Arguments for God

Arguments for God The Word "God" in this table is used to refer to the general western Monotheistic idea of God. These are not all arguments for the existence of God but arguments that God is. "God does not exist; He is eternal" - Kierkegaard "God does not exist; He is the Ground of existence." - Tillich	Arguments against God
The arguments for God fall into two main parts: the Subjective arguments and the Objective arguments. The Subjective arguments are the ones that most people rely on for their personal faith because they are most immediate and most strongly felt. The subjective arguments are also the ones that critics quickly dismiss because they are experiences that can be attributed to other causes besides God. These arguments also include the academic and philosophical arguments that depend on logic and reason but can not be demonstrated empirically. The Objective arguments have a long history and have been described differently throughout the ages. They are classically divided into two sub-categories: Cosmological and Teleological. Both were tested and rejected during the 19th and early 20th century, but have been reexamined as a result of new discoveries in physics and astronomy.	The onus is on the believer to prove the existence of God, not on the skeptic to disprove it. God is not encountered as an object testable in physical reality and therefore can not be discussed in such terms. This fact is usually disputed by some Christians who point to Jesus as a physical artifact. But since the Body of Jesus is not available for inspection it becomes a question of historical reliability and the very nature of the claim demands more substantial evidence. The tendency of humans to fool themselves into believing what they want to believe leads most skeptics to conclude that without objective evidence, the idea of God is just wishful thinking. Skeptics attempt to conform their perceptions of reality to what actually is, rather than speculate on what might be.
Subjective Arguments There are three kinds of subjective experiences that convince people that God exists. They are the individual, corporate, and philosophical/academic : Individual Experiences: Mystical experiences as a result of meditation, prayer or sensory deprivation. Revelations (both direct personal and through divinely inspired scriptures), visions, dreams, and other experiences of God communicating. Beauty and elegance perceived in the universe and in human thought and theory. Joy - the kind that C. S. Lewis described. A longing for God triggered by experiences of acute perception. insight and ahah! experiences following intellectual attempts to understand God. Corporate Experiences: Group worship. (can be liturgical or charismatic but involve a shared sense of active adoration.) Chanting and other forms of repetitive behavior that make it feel like God is present. Cross cultural consensus. The belief in God, Deities, or 'higher states' across cultural groups. Academic and Philosophic observations: The idea of God is so absurd it must be true. Millions of people believe that God appeared on earth in a rural village as a humble carpenter. They further contend that all meaning and happiness depend on an individuals relationship to this historical event. Kierkegaard thought about this belief with detached melancholy and concluded that it 'did not arise in the heart of any man' Pascal's wager. After weighing the evidence Pascal concluded that there was enough evidence to hint at the existence of God but not enough to prove it. Pascal reasoned that given this state of uncertainty it was better to commit to faith in God since faith had a good track record of producing contentment and meaning in this life and promised eternal reward in the next. Committing to disbelief, on the other hand, promises little in this life and nothing in the next. A betting man, Pascal concluded, would put his money on faith. Paradoxes show that there are limits to reason or at least limits to language. (list of paradoxes) Belief in God may not be reasonable, and yet still be a correct perception of reality. Framework and Meaning. The idea of God provides meaning, justifies morality and provides a practical basis for the rest of life. Ontological argument. The very idea of God implies God's existence. It would be self-contradictory to say, "I can think of a perfect being that doesn't exist." God is that which nothing greater can be conceived. Saying there is no God implies a conceptual reality of God. William Rowe's Formulation of the Ontological argument: 1. If the greatest being possible does not exist, then it is possible that there exists a being greater than the greatest being possible. 2. It is not possible that there exists a being greater than the greatest being possible. Therefore: 3. The greatest being possible exists.	The God Spot and Psychological and Anthropological explanations for religious behavior. Most subjective experiences of God can be rejected because other adequate explanations have been constructed in the fields of medicine, physiology, anthropology and psychology. mystical experience can be seen as brain states produced by the religious practices and can be duplicated without a religious context through brain stimulation or hypnosis. There exists a "God Spot" in the brain that when stimulated produces feelings of being in the presence of God. Therefore any feelings of being in the presence of God may just be due to stimulation of this spot and not due to God. Chemical imbalances in the brain can make people think they are hearing God's voice when they are not. Religious behaviors and practices have survival advantage because they foster group cohesion, tribal identity and a sense of purpose. Such behaviors and practices have therefore been selected for over time. Such group cohesion tends to isolate and exclude individual's who do not share the group's beliefs and practices. Such corporate experiences only work for those who fit in, and therefore only work for those who already have faith. Millions of people can believe something and be wrong. Consensus does not guarantee reality. People believed that smoking was healthy until the facts demonstrated otherwise. Despite this, may people still choose to smoke. People believe a wide variety of things that seem odd to other people who don't believe them. Some of the strangest ideas about things are, in fact, true. When deciding what is made up and what is real, the skeptic asks for evidence and repeatability. Belief in Ghosts, Mermaids, or Aliens does not make them real. Neither does belief in God. If Belief in Ghosts, Mermaids, or Aliens had moral benefits, it still would not make them real. Belief in God does not make God real. Pascal's wager, like most wagers, exists because there is no clear knowledge of which alternative is more likely, therefore it is actually an argument for uncertainty. Paradoxes are simply the limitations of language, not of reason. Irrational knowledge doesn't make sense. A healthy morality does not have to be based on belief in God. Most that are based on a 'God-as-police-officer' faith are low level moralities according to most theories of moral development. (see stages of faith) Many agnostics and atheists have high moral standards.
Objective Arguments Cosmological Argument This is the argument from motion. If things are moving, what started them moving? Ultimately you can trace all motion back to a beginning. Contemporary versions of this argument call this beginning the "Big Bang" and ask the question, "If there was a big bang, what was before that. What caused the big bang?" This logical sequence forms the first two of Aquinas' classical arguments. The five arguments of St. Thomas Aquinas: 1. From movement to an unmoved mover. 2. From causation to a first cause. 3. From "May be" to "Must be" (contingency) 4. From More to the Most (graduated levels towards perfection.) and 5. From design to the Designer. (Teleology) Teleological arguments These are the various arguments that use the complexity and order of the natural world to suggest that such order and complexity could not have arisen without divine guidance. These arguments are rooted in Natural Theology. Natural Theology Is the attempt to learn about God by observing the world around us. Natural Theology uses reason to deduce, discern, differentiate and unravel in order that philosophical or scientific explanations and theories can be constructed. The two strongest arguments from natural theology are the Anthropic principle and Evidence of Design.	. . . The cosmological argument tells more about how we project biological rules onto physical ones. In Biology there is always something that generates something else. But in physics it may be possible for something to arise out of nothing.
1. Anthropic Principle. We are intelligent observers, therefore the universe must be structured in such a way as to produce intelligent observers. But the universe is at least ten billion orders of magnitude (a factor of 10^{10,000,000,000} times) too small or too young to permit life to be assembled by random processes. Researchers, who are both non-theists and theists and who are in a variety of disciplines, have arrived at this calculation. 2. Evidence of Design. Michael J. Behe's (et al) Irreducible Complexity + William Dembski's Intelligent Design Inference together support one main argument. A detailed primer on design. Molecular Machines: Experimental Support for the Design Inference	Theistic Anthropic Principle Refuted A Survey of Arguments Against the Theistic Anthropic Principle by Victor Gijsbers for Positive Atheism Magazine A critique of Michael J. Behe's Main Book, "Darwin's Black Box" by David Ussery which offers alternative explanations for, and careful arguments against irreducible complexity and design. Ussery also points out gaps in Behe's research and challenges several of his assumptions about information and theories in the scientific literature.
Other Arguments Based On Objective Evidence Two-state vector formalism of quantum mechanics Power of Prayer for healing There is some evidence that prayer done in a double blind situation still has some effect on rate of recovery from surgery. Other Miscellaneous evidence: Healings (one time medically demonstrable events) Miracles (one time empirically observable events) Prophecy ( Prophecies from the past are difficult to verify but hold weight with some people. In theory prophecy can occur today and would be testable over time.)

The Word "God" in this table is used to refer to the general western Monotheistic idea of God.

These are not all arguments for the existence of God but arguments that God is.

"God does not exist; He is eternal" - Kierkegaard

"God does not exist; He is the Ground of existence." - Tillich

Arguments against God

The arguments for God fall into two main parts: the Subjective arguments and the Objective arguments.
The Subjective arguments are the ones that most people rely on for their personal faith because they are most immediate and most strongly felt. The subjective arguments are also the ones that critics quickly dismiss because they are experiences that can be attributed to other causes besides God. These arguments also include the academic and philosophical arguments that depend on logic and reason but can not be demonstrated empirically.
The Objective arguments have a long history and have been described differently throughout the ages. They are classically divided into two sub-categories: Cosmological and Teleological. Both were tested and rejected during the 19th and early 20th century, but have been reexamined as a result of new discoveries in physics and astronomy.

The onus is on the believer to prove the existence of God, not on the skeptic to disprove it.
God is not encountered as an object testable in physical reality and therefore can not be discussed in such terms. This fact is usually disputed by some Christians who point to Jesus as a physical artifact. But since the Body of Jesus is not available for inspection it becomes a question of historical reliability and the very nature of the claim demands more substantial evidence.
The tendency of humans to fool themselves into believing what they want to believe leads most skeptics to conclude that without objective evidence, the idea of God is just wishful thinking.
Skeptics attempt to conform their perceptions of reality to what actually is, rather than speculate on what might be.

Subjective Arguments

There are three kinds of subjective experiences that convince people that God exists. They are the individual, corporate, and philosophical/academic :

Individual Experiences:

Mystical experiences as a result of meditation, prayer or sensory deprivation.
Revelations (both direct personal and through divinely inspired scriptures), visions, dreams, and other experiences of God communicating.
Beauty and elegance perceived in the universe and in human thought and theory.
Joy - the kind that C. S. Lewis described. A longing for God triggered by experiences of acute perception.
insight and ahah! experiences following intellectual attempts to understand God.

Corporate Experiences:

Group worship. (can be liturgical or charismatic but involve a shared sense of active adoration.)
Chanting and other forms of repetitive behavior that make it feel like God is present.
Cross cultural consensus. The belief in God, Deities, or 'higher states' across cultural groups.

Academic and Philosophic observations:

The idea of God is so absurd it must be true. Millions of people believe that God appeared on earth in a rural village as a humble carpenter. They further contend that all meaning and happiness depend on an individuals relationship to this historical event. Kierkegaard thought about this belief with detached melancholy and concluded that it 'did not arise in the heart of any man'
Pascal's wager. After weighing the evidence Pascal concluded that there was enough evidence to hint at the existence of God but not enough to prove it. Pascal reasoned that given this state of uncertainty it was better to commit to faith in God since faith had a good track record of producing contentment and meaning in this life and promised eternal reward in the next. Committing to disbelief, on the other hand, promises little in this life and nothing in the next. A betting man, Pascal concluded, would put his money on faith.
Paradoxes show that there are limits to reason or at least limits to language. (list of paradoxes) Belief in God may not be reasonable, and yet still be a correct perception of reality.
Framework and Meaning. The idea of God provides meaning, justifies morality and provides a practical basis for the rest of life.
Ontological argument. The very idea of God implies God's existence. It would be self-contradictory to say, "I can think of a perfect being that doesn't exist." God is that which nothing greater can be conceived. Saying there is no God implies a conceptual reality of God.

William Rowe's Formulation of the Ontological argument:

1. If the greatest being possible does not exist, then it is possible that there exists a being greater than the greatest being possible.

2. It is not possible that there exists a being greater than the greatest being possible.

Therefore:

3. The greatest being possible exists.

The God Spot and Psychological and Anthropological explanations for religious behavior.

Most subjective experiences of God can be rejected because other adequate explanations have been constructed in the fields of medicine, physiology, anthropology and psychology.

mystical experience can be seen as brain states produced by the religious practices and can be duplicated without a religious context through brain stimulation or hypnosis.
There exists a "God Spot" in the brain that when stimulated produces feelings of being in the presence of God. Therefore any feelings of being in the presence of God may just be due to stimulation of this spot and not due to God.
Chemical imbalances in the brain can make people think they are hearing God's voice when they are not.

Religious behaviors and practices have survival advantage because they foster group cohesion, tribal identity and a sense of purpose. Such behaviors and practices have therefore been selected for over time.
Such group cohesion tends to isolate and exclude individual's who do not share the group's beliefs and practices. Such corporate experiences only work for those who fit in, and therefore only work for those who already have faith.
Millions of people can believe something and be wrong. Consensus does not guarantee reality. People believed that smoking was healthy until the facts demonstrated otherwise. Despite this, may people still choose to smoke.
People believe a wide variety of things that seem odd to other people who don't believe them. Some of the strangest ideas about things are, in fact, true. When deciding what is made up and what is real, the skeptic asks for evidence and repeatability.
Belief in Ghosts, Mermaids, or Aliens does not make them real. Neither does belief in God.
If Belief in Ghosts, Mermaids, or Aliens had moral benefits, it still would not make them real. Belief in God does not make God real.
Pascal's wager, like most wagers, exists because there is no clear knowledge of which alternative is more likely, therefore it is actually an argument for uncertainty.
Paradoxes are simply the limitations of language, not of reason. Irrational knowledge doesn't make sense.
A healthy morality does not have to be based on belief in God. Most that are based on a 'God-as-police-officer' faith are low level moralities according to most theories of moral development. (see stages of faith)
Many agnostics and atheists have high moral standards.

Objective Arguments

Cosmological Argument

This is the argument from motion. If things are moving, what started them moving? Ultimately you can trace all motion back to a beginning. Contemporary versions of this argument call this beginning the "Big Bang" and ask the question, "If there was a big bang, what was before that. What caused the big bang?" This logical sequence forms the first two of Aquinas' classical arguments.

The five arguments of St. Thomas Aquinas:

1. From movement to an unmoved mover.

2. From causation to a first cause.

3. From "May be" to "Must be" (contingency)

4. From More to the Most (graduated levels towards perfection.)

and

5. From design to the Designer. (Teleology)

Teleological arguments

These are the various arguments that use the complexity and order of the natural world to suggest that such order and complexity could not have arisen without divine guidance. These arguments are rooted in Natural Theology.

Natural Theology

Is the attempt to learn about God by observing the world around us. Natural Theology uses reason to deduce, discern, differentiate and unravel in order that philosophical or scientific explanations and theories can be constructed.

The two strongest arguments from natural theology are the Anthropic principle and Evidence of Design.

The cosmological argument tells more about how we project biological rules onto physical ones. In Biology there is always something that generates something else. But in physics it may be possible for something to arise out of nothing.

1. Anthropic Principle.

We are intelligent observers, therefore the universe must be structured in such a way as to produce intelligent observers. But the universe is at least ten billion orders of magnitude (a factor of 10^{10,000,000,000} times) too small or too young to permit life to be assembled by random processes. Researchers, who are both non-theists and theists and who are in a variety of disciplines, have arrived at this calculation.

2. Evidence of Design. Michael J. Behe's (et al) Irreducible Complexity + William Dembski's Intelligent Design Inference together support one main argument.

Theistic Anthropic Principle Refuted
A Survey of Arguments Against the Theistic Anthropic Principle
by Victor Gijsbers
for Positive Atheism Magazine

A critique of Michael J. Behe's Main Book, "Darwin's Black Box" by David Ussery which offers alternative explanations for, and careful arguments against irreducible complexity and design. Ussery also points out gaps in Behe's research and challenges several of his assumptions about information and theories in the scientific literature.

Other Arguments Based On Objective Evidence

Two-state vector formalism of quantum mechanics
Power of Prayer for healing There is some evidence that prayer done in a double blind situation still has some effect on rate of recovery from surgery.

Other Miscellaneous evidence:

Healings (one time medically demonstrable events)

Miracles (one time empirically observable events)

Prophecy ( Prophecies from the past are difficult to verify but hold weight with some people. In theory prophecy can occur today and would be testable over time.)

Reference for "Power of Prayer for Healing": Byrd RC. "Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in coronary care unit population," Southern Med J 1988;81:826-9) as quoted on the web site: http://www.ncahf.org/Mis/resources/prayer.htm

References for "The universe is at least ten billion orders of magnitude (a factor of 10^{10,000,000,000} times) too small or too young to permit life to be assembled by natural processes." :

1. Yockey, Hubert P. "Self Organization Origin of Life Scenarios and Information Theory," in Journal of Theoretical Biology, 91. (1981), pp.13-31.

2. Hoyle, Fred and Wickramasinghe. Evolution From Space: A Theory of Cosmic Creationism. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981), pp.14-97.

3. Thaxton, Charles B., Bradley, Walter L., and Olsen, Roger. The Mystery of Life's Origin: Reassessing Current Theories. (New York: Philosophical Library, 1984).

4. Shapiro, Robert. Origins: A Skeptic's Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth. (New York: Summit Books, 1986), pp. 117-131.

5. Ross, Hugh. Genesis One: A Scientific Perspective. (Pasadena, Calif.: Reasons To Believe, 1983), pp.9-10.

6. Kok, Randall A., Taylor, John A., and Bradley, Walter L. "A Statistical Examination of Self-Ordering of Amino Acids in Proteins," in Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, 18. (1988), pp.135-142.