GOD EXISTS BECAUSE THE WORLD SHOWS EVIDENCE OF DESIGN
The teleological argument
William Paley, an eighteenth-century Anglican priest and philosopher, concluded that all living creatures are far too complicated to have arisen by chance. For him the universe was clearly showing direction and an instrument for a goal. Therefore, the universe must be the product of an intelligent designer. He added an example of someone who finds a watch, but had no prior knowledge of what watches are. Even so he has never seen one, the man quite naturally concludes: The watch has been designed and is used for a purpose. He does not assume the watch came into existence by chance.
GOD EXISTS BECAUSE EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD HAS A FIRST CAUSE
The cosmological argument
Thomas Aquinas was probably the first to use the Causality Argument as published in his Summa Theologica.
Many others have arrived at the same point of view: Only nothing comes from nothing everything else comes from something. Everything leads back to a more original form. Thomas Aquinas argues that there is no case known in which a thing turned out to be the efficient cause of itself, because in that case it would be prior to itself, which is impossible. If, however, one thing was caused by another, there would be an infinite chain of cause and effect, which would be impossible. But if we take away the ultimate cause it is to take away the effect. If in efficient causes it is possible to go on to infinity, there will be no first efficient cause,
neither will there be an ultimate effect. Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God. Thomas Aquinas also argued that the existence of motion itself suggests a prime mover (scientists developed for that purpose the 'Big Bang theory. However, such a Bang could not have developed if there was absolutely nothing before. Therefore, the question remains where did this infinitely dense point of origin come from?)
GOD EXISTS BECAUSE THE DEFINITION OF GOD IMPLIES EXISTENCE
The ontological argument
(The ontological argument is based entirely on reason.)
St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first to develop this argument around 1077. He argued:
Men believe God to be the Being than which none is greater can be thought. It is greater to exist in reality and in the understanding than to exist in the understanding alone. Therefore, it is contradictory to hold that God exists only in the intellect, for then the being than which none greater can be thought is one than which a greater can be thought, namely, one that exists both in reality and in the understanding.
GOD EXISTS BECAUSE OF THE EXISTENCE OF MORAL ABSOLUTES
The moral argument
It is believed that universal moral standards are required for the proper functioning of society. Since objective standards of morality indeed exist, it is argued, so must God, since God is the only possible source of such standards. H.P.Owen: It is impossible to think of a command without also thinking of a commander ... A clear choice faces us. Either we take moral claims to be self explanatory modes of impersonal existence or we explain them in terms of a personal
God. It is also argued that moral laws inspire guilt and responsibility because they have a personal basis in the personal will of God. John Henry Newman wrote: If as is the case, we feel responsibility, are ashamed, are frightened, at transgressing the voice of conscience, this implies there is One to whom we are responsible, before whom we are ashamed, whose claim upon us we fear. GOD
EXISTS BECAUSE OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE SUPERNATURAL
The argument from miracles
One widespread view of miracles sees them as breaks in the natural order of events in the material world. Sometimes these breaks are referred to as violations of natural laws and it is often said that these breaks or violations are brought about by God or by some extremely powerful being whose action can interfere with the normal course of nature's operation.
The occurrence of miracles is frequently purported to be evidence of the supernatural, and therefore of the existence of a God.
GOD EXISTS BECAUSE WE EXPERIENCE HIM
The argument from experience
C.S.Lewis Someone who says God doesn't exist is like a child who tells me that passionate love doesn't exist - they just haven't experienced it yet. It is claimed that without appealing to anything other than a direct contact with God one can have reasonable grounds for asserting that there is a God. Just as I can reasonably say that there is a bed
in my room because I have encountered it, so I can reasonably say that there is a God because I have directly encountered him.
GOD EXISTS BECAUSE TIME EXISTS AND TIME NEEDS A BEGINNING
The Time Argument
Muslim philosophers argued: If the universe had a beginning at all, the beginning cannot rest on nothingness but God. If the universe had, instead, an infinite past and is without beginning and uncreated, then it is impossible to have arrived at the present moment, in the same way as it is impossible to jump out of a bottomless pit. The key here is the concept of infinity. Surely, if we have to go back infinitely without arriving at a beginning, there could be a great problem with having arrived at the present moment. Without a definite starting point in time, this is simply impossible.
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