There is no celestial deity of any kind in this solar system. Now go away and learn what atheism means before trying to start a thread about atheism. The transcendental argument for the existence of god. However, it seems to me that the existence of god can only really be thought of as at best metaphysically necessary, but not logically necessary. Ultimately, what we see in human experience, science, logic, and history leads to a confident answer. The best books on the existence of god ed feser on five books. There remain many mysteries that are beyond science. But the key is not a perfect or absolute certainty, as skeptics assert, but a standard of proof that answers the question beyond a reasonable doubt. Moral arguments for the existence of god stanford encyclopedia of. The term atheist describes a person who does not believe that god or a divine being exists. If god exists, god is the reason why there is a natural world and the reason for the existence of the causal processes of the natural world. As we already unpacked the argument from necessity, we have found that gods existence is mandatory. Ontological arguments stanford encyclopedia of philosophy.
Worldwide there may be as many as a billion atheists. As a result, proof of him will never be found in a universe bound by science. Discover why believing in god makes so much sense ken boa, robert m. This specific religion exists is a much, much larger. Just as the existence of actual atoms can be proved by an image of atoms, the existence of god can be proved by the image of god, that is, jesus christ 2 corinthians 4. Discussion on logical absolutes as a proof for gods. If god exists at all, god is not an entity within the natural world, but the creator of that natural world, with all of its causal processes. In philosophical terms, the question of the existence of god involves the disciplines of epistemology the nature and scope of knowledge and ontology study of the. Sometimes gods actions do not make sense to humans, but this does not make them illogical. Come now, let us reason together, says the lord isaiah 1.
If there were concrete evidence of gods existence, then everyone would believe in him. The reason why the epoe exists is that, given what we know about the world, suffering, lack of good reasons for the suffering, disagreement amongst theistic philosophers and. A discussion on logical absolutes as a proof for gods existence. Within those who stipulate there is a god, ive seen 2 major approaches to this question. An ontological argument is a philosophical argument for the existence of god that uses ontology. After over 40 years of not believing that god exists, i was dared by a christian friend to read a book.
Introduction it is a common platitude in philosophy of religion to hear the claim that the existence of god is necessary, or that god exists in all possible worlds. The most common critique leveled at new atheists is that we attack only puerile, fundamentalist forms of religion, and never engage with the. God is defined as a maximally great or perfect being. God exists everywhere, including outside the physical realm. The best arguments for gods existence dont challenge atheists. My opinion, for what its worth, is this often leads to logic seeming arbitrary instead of being the. When i got sick, i spent some time reading multiple books on. For the same reason, only the fool has said in his heart, there is no god psalm 14.
I was surprised to find that there was scientific evidence for the existence of god. But im determined to base my personal philosophy and my concept of truth on nothing but rocksolid facts. If there is no rational reason to believe something, then ipso facto that is a rational reason to disbelieve it. Atheists also demand empirical evidence but deny theists when they say that god exists outside space and time and therefore cannot be proven empirical. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of god. In training his darwinian guns on religion, richard dawkins risks destroying a larger target than he intends. Does logic presuppose the existence of the christian god. The bible contains many books, and some are more logical than others. For close to two decades cass seltzer has all but owned the psychology of religion, but only because nobody else wanted it, not anyone with. The next step towards the proof that god exists is to determine whether you believe that logic exists.
As an attempt to provide a reason for believing god exists, asking this question simply commits the appeal to ignorance fallacy. The two greatest logical arguments for gods existence. But, i would like to note that sometimes in the atheist discussion rooms there are bystanders who will mock, insult, and say vile things about the lord while the conversation between a christian and an atheist goes on. Whether god exists is the most important question any person can consider. An example of a law of logic is the law of noncontradiction. In fact creation was designed mathematically and logically. To believe that god exists, must you renounce reason and. If youre going to argue that the existence of god is simply unnecessary, youre ultimately going to have to deny the principle of sufficient reason, where the principle of sufficient reason is the thesis that for anything that exists and for anything that occurs, there must be a reason sufficient to account for why it exists or occurred. Atheists demand logical and rational evidence of god from theists but deny that logic and reason can prove god. Beyond a reasonable doubt can we say with 100 percent certainty that god really exists.
However, the logical necessity of gods existence is found in the following argument presented by douglas grootius. Apologetics is the discipline of explaining our beliefs and faith in god through systematic, logical arguments and discussions. Logical proof would be irrelevant to someone who denies that logic exists. Evidence for this can be found in the amazing popularity of c.
Can a religious truth be logically proven, or is religion forever relegated to being a matter of blind faith. Anselm claims to derive the existence of god from the concept of a being than which no greater can be conceived. Its logical to believe in god because the existence of god provides consistent answers to many of the more important philosophical questions asked by human beings. Reviews of books with scientific evidence that god exists. I have been disappointed by so many christian books i read especially those that try to prove god.
The best books on the existence of god ed feser on five. Being well acquainted with logic and rhetoric, the blatant logical fallacies often times presented as proofs is an embarrassment to christian intellect. More specifically, ontological arguments tend to start with an a priori theory about the organization of the universe. A trained expert in both philosophy and debate, hes amplified the logical arguments for gods existence in the public sphere. Opinions on god are everywhere, but answering the question does god exist. This is an attempt to demonstrate the existence of god using the laws of logic, also referred to as logical absolutes. Are there logical reasons to believe that god exists. We can find concrete evidence of gods logical nature in that he limits himself. For skeptics to claim, god cant be proved, doesnt then make their assertion that god isnt real. But if a writer openly rejects logic what paul dismisses as the wisdom of the greeks then that writer loses my interest. We welcome your comments in the reasonable faith forums.
William lane craig on the logical reasons for believing that god exists. The fields of philosophy of religion and analytic theology show a great amount of sophistication and conceptual richness, so why arent the new atheists. If a writer seems to respect logic as mark and john seem to then they interest me. Since theres no proof that god exists or that jesus ever lived in other words, since these ideas cant be objectively demonstrated by logical, controlled, and repeatable methods i see no reason to believe in christianity. Logical proof that god exists and the bible is all true by paul kasch isbn.
The existence of god is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and popular culture. Start with a dictionary definition as you cant even get that right. This is a problem that arises from peoples attempts to logically explain god, which is aptly called an archidox, in that the idea of god is not only unreasonable like a paradox, but points to a reality beyond reason i used to be really persuaded by the rational and causal explanations for gods existence, but they dont permanently stand up to scrutiny. No god of any kind has ever done anything godly in scope since the first con man created him to gain power and influence over his superstitious buddies and. The transcendental argument for the existence of god tagthe argument that logic, science, and objective ethical standards presuppose the existence of the christian godhas been repeatedly used by a small group of christian apologists operating within the orthodox presbyterian tradition. For instance, we know that there cannot be an infinite amount of past time.
Many arguments fall under the category of the ontological, and they tend to involve arguments about the state of being or existing. Lewiss mere christianity 1952, which is almost certainly the bestselling book. Arguments why god very probably exists the conversation. You have acknowledged that absolute truth exists, and that you know some things to be true. Contains 31 verses, of which the name of god is written in only 25 verses. We jumped into this discussion with an atheist after a challenge to prove that god exists. After that first book, i found other books with more scientific evidence. The existence of god is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and popular culture a wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of god can be categorized as metaphysical, logical, empirical, or subjective. If there is a true religion, shouldnt we be able to prove it.
8 419 1340 669 568 478 1321 904 1613 373 1620 1555 329 1078 1462 1396 1133 1542 138 907 1497 1480 528 1508 151 499 1569 1419 771 1287 144 418 1058 267 203 763 1341 329 1486 1278 128