Arguments about God Essays

Arguments about God Essays Arguments about God Essay Arguments about God Essay Essay Topic: Arguments In this RS coursework, I intend to write about the Christian arguments concerning god. In the first part I will describe some of the main arguments Christians put forward about their belief in God.In the second part I will explain some of the difficulties in trying to describe God, for example what gender should we use while describing him.The third part will contain a debate as to whether god exists, and if he does then whether or not we should be able to prove it. I will accomplish these tasks using different points of view, mine included.Part one: the main arguments Christians put forward about their belief in God.a) First beliefs picked up from the beliefs of parentsFirst beliefs are often taught to children from their parents, young children often assume everything their parents say is right, even if it contradicts reality, for example Father Christmas. Those who grew up in a Christian family are likely to have Christian beliefs, just as those brought up in a Hindu family are likely to have Hindu beliefs. This is because Children have no experience of the world and actuality itself; therefore they have no capability to question their parents. The beliefs of God, are often enforced through bedtime reading of the bible, or in the case of hell, told as a true horror story; purposely to scare children into believing. These beliefs, children simply accept until they get older, when they begin to question their parents and challenge them. Thus a childs belief as to whether or not God exists is influenced from the start of its life from its family and social experience.Questions about the existence of God in late childhood and when you are an adultThere are many questions human beings ask at some point in their life: the mysteries of the universe, mainly revolving around one thing, God. These questions have no specific answers and can be dwelled on for years before actually making sense, but there have been many arguments and beliefs peopl e of the past have thought and written about. Only a few of these questions are:Question 1 -How has anything come to exist rather than nothing?If in the beginning there was nothing, what was the reason for the universe to be created? For what reason did it go to all the bother of creating it/itself.The answers to this perplexing question are the arguments of St Thomas Aquinas; he was a 13th century philosopher who argued many of his beliefs. One of which was that God was the first uncaused cause. In other words; he believed in the non-believers argument of the big bang, (a huge explosion) but he sustained that something had to be behind the big bang; a will for the universe to exist; God. And thats why something came out of nothing, instead of remaining nothing.Question 2 -How has the cosmos come to be so well designed and some features purposeful?This question means how come the universe and everything in it is so well designed for its living environment? For example, evolution.Wil liam Paley imposed his idea. His example was a watch, if someone found a watch he wouldnt simply assume it had evolved, it had to have a maker the clock maker; but in the universes case, God.Similarly, the watches are often flawed; they will break eventually due to age. This is due to the flaws of the design and therefore its makers, in other words the thing that is made reflects its good and bad attributes to its maker. We can see in wildlife and ourselves how each is designed to fit its purpose magnificently. Hence their maker must also be magnificent. The answer to these questions is perfectly clear; the cosmos has come to be so well designed because of God. Simple creatures that cannot think for themselves are so perfectly adapted to their environment, they appear to be almost designed to be that way. They have no knowledge, they are constantly being guided by a higher entity, which has the spirit and thoughts they dont. If you look around outside, you would be able to see how well things seem to fit together, almost as though the world has been synchronized to the highest and most complex way.Being impossible for us humans to control creatures and scenery to this extent, we must look to a higher existence, God.However, a slight controversy to this would be, many creatures in todays world are under risk because theyre not well designed for the environment they live in. Among the animal kingdom, the cruel rule is survival of the fittest where some animals are blatantly less well designed than others are. This indicates that the universe is as a result of random chance, not clever design. And then it spirals back to the question of whether we have a malevolent or incompetent God. Then again, this point of view is flawed because if the animal kingdom were all balanced equally, none of the species would survive. This is because carnivores need to be able to catch their food, so they would have to be better than their prey wouldnt they? Besides the world cant be completely unbalanced in a bad way because then the food chain would spiral out of control.Question 3 -How did organic life come to be in the universe?How did everything natural still alive or extinct end up becoming a part of the universe.Everything in this world has a purpose. Without all the organic life on this world there would be no world, just a lifeless, insignificant piece of rock in the middle of a huge universe. Christians believe in the seven day theory where God created every organic life form within 7 days, (genesis) however these beliefs may not always be taken literally as there is significant evidence that the world must have taken millions of years to create. The world would appear to have started off full of bacteria and minerals and rocks, that is all.Then after an immense amount of time humans, plants and animals eventually were created. All this is absolutely extraordinary, because life requires a parent, or a life giver. Monkeys give birth to monkeys, zebra s give birth to zebras but who was there before there were any of these species? Who and how where they made? This is where the belief of the existence of God is important. Belief in God provides a clear explanation for a seemingly unclear event, for example, like how was the earth created? God was the original cause according to the bible, St Thomas Aquinas and many Christians today.Question 4 -How has intelligent thought emerged, enabling us to ask these questions?This uncertainty demonstrates that we are able to think freely, whereas other creatures cant and where did this originate from?The answer from Christians lies in the bible. It states in the second creation story that God gave us free will, because he didnt want little slaves following him round everywhere, doing exactly as he pleased, and not having a life for themselves. However, he didnt want us to disobey him either. He created us in his image, and he had a thinking mind, so he allowed us one too. Only to have us betr ay him. Consequently he banished us from the Garden of Eden.We ask these questions because we are a certain people, we dont like mysteries, they have to be solved. Some people spend their whole lives trying to figure out the worlds secrets and then it even passes on to their offspring. We are obsessed with logic. But logic has not solved all these questions for thousands of years!So what use is logic, we still dont actually know whether God exists, whether its the God from Christianity or Hinduism etc. But people believe it and so to them it is real. God is a simple way out of a difficult question like so many other things in todays life. For example aliens ghosts and the supernatural etc. In fact, belief in God can provide a simple explanation of things, events etcQuestion 6 -How is it we recognised awe and the numinous in a sunset, beauty and music, etc?How come we can acknowledge the supernatural in a sunset etc?The solution is that in fact not many of us often do realize the bea utiful and supernatural things in life, such as a sunset. However Christians often do as they appreciate everything in the world and to be Gods will and work. The world and solar system is all pretty amazing, many of us just never have enough time to simply think about all the marvellous things, that we take for granted everyday of our lives. For example the force that allows planets to orbit around the sun and never bump into each other, rotating the moon and the sun depending on night or day. The world is rather beautiful even in the simplest things. We sometimes recognize it and when we do, it gives us an understanding that there is something out there, making all this happen. This thing has so much power that it stuns us with awe at the thought of it, theres not a lot more powerful than humans so when something stronger strikes us its rather breathtaking to think about.Question 7 -How do we come to recognise the need for rules and morality?Why do we have rules and principles? Ho w did we comprehend it? We are a logical people who like order and clear explanations of events.The answer is there must be someone watching over us, an ethical lawgiver. Christians believe this is God and in the bible it explains the 10 commandments, which allow us to enter the kingdom of heaven when we die, but only if we follow them. There also always needs to be rules in society, or bad events will follow. Christians believe this is God testing us and these bad events are punishments. So as not to anger God again we inaugurate rules so it never happens again. This argument is called the moral argument.Question 8 -How is it we recognise the value of love e.g. from parents, friends etcWe often interrogate our understanding of love and how we can recognize it.The first love ever, to Christians was when God created humans he loved us dearly and still does. When Adam and Eve betrayed him and he banished them from the garden, he made clothes for them, to hide their nudity, which they where ashamed of. God was angry, but the clothes were symbols of his love for us. Nowadays, we recognize love as a feeling of affection towards someone. Whether theyre a friend, relation, lover or even an animal. Behind love there is an entity telling us that love is good and we feel warm inside when were around people we love. Christians believe this is a reward, and love is good.Personal experience of believers in GodSome people claim to have had a personal experience of God; sometimes such experiences can turn atheists into Christians or Christians into deeper Christians. A few examples of what a personal experience could be:* The feeling of wonder and peace, Christians get when they enter a holy building or somewhere significant to God.* Another experience is conversion this is where someone normally (not necessarily a Christian) gives her/his life to God and preaches about the Christian faith, whereas before he was just an ordinary guy.* An additional experience could be miracl es. Miracles are where something contradicts normality, with the only explanation of it being God. Like when someone is almost sure to die and then miraculously recover. Another type of miracle could be when Christians pray, and their prayers are answered. Miracles are powerful to believers in God as the cause and effect can be related in a short time period.* One more experience could be of actually seeing the God, and sensing his presence. This could happen in a near death experience, or from a flat liner brought back by the hospital staff. It could also happen through dreams or trances, these are called mystical experiencesThese experiences are often extremely hard to explain, almost as if the human language isnt enough to describe the extremity of the emotions involved. It also seems to be unique to each viewer so no one else understands. Often the onlooker describes the experience as a window to another, better world.Everyday experiences evoke ideas of GodWe experience God ever yday of our lives, whether or not we have enough time to even embrace the thought of how beautiful everything around us is. We can see Gods work in everything organic, we can smell it, touch it, hear it, and taste it. You can sense the supernatural when day changes into night and the moon and Sun swap. The sun doesnt set and rise of its own accord; the earth doesnt spin of its own accord. They are constantly upheld by God to never stop spinning and never bash into each other. There is always a day after a night and always a night after a day. Always birds singing harmoniously in the morning, do we not groan and wish some one would shoot them, shouldnt we take their song to be a compliment; exquisite life lives below our windowsill? And what about all the risks we take everyday, adults drive cars, children take buses, we cross roads, drink alcohol and there are so many other risks we take every single day. If you thought about it, doesnt it make you feel as if youre being watched ove r? Christians are thankful for those singing birds, thankful that their last cigarette didnt kill them, thankful to God for keeping their families safe for at least that one last day. Dont we take all this for granted?We thank God for our daily bread, For what we are about to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful.Crises in life, which provoke deep questions about GodIts all very well we appreciate the birds and the trees, but what about when a crises happens? Many Christians are forced to question their faith, question whether their whole lives worshipping God have been worthwhile or just completely time-consuming and pointless. A few examples of this are:* Illness* Death of family members or of loved ones* Divorce* Suffering* Depression* Rape* Struck by lightning* Car accidentsIf God looks after his believers how come he lets these bad things happen to us?Reinforced by millions of other similar believers of GodAs well as many other things that influence Christianity, Christia nity is the number 1 religion in the entire world, so there are absolutely millions of believers of God, Christians can connect with and be further influenced, to continue their religion and stand up for it until the bitter end. Christians regard their Christian friends as their family, their church as their second home. They share such friendly love for their family and true Christians go to church for fun, meetings and a little miracle that happens when they enter the church; a rush of love for God, and the friendship (fellowship) of man (people).Part two: Difficulties in trying to describe GodTraditional theological words associate unique features to GodIn Genesis it states that God created us in his own image, yet we cannot do half the things he can. For example there are many theological words associated with God, these are omniscient, which means he knows everything, what has happened to us, what will happen to us, who is important to us, what were thinking etc. However, it al so states in the bible that we have free will. If God knows whats going to happen to us, isnt that controlling us?Another word would be omnipotent, this means he can do everything but if he could do anything then he should be able to create a rock that he couldnt lift? This is logically contradictory, like so many other things that contradict each other in the bible.Another word would be omnipresent, this means he is present everywhere including every evil situation, but if this is so how can we trap a bit of God in a box?Another word for God and his apparent super-human attributes is Omni benevolent. But this is also flawed because if he was benevolent he would be incompetent; if he is competent he would be malevolent. This is because of all the suffering in the world, if hes so benevolent, why doesnt he stop it? Isnt he supposed to be omnipotent? If he is omnipotent then he must not want to stop it, which means hes not omni benevolent. What about the holocaust what are Gods reason s for not stopping it? However, it also states in the bible humans have free will, perhaps in the example of the holocaust, it was Hitlers will that the holocaust happened. So God didnt mess with Hitlers decision, until Hitler died that is. But this must have been very difficult for thousands of Jews to accept.Like humans but beyond human lifeGod is said to be like humans, but he is so much beyond human life that we simply cannot describe him in our human language. All we can say is he is completely beyond and utterly superior to the world, after all he did create it according to the bible. In fact, humans have so many different points of view of how God is, they all become entangled and confused. Brian Davies, a Philosopher of Religion in Philosophy of Religion, 2000 wrote:The word God has been understood in different ways. So you should not assume thatdiscussions as to what God is are always proceeding on a set of shared assumptionsGod is traditionally pictured as a man could he n ot be also seen as a woman? God also sometimes pictured as a ray of sunshine, or a personHuman words not enoughIn the bible, because of the language barrier of describing God, the writers can only use metaphors, symbols and analogies. A word symbol example famously used in the bible would be The Lord is my shepherd Psalm 23.1. Such stories made sense when most story telling was by word of mouth, with few people able to read. Also most people, until recent times, had little education or ability to read and write. So symbols are bigger than signs because they go beyond basic facts. However, symbols should not be interpreted factually or literally. That is why the bible is sometimes so misinterpreted, it is full of symbols, and often the reader takes those symbols literally or takes non-symbols as symbols.Since we only have the simple human languages, we cannot talk about an entity beyond humanity, so instead we use analogies for example God loves you where Gods love analogous with hum an love.Ontology: a description that leads to an argument for existence (part a)Anslem was the Arch Bishop of Canterbury in 1033 and he came up with the prospect of ontology. He based his argument on the prayer Proslogion, which uses this definition; The Ontological definition the language of perfect and full existence God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived Proslogion 1078.Anslem believed that with God there must always be existence, just as with a 3-sided triangle there must always be 3 angles. To be a triangle this is necessary, to be God this is necessary. God cannot not exist because he is the greatest possible conceivable entity. In other words, God is not the greatest conceivable entity that exists but is the greatest conceivable entity.The different between existing in reality and existing in imagination is that existing in reality is stronger. If the strongest entity ever existed in the imagination then an entity just like it would have to live in reality, therefore being better than the entity in the imagination, so the entity in the imagination couldnt be God, as God would have to be existing to be the greatest conceivable entity.God cant be made or destroyed because he is the perfection of everything, including existence. So Gods existence is unlimited, Gods non-existence is impossible. From this the concept of immortal also follows.Part 3: A debate as to whether God exists and if he did, whether or not we should be able to prove it.From arguments in part 1 summarise their strengths and weaknessesThe arguments about whether God really exists:1. The moral argument, we have so many laws in todays life there simply must be some kind of law giver at the start. If a random moral law just existed on its own, (which is actually impossible) there would be no moral foundation for people to believe in it. It may exist, but if there is no reason for it to then why should anyone follow it? Laws exist because someone wrote them, however the la ws are equal for everyone so the lawgiver must be absolutely good. Who is absolutely good? No one apart from God himself.2. The teleological argument, this is the argument of St Thomas Aquinas; He believed God was the first uncaused cause. The strengths of this argument are that as well as his own beliefs he accepts the scientific ones as well, e.g. the big bang. His argument also dates back from Plato and Aristotles unmoved mover, perhaps even before. This means the argument has a pretty solid origin. At first his first uncaused cause argument looks reasonably sturdy but do they actually prove God? We could argue against the first uncaused cause theory by questioning the fact that God is the first uncaused cause, why couldnt it simply be the universe or the big bang? In other words cant the universe of created itself instead of creating an entirely new entity? This surely makes more sense. And besides all this, what makes the first necessary cause God? It could quite easily be some thing else, in no way whatsoever must it be God or anything to do with Christianity or the bible.3. The cosmological argument, why there is something rather than nothing, why theres a universe, why did it go to all the bother. The best explanation is that we have an omnipotent God who created it. God created it and thats that. However, there are many objections to this argument. The first doubt is how this possibility matches the Principle of Sufficient Reason. This states that everything ever existing has a reason. However this is not clear, because if everything exists for a reason, and God is self-caused then we have a logical contradiction. However, this rule may not apply to God but only things existing in the universe, maybe it only applies to important things like the universe. I think its fair to say the universe does need an explanation, and the answer to that explanation is God.From language in part 2 is it possible for humans to give a conclusive answerDue to the limitati ons of the written word and language cannot give a conclusive answer nor deal fully with the possibility of God. Arguments in English probably can never be fully solved anyway because if one person actually figured out the answer to all the riddles and firmly knew it was true, either theyd never convince everyone else, or it would be too complex to actually put into words. Many of the spiritual, or religious experiences can be felt or experienced, but are really hard to think through and put down in words.So language is limited in its ability to give and explain a conclusive answer. Many new words were created (e.g. ontology, omnipotent) to try to describe feelings or spiritual things.Verification/FalsificationTrue Christians cannot easily be persuaded to change their viewpoints on their belief.John Hick the road, is a parable, and like all parables has narrow limitations. It only makes one point, which is in Christian life, they will always believe in God, and whatever happens the y will end up in either heaven or hell. The atheist protests however that this doesnt prove God exists. The road explains this point in a context of two people walking down a road, one a Christian one an atheist, the road resembled their life and they walked their journey in a separate frame of mind from each other, the atheist not understanding what will happen to him at the end of the road, the Christian knowing he will probably go to heaven, but perhaps hell.This parable explains to us that at some point during our life, we make a choice. Whether to be a Christian and follow the path God has laid out for them, or to be an atheist or a member of any other religion, unknowing what will happen. To be a Christian is to believe the bible, it would be almost impossible to convince him/her otherwise, but Christians simply believing in something, doesnt make the atheist believe it too.Basil Mitchells The Stranger is an allegory about a man and a stranger. The man meets the stranger once in intimacy and from then onwards completely trusts him and believes him to be right. No matter what people said against this stranger, the man kept believing. Though questions arouse about the strangers purpose, the man never questioned his friend. This story is like a Christians faith. From the first time they understand about God and love him, they never question their faith, no matter what anyone says. They believe it and no one can change that, the only way possible is if they think Gods betrayed them, but this rarely happens and often Christians return to their faith after theyve calmed down. This parable deeply shows the amount of passion Christians show for their religion. When theyre faced with a question they dont answer it, when something good happens they thank the lord, when something bad happens they believe God knows best.John Wisdoms The Garden is a very simple story with a great meaning behind it. The story basically consists of two people who walk into an untended garden, the first person sees the weeds the negative effects but the second person puts his belief forward and sees all the positive things about the garden, for example there could be a line of daffodils or something that would seem to suggest to him a hidden gardener had come and tended the garden. The moral of this story is that Christians believe everything happens for a reason, they look at life in a positive way because they know God is always watching over them, when something bad happens they take it as a warning.For example if a Christian was seated on a wooden chair, which had slowly been eaten away by termites for months, and finally the chair broke, while this Christian was sitting on it. The Christian would take it as a punishment from God for not clearing those termites, he would be positive about his fall and think of it as a sign from God that he should do something, whereas an atheist would simply curse and take falling off his chair as simple bad luck and possibly clear the termites. This is why you often see a lot of old ladies going back to Christianity, Christians way of life gives them hope if theyve lost their partners or something else terrible has happened to them.