The existence of God has been a big subject in philosophy and efforts to prove or disprove his existence have been taking place since the dawn of time. Asking the question of God lies mostly within the dimension of self-transcendence, where we can grasp the incomplete and mistake-prone nature of our knowledge. Essay on Why God Doesn't Exist: An Atheist's Argument Best Essays 2720 Words 11 Pages 4 Works Cited Open Document The belief in Gods has always existed throughout human's recored history. and if God exists, then we are responsible for our actions before Him. Just because oranges on top of the box are bad, does not presuppose that the rest are bad as well. Cambridge University Press. Levinas becomes more specific and talks about the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered for no reason. McCloskey ends his article with a pragmatic justification of Atheist, stating that Atheism is more comforting that Theism; a point that is stark in its irrelevance., Examine some of the key principles of the argument for the existence of God based upon religious experiences, The ontological argument rests on the premise that the universes existence is contingent- it depends on something else to exist. https://www.learnreligions.com/science-allows-belief-god-does-not-exist-248234 (accessed July 5, 2023). With respect to the proofs for Gods existence that McCloskey attempts to deal with, namely the Cosmological and Teleological Arguments, McCloskey offers trivial objections that are easily answered. In our own judgment, we may wish to throw the entire box away or move on to the more perfect box because of its defect. But if we talk about God we are talking about faith because without faith it is impossible to please God; because it is necessary that the one who approaches God believes in him, there is no need to see God because we have the faith that he is there. That is the immorality of science. What we call god (all human languages have a word for it) is something we infer from the fact of existence. At some point in life, everyone feels utter despair. Harsh changes were put on the Jews from the loss of basic human rights like freedom to the loss of lives. If there had to be a designer of, 1. Furthermore, if the thought that God does not have a cause for his existence then that also constructs another barrier for the cosmological argument. Zeus or Odin, Christian or Hinduevery possibility of a God or gods is up for exploration. Let me be clear: I believe God is. And I sure hope there is a time that the rapist utterly understands what he had done, even if it is in the next life. Seven Reasons Why a Scientist Believes in God. Ed. This does not mean that things do not change. It was really easy tocontact him and respond very fast aswell., "You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy". In the quest to find the truth it is important to realize that for religious matters one can only use religious ways, for one cannot use science to find God. In dealing with justice in the world or out of it, one must first know what justice is. God seeks to save us by wiping away our ignorance; nihilists seek to just wipe away humanity. There cannot be any empirical evidence of the existence of God, for God does not exist. Atheists claim there is scientific proof that God is not real. In this tragic event, people, both initiators and bystanders, played major roles that allowed the Holocaust to continue. Yet we can, with some effort, also fold again on our selves to catch our minds in the act of thinking. The bible gives the answer. 121-124. The planets in their courses exist. As John Henry Newman famously remarked, he knew what England looks like because he believed the mapmakers. The cosmological argument seems to make some sense but it also seems to be a small piece of the teleological argument. Elie Wiesel wrote dozens of books and submitted an essay titled A God Who Remembers to the book This I Believe. For many Holocaust survivors, this quote is true. In theory, it may be possible that someday we will come across new information that will lead us to further explore the God hypothesis. He also points out that rabbits having white tales to be easy to shoot is a Christian thought; one, I may add, I have never heard of (Russell 150). He used references for the Jews to personally strike images in their mind. If the evidence described in the above argument were found, for example, that would justify a rational belief in the existence of the sort of god under consideration. First introduced by Thomas Aquinas, the cosmological argument states that the existence of the universe is solid proof for the creator of the world we live in, God. Yet, the more we focus on it, the less time seems itself to exist. This is not to say that other tragedies were less horrible, only that the Holocaust was different and should not be compared and trivialized, the author noted (Tarnor Wacks 9). The ontological argument does not have a solid justifiable argument for Gods existence and the cosmological argument defeats itself as it turns into an infinite loop proven later on in the essay. Responsibility is a hard pill to swallow especially when a benevolent God is giving us such a thing. As far as the moral question of hell in trying to disprove the benevolence, if not the existence of God, I will ask this: where is the morality without a Heaven or a Hell? This has made some to argue that if indeed He exists then His power and or goodness to control evil is somehow diminished. To the other attributes of a possible god given above, we need to add that God does not know anything, in the sense of the compound operations by which we know a fact. It is a dead-end. These reasons may have included faith, race, or martyrdom. 159-164. Cline, Austin. Although these reasons are not fair, there were still reasons for people being killed. Just as the existence of a watch implies a watchmaker, the existence of the world implies an even greater designer: God. It is actually impossible to imagine a universe in which there is, say, only one hydrogen atom. Without God, there is nothing, a void. Charles Darwins theory of evolution was first just observations of the sophisticated design of our world. Cambridge University Press. (Aquinas against Anselm) The ontological argument is impressive to the average minded individual using words to describe it like perfect, necessary, and existence built into it's definition, but to others it's deception is clear. Theoretical Moral Arguments for God's Existence and Divine Command Theories of Moral Obligation 4. It is stated from the following three arguments that the existence of God can not be true so the first one states that; evil is their and yet God has the ability to prevent it from happening. Is that a belief? Does God Exist Essay In the vast study of philosophy, a particular question has baffled even the most intelligent minds. 165-170. Ed. The recent breakthroughs concerning time make that more plausible. Finally, the teleological argument presented by William Paley, also known as the Design argument, is a posteriori argument for the existence of God. In W. L. Rowe & W. J. Wainwright (Eds. The mind is no more the brain than the field is the iron, though the one depends upon the other. Part of HuffPost Religion. In this essay, I will argue that in, Examine the key features of the Teleological argument. The only problem is that we are dealing on a higher level and this scares the rational mind. One of these arguments is the Cosmological Argument which is essentially a theory which consists of 8 main points, but this essay will highlight the origins of the argument, the developments by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas and some criticisms by David Hume and Immanuel Kant and coming to a conclusion of how successfully the Cosmological Argument proves the existence of God., In fact McCloskey places the bar even lower by referring to the proofs of rather than arguments for Gods existence, thereby overstating the Theists claim. God cannot be proved or disproved because nobody knows him personally. If God does not exist, life is ultimately meaningless. People exist. While there are clear limits to our knowledge, everyone knows what it means to exist. Austin Cline, a former regional director for the Council for Secular Humanism, writes and lectures extensively about atheism and agnosticism. For we create our own Hell with our actions and not God who only wishes to save us from it. Cambridge University Press. One of the issues raised by recent popular atheist and deist books by, among others, Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchins is that they all seem content to disprove the existence of a Flying Spaghetti Monster. The justice that Russell talks of is consigned to worldly views and greed more than anything else. Adam, in the Garden of Eden, was free of evil until he chose to disobey Gods law, or if one is not religious, anyone at the beginning for that matter. W.K. A discussion that is very controversial is the debate for the existence of God. What kind of good news is burning in a lake of fire? God exists. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1988. Thus, fear as a basis for religion does not work in Christianity. This dilemma of evil has led to the following proposals of various ways to try and solve the problem of, Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor who strongly believes that people need to share their stories about the Holocaust with others. Anselm was aware that the existence of God is denied by atheists and in response to this, he states the fool has said in his heart there is no God., One burning and enduring problem in philosophy to which we have given considerable examination is the question of the existence of God--the superlative being that philosophers have defined and dealt with for centuries. This means that people would be confirming and refusing Gods existence. If this were a sound argument I could just as easily list cases of good, and unexplained miracles to prove there is a God and that would get us nowhere either. Furthermore, human beings are social animals whose minds develop in contact with others. Who is to say that he did exist? Every life knows tragedy. Now I am not preaching Hellfire here. Theists, on the other hand, insist that science, in fact, has been unable to prove that God does not exist. Copyright 2023 IPL.org All rights reserved. Fueled by hatred, intolerance, and anti-semitic beliefs under Adolf Hitlers rule, He writes, "this is the century that in has known two world wars, the totalitarianisms of right and left, Hitlerism and Stalism, Hiroshima, the Gulag, and the genocides of Auschwitz and Cambodia" (377). Second, that Whatever cannot itself need the universe in order to exist itself. The conquest of freedom of thought, expression and worship allowed, not only the peaceful coexistence of different creeds but also the option for atheism is as respectable as any other. Any information contained within this essay is intended for educational purposes only. Does God Exist Essay | Cram Discussion They defend that justifying the existence of an imperative being is not the same as proving Gods existence. Argument From Miracles: Do Miracles Prove God Exists? Look for such evidence with an open mind. While the Holocaust may not have been a hoax concocted by the Jews for the sake of profit, evidence suggests that the events, as they were presented to us, are not the exact account of what took place during World War. The holocaust is the term used for the Murder of Jews since 1993. We all seem aware of it, just as we are aware of our existence. He used the concept of being than which no greater can be conceived to develop the existence of God. Without God, there is one entity the existence of which we cannot explain, namely the universe; with God there is one entity the existence of which we cannot explain, namely God.. Don't use plagiarized sources. Many have tried to use the argument for design to show that God does not exist. The whole heart of the Christian belief is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On the evening of November 9, 1938, the Holocaust began with carefully coordinated attacks on Jewish businesses. It ultimately comes to an individual to decide if God does indeed exist. To conclude, looking at all three arguments there is one argument that has little to no fault which is the teleological argument. Descartes also argues that there is no less contradiction in conceiving a supremely perfect being who lacks existence than there is in conceiving a triangle whose interior angles do not sum to 180 degrees. Cline, Austin. Natural Theology. In any case, no one can refute God through the existence of evil. God is good, plain, and simple. A "fact" is an artifice, as the word itself implies. Physicists have joined in since Ludwig Boltzmann in the late 19th century. 3rd ed. Beliefs and Choices: Do You Choose Your Religion? If he only suffers for such an action through the anguish of spirit a hundredfold harsher than the parent had to suffer I, as the parent, would feel justice was served. You cannot understand something outside of your existence rationally because you cannot experience it or see it; you can only theorize, believe and trust in it. If you need to flag this entry as abusive. There are many out there that try to use other methods to prove that God does not exist. Clifford, W. K.The Ethics of Belief. Unfortunately, this was just a sample of the horrors that would be shown in the next twelve years. When arguing whether God exists or not, it is important to understand belief. 4) If the universe has a cause of its existence, then that cause is God. Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/science-allows-belief-god-does-not-exist-248234. Many have raised issues whether the all powerful and good God was unable to prevent the execution of innocent children, men and women of Jewish origin from 1933 to 1945 on n account that they were born to a Jewish parent. If we were not an enemy to God there wouldnt be any evil to speak of. To be scientific, as Russell calls it, is to consign all the oranges to the garbage because the top oranges are bad. The foremost concept of the teleological argument revolves around the idea that the world is designed, suggesting that there is evidence of design in the universe to prove Gods existence, hence it argues a posteriori. Available from: https://gradesfixer.com/free-essay-examples/does-god-exist/, Dr. The word teleological derives from the Greek word telos, therefore the argument concentrates on the idea of purpose and order in the universe., There are approximately 7 billion people that inhabit this Earth. Then there is the argument that if evil exists God cannot exist. Moral Arguments for the Existence of God - Stanford Encyclopedia of Now the teleological argument, even though the universe we live in could have emerged out of nowhere, but a universe with such detail and complexity that has the right balance to support life is improbable. Some further refinements are necessary. They are so terribly terrified of the theory of evolution. When people believe that God exists they do not mean that there is a God and he has the property of existence. There would be no reason to worship it; in fact, one would do well to avoid it and its "noodly appendages.". Assume that God has specific attributes that should provide objective evidence for his existence. Ed. Retrieved from http://studymoose.com/does-god-exists-or-not-essay. I was nothing but ashes now, but I felt myself to be stronger than this Almighty to whom my life had been bound for so long. John R. Burr and Milton Goldinger. Those who say they do not believe in God often give lack of evidence for their unbelief. Home Essay Samples Religion Existence of God Does God Exist. Throughout history, man has tried to prove and disprove the existence of God. What we take for granted as "real" is a construct of our brain, senses and nervous system. Or is it more of an assumption? Everyone who has learned about World War II should know about the Holocaust. And that begins with clarifying the terms. A popular argument is known as the Design Argument. That unique thing has to have someone else imagining it. Aquinas, T. (1981). New York: Bantam Books, 1982. It is this ability to transcend the routine operations of the mind that allow us to grow and mature. New Jersey: Simon, 1996. It could just be ignored like any other non-existent notion. As the dictionary defines assumption, something taken for granted or accepted as true without proof (Assume). Drawing either conclusion should evoke in us a sublime terror, a holy fear, which is the beginning of wisdom. However, with this belief, I can improve and find real solutions to my problems after the trial of this belief through personal experience so that I may receive a witness of this, after which it is no longer a belief but a fact. If the ontological argument prevails, then the argument for the perfect island works as well. As John Hick in The Problem of Evil says, Evil whether it be an evil will, an instance of pain, or some disorder or decay in nature has not been set there by God but represents the distortion of something inherently valuable. If God also exists, then God would be just another fact of the universe, relative to other existents and included in that fundamental dependency of relation. What does all this have to do with God? The Holocaust was during the same period of World War II. This era has become the central barrier to the contemporary Jewish belief. In order to prove impact on the universe, there must be measurable and testable events that could best or only be explained by whatever this "God" is we are hypothesizing. The argument that the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper no matter how annoying, has nothing to do with disproving that there is a God (Russell 152). By continuing well assume you board with our cookie policy. I can understand how accepting something with insufficient evidence can be morally harmful, but what Clifford refers to isnt a belief; it is more of an assumption. The causes of the Holocaust do rest heavily on anti-Semitism, but there where other cause such as nationalism of Germany, polarization of Jewish people in the form of the Nrnberg laws and scapegoating, isolationism of Jewish people due to the totalitarian regime of Hitler and his secret police the Gestapo, and the fear of the capabilities of the Jewish. Some people argued that God exist and proved by many philosophical theories or scientific basics and religion reasons. New Jersey: Simon, 1996. Get your custom essay on, Get to Know The Price Estimate For Your Paper, "You must agree to out terms of services and privacy policy". The standard form of Anselm's ontological argument is as follows, god is greater than what cannot be conceived, we can coherently conceive of such a being, it is greater to exist in reality than to exist only in the mind and therefore, God must exist.