The Existence of God
The existence of a God has for generations been the topic of fierce debate. This most
usually occurring between members of the religious society and, everybody else. As a
matter of fact the religious world itself has not always been able to agree on God. This
has resulted in many a holy man to take up the fight for his deity through the realm of
words. Many theories have been proposed, and all think that theirs proves beyond a doubt
on whether or not God exists. To write this paper I read four of those theories by
assorted men of the cloth, who all attempt to make the argument for a God in the
Christian sense.
The first of the theories I looked at was that of St.Anslem of Canterbury. He supplies
the ontological argument for the existence of God. The ontological argument states that
by understanding the nature of God himself, we come to realize he exists. He explains
this argument by first defining what God is. Anslem says that God is a being than which
nothing greater can be conceived to exist, that it can not even be considered not to
exist. In short, the fact that said being can not be considered not to exist, would
thereby make it greater than any that could be considered not to exist. This would in
all reality be the secret to God's omnipotence in Anlsem's eyes. Another point that he
stresses is that just be understanding the concept of what a God is, you are proving his
existence. This is because if you understand who God is, you can also accept his
existence, and therefore cannot conceive that he does not exist. Therefore making him
that which nothing greater
can be conceived of, and which cannot be conceived not to exist which we have already
defined as God.
The second argument for a God comes from St. Tomas Aquinas, who argues for the
cosmological point of view. The cosmological argument states that all things in this
universe have a cause, and since these causes cannot go on for ever there must be a first
cause, i.e. God. He argues that there are five ways to argue for the existence of God,
the first is the argument from motion. This states that everything in this world has
certain potentials for motion. It also states that for these potentials to be met
another object n motion must set off said potential. That object in turn would have to
have been put in motion by something else, and so on and so on. All of this ultimately
culminating to one object which started all this motion, that one being God.
The second argument he makes says that there are many things that happen in this world,
and they are effects derived from a cause. The effects in turn can be the cause of
something else and so on and so on. Yet nothing can be the cause of itself, so therefore
there must be a first efficient cause, that sets off other intermediate causes, in hopes
of reaching a ultimate goal. Therefore the first of all the efficient causes would be
God.
The third argument Aquinas uses is that of possibility and necessity. This argues that
everything in this world has possibility to be and not to be. So if there is the
possibility that everything at one time or another cannot-be, then at one time there was
nothing, because everything that could've been wasn't. Yet if there was nothing at one
time, then there was nothing that could be, and so there would still be nothing.
Therefore there had to be something that existed to cause all the possibilities of
everything else. But to be necessary something has to have something else cause it's
necessity, which has something else causing it's, ect. This as with everything else
stated before cannot go on indefinitely, so there has to be a beginning which would be
God.
The fourth argument says that there is a gradation of everything, and that at the top of
every gradation there is a maximum of the genus. He says this in turn is the cause for
all others in that genus to be the way they are. Thusly this must also hold true for the
goodness found in humans, of which the maximum who influences the rest would be God.
The fifth and final argument by Aquinas is that all things on this world with
intelligence travel toward a means or goal. He then says that this traveling is
influenced by the intelligence, which in turn is bestowed by a higher intelligence, and
so on. The ultimate directing intelligence being God.
The next in our line of arguments for the existence of God comes from William Paley, who
argues for the teleological school of thought. This mandates that God's existence is
proven through the anylazation of a single experience. To illustrate this he uses a
analogy of finding a watch. He begins by saying if he stumbled across a watch in a
field, he might tend to question how it got there. Unlike if it had been a rock on the
ground, Paley says we would not think it had just always been there. Instead we would
ration that someone had made the watch, even if we had no idea of what a watch was. It
could not just form itself from nothing, so It had to be made. Paley then reasons that
the world is much like the watch in that everything, trees, rocks, rivers, ect. All had
to be made by someone. Everything that was made was done so to a certain design, and
that design was thought up and created into a physical form. The one who created all
this, in his mind would be God.
The final take on the existence of God that I looked at, was that of a brilliant
mathematician named Blaise Pascal. Pascal studied calculus and was very good at using
math to figure out anything. He was asked if he believed in God, and if so could he
prove it with math. His reply developed into a theory in which he states it is better to
believe in a God than to deny it. He came to this conclusion by looking at the problem
rationally. Pascal figured out that the way to look at the existence of God is to look
at it as odds. He said that there was several ways a person's situation could turn out.
One would be that a person could believe in God all their lives and be correct, therefore
earning a eternity of bliss in God's kingdom. The opposite possibility is that a person
could believe in God all their lives and turn out to be wrong. This would mean no
reward, but he theorized that if they lived their life according to God they probably
enjoyed it anyway, and that was their reward. Another possibility is that someone might
not believe in God and find out their wrong, thereby being doomed to a eternity of
suffering and damnation. Yet again they might find out they were right, but they would
be dead and the point would be moot.
So by looking at these paths Pascal decided to look at the risks of each wager. In the
first you get infinite rewards from only one life of believing. Plus he felt that you
also probably had a fulfilling and enjoyable life too. So the first, can be looked at as
a win win situation in which you risked very little, and won much. The second and fourth
possibilities did not really concern Pascal much because by thinking of it in terms of
odds, neither seemed probable, and again wouldn't matter anyhow because you would no
longer exist. The third possibility however, in which you could end up in hell, seemed
to help persuade Pascal into believing in a God. He felt that for the amount you had to
lose in this situation, no intelligent human would take the risk. So in conclusion,
Pascal came to believe that believing in a God was a safe bet, in that it had the least
risk with the highest returns.
As for myself, after reading these papers I find myself tending to side with Pascal the
most. I don't think that a little insurance could hurt, because until there is proof
otherwise none of us really know.
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