Arguments for and against the existence of God

Posted: October 17th, 2013

Name:

Course:

Lecturer:

Date:

Arguments for and against the existence of God

Many philosophers, theologians and scientists have argued for and against the existence of God. The debate for and against the existence of a supreme being have been raised by many philosophers concerning these issues. The atheists assert on the arguments of existence of God through providing insufficient reason for believing in God. Contrary, the theists acknowledge that God exists through putting their faith and believe in God. Some religions such as Buddhism do not involve themselves in the debate at all. Diverse reasons have been provided by philosophers concerning the issue. These arguments are well explained using the cosmological, design, transcendental, ontological, free will arguments.

The cosmological argument takes diverse forms and it tries to explain that everything takes its course. This argument supports that God exists and he is the creator of the universe. Everything that happens in the universe has its cause and these causes can be traced back as far as their origin. Ashton and Michael (54) argue that everything that exists has a cause and this cause is God. Actually, there is nothing that happens in the universe on its own thus behind every undertaking, there is a cause for it. Aristotle, one of the religious philosophers, argues strongly that God exists because he is the cause of everything that was created in the universe. Moreover, the theists agree that the universe was created by God an indication that God exists. Their beliefs on the existence of God is based on their faith thus providing reasons that God is omnipresent, omniscience as well as omnibenevolent (Mawson 67).

In addition, God is said to be the creator of the earth and everything in it. From the design of the argument, the universe could not have been the way it is if it were not the work of God. It could have had a different arrangement of planets and stars and thus because of the existence of God, everything was arranged in order. Moreover, existence of all life forms could have not been present if God did not exist. Even Christians believe that, God exists because he created people in his own image and placed them as representatives of the earth. They provide a justification for their argument using the moral argument that commands everyone on what he or she is supposed to do. This moral command has ultimate authority thus needs to be commanded as well as obeyed.

The freewill argument provides a justification for the non-existence of God. From this argument, the atheists argue that God does not exist unless the theists provide a justifiable reason for his existence. It is difficult to define the spirit or God by it is meaning, thus, it is pointless for accepting that God exists. The Christians defines God as someone who knows everything thus everyone has to have free will. This means that for one to have a free will there must be choices that need to be made and there must be a state of uncertainty. Hence, a being who knows everything cannot have a state of uncertainty because they know their choices in advance. This means that no prospective for avoiding choices thus lacking free will. Thus, the Christian God does not exist because a being that lacks free will is not a personal being.

Nevertheless, some philosophers believe that God does not exist. Basing on the ontological and transcendental arguments, some philosophers seek to deduce the existence of God logically. The ontological argument is one of the weakest arguments for theism because it only provides unclear arguments basing on the assumptions. The transcendental argument attempts to refute the existence of God. It provides an argument that Christianity is false because some Christians perform miracles whereby some natural laws are being violated and that God does not exist because of the existence of too much evil on the universe. Moreover, it is impossible to provide prove for the nonexistence of God but the atheist response is virtually non-existent. Mawson (71) argues that if God exists, then sufferings could not be allowed. Thus, the atheist objects on the idea of Christians that God is Omni benevolent because they argue that if God really exists, then he could not have allowed his creatures to undergo pain and sufferings.

Work Cited

Ashton, John F, and Michael Westacott. The Big Argument: Does God Exist? Green Forest, AR:

Master Books, 2006. Print.

Mawson, T J. Belief in God: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Clarendon

Press, 2005. Print.