exist. I think this because, believing in God is not simply just believing that he exists, but believing that it can bring good to our lives, we otherwise would not have. It teaches us to have a moral responsibility not only to others, but ourselves. It is obvious that many people do believe in god, but many of us choose to do so for reasons other than just believing in God. I do believe that just because there is no evidence, that does not mean God doesn’t exist. Like I said, God brings more to our lives than just a belief, but an ability to achieve a better one. And even if God is just an imaginary figure, he is an imaginary figure that brings hope and goodness to our lives, which we can never discount.
Many readers follow Descartes with fascination and pleasure as he descends into the pit of skepticism in the first two Meditations, defeats the skeptics by finding the a version of the cogito, his nature, and that of bodies, only to find them selves baffled and repulsed when they come to his proof for the existence of God in Meditation III. In large measure this change of attitude results from a number of factors. One is that the proof is complicated in ways which the earlier discourse is not. Second is that the complications include the use of scholastic machinery for which the reader is generally quite unprepared -- including such doctrines as a Cartesian version of the Great Chain of Being, the Heirloom theory of causaltiy, and confusi ng terms such as "eminent," "objective" and "formal reality" used in technical ways which require explanation. Third, we live in an age which is largely skeptical of the whole enterprise of giving proofs for the existence of God. A puzzled student once remaked, "If it were possible to prove that God exists, what would one need faith for?" So, even those inclined to grant the truth of the conclusion of Descartes' proof are often skeptical about the process of reaching it.
H.J McCloskey’s article, “On Being an Atheist,” is an attempt to show atheism as a more practical alternative to the Christian belief. McCloskey reasons against the theistic beliefs of the cosmological argument, the teleological argument and design. He references the presence of evil in a world created by God and the absurdity of living by faith. This article is an attempt to reason that God does not exist because He is perfect and the world is not perfect; evil exists therefore God cannot exist. McCloskey’s article labels these arguments as “proofs” and concludes none of these arguments would be evidence of God’s existence. I find McCloskey’s article to lack logic and coherence which only serves to invalidate his arguments. I find this little more than an attempt to justify his own atheistic worldview.
Question: Briefly summarize Aquinas’ Fifth Way of proving the existence of God. What counter-argument does Hume cite in answer to this argument from Design? What is John Hick’s answer to Hume’s argument from Evil? Is he right?
In this paper I will be exploring two arguments on the topic of the existence of God. In particular, I will focus on Saint Thomas Aquinas’s efficient causation argument for God’s existence and an objection to it from Bertrand Russell. After an analysis of Aquinas’s argument and a presentation of Russell’s objection, I will show how Russell’s objection fails.
Aquinas' Arguments for the Existence of God In Summa Theologica, Question 2, Article 3, Aquinas attempts to prove the existence of God. He begins with two objections, which will not be addressed here, and continues on to state five arguments for the existence of God. I intend to show that Aquinas' first three arguments are unsound from a scientific standpoint, through support of the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe. In the first and second arguments Aquinas begins by stating that some things change and that the changes to these things are caused by things other than themselves. He says that a thing can change only if it has a potentiality for being that into what it changes.
Theology is an intentionally reflective endeavor. Every day we reflect upon the real, vital, and true experience of the benevolent God that exists. We as humans tend to be social beings, and being so we communicate our beliefs with one another in order to validate ourselves. Furthermore atheism has many forms, three of the most popular atheistic beliefs include: scientific atheism, humanistic atheism and the most popular one being protest atheism. Scientific atheism is the idea that science is the answer for everything and god is not existent. The humanistic approach states that society is self-sufficient; therefore God is not needed for survival. Therefore how could he exist? The position that I will argue in this paper is the pessimistic idea of protest atheism.
He concludes he did not create the idea of God. A finite being is incapable of creating an idea of an infinite possibility. Therefore, God must have created the idea already in him when he was created. Concluding that God exists. He also touches upon the idea in which he resolves that it cannot be a deceiver.
Intellectuals have ventured into other forms of potential evidence; a good example is ‘Newton and the Thumb’: Isaac Newton believed that thumbprints alone proved the existence of God. This is because the design on a person’s thumb is completely unique; nobody else’s thumbprint will be the same. This kind of intricacy and attention to detail Newton said; couldn’t have come about by some freak accident – and must have had a creator. Another example is ‘Paley and the Watch’: William Paley stated that the Earth is like a watch – it has an extremely complex design, and has to have a designer. He said that if you were to throw all the pieces of the watch up in the air, they could never fall into positions that would make the watch work, similarly he said that the Earth could not have come about by some random dispersal of matter, and that it had to have had a designer (just like a watch does). Obviously, both of these statements can be argued for and against, but regardless they are valid suggestions that God does exist.
Proving the existence of God is a worthwhile task. If someone did come up with a complete, foolproof argument for the existence of God, the people of the world would have no choice but to believe in His existence. However, even though St. Thomas Aquinas makes a worthy effort, I believe that such a task is not possible through logic and reasoning alone. There is an element of faith that must be present for people to believe, and if that element is not there, no matter how foolproof an argument seems to be, there will always be those who do not believe. In his fifth argument, St. Thomas Aquinas makes as close to foolproof argument that I believe anyone could make, and, for me, it does prove God's existence. However, if that element of faith is not there, I do not think you can completely prove God's existence to everyone.
Aquinas was proven a scholarly man who combined the theological principles of faith and the philosophical principles of reason. He combined his education, beliefs, points of view, writings, teachings, preaching’s and the works of others which launched his own learning and exploration of philosophy. Aquinas believed that the existence of God could be proven in five ways. The one concluding that the impermanent nature of beings proves the existence of a necessary being, God, who originates only from within himself. Aquinas claims that essence and existence are really different from each other.
In this essay I discuss why there is proof that there is a supernatural being known as God, who has created everything we know and experience. The mere claim, that there could be a "Proof for the Existence of God," seems to invite ridicule. But not always are those who laugh first and think later. Remember how all-knowing doctors/scientists laughed at every new discovery?
According to Aquinas, there are certain “truths of faith” that we should accept even though we are unable, by human reason, to see that they are true. He states that the divine Wisdom knows everything, and it is designed to reveal to people its teachings. He explains that the truths of reason cannot be opposed to the Divine truth, they cannot be thought of as false, and truths by faith are not allowed to be thought of as false. He states that, “.only the false is opposed to the true.” This reasoning was confusing to me, the statement makes sense, but just the explanation is hard to follow.