Proving the Existence of God

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Proving the Existence of God
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Arguments for the Existence of God

• Ontological Argument
• Proposed by Anselm of Canterbury
• "Now we believe that the Lord is something that
  than which nothing greater can be conceived."
• "Then is there no such nature, since the fool has
  said in his heart God is not?"
• "But certainly this same fool, when he hears this
  very thing that I am saying something than
  which nothing greater can be imagined
  understands what he hears and what he
  understands is in his understanding, even if he
  does not understand that it is. For it is one
  thing for a thing to be in the understanding and
  another to understand that a thing is."

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Arguments for the Existence of God

• "For when a painter imagines beforehand what he
  is going to make, he has in his understanding
  what he has not yet made but he does not yet
  understand that it is. But when he has already
  painted it, he both has in his understanding what
  he has already painted and understands that it
  is.
• "Therefore even the fool is bound to agree that
  there is at least in the understanding something
  than which nothing greater can be imagined,
  because when he hears this he understands it, and
  whatever is understood is in the understanding."

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Arguments for the Existence of God

• Cosmological Argument
• a metaphysical argument for the existence of God,
  or a first mover of the cosmos.
• Initially proposed by Plato and Aristotle
• Based on the causality principle

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• Since the universe could, under different
  circumstances, conceivably not exist that is to
  say, since it is contingent its existence must
  have a cause
• And that cause cannot simply be another
  contingent thing, it must be something that
  exists by necessity, that is, it must be
  something that must exist in order for anything
  else to exist. In other words, even if the
  universe has always existed, it still owes that
  existence to Aristotle's Uncaused Cause, though
  Aquinas used the words "... and this we
  understand to be God"

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Teleological Argument

• Argument from Design
• an argument for the existence of God or a creator
  based on perceived evidence of order, purpose,
  design, or direction in nature.

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Teleological Argument

• X is too complex, orderly, adaptive, apparently
  purposeful, or beautiful to have occurred
  randomly or accidentally.
• Therefore, X must have been created by a
  sentient, intelligent, wise, or purposeful being.
• God is that sentient, intelligent, wise, or
  purposeful being.
• Therefore, God exists.

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Teleological Argument

• Complexity implies a designer.
• The universe is highly complex.
• Therefore, the universe has a Designer.
• - William Paley Watchmaker Argument
• - Irreducible complexity

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Moral Argument

• Man is a moral being
• Man understands right and wrong
• Morality is not a process of nature
• Moral laws must have a law writer
• The writer of the moral laws must be above the
  laws and must not be a process of nature
• God exists.

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Moral Argument

• 1. If there are objective moral values then God
  exists.
• 2. There are objective moral values.
• 3. Therefore, God exists.

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Pascals Wager

• If you erroneously believe in God, you lose
  nothing (assuming that death is the absolute
  end), whereas if you correctly believe in God,
  you gain everything (eternal bliss).
• But if you correctly disbelieve in God, you gain
  nothing (death ends all), whereas if you
  erroneously disbelieve in God, you lose
  everything (eternal damnation).

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Anthropic Principle

• The universe appears fine-tuned for life
• Examples 25 Universal Constants
• Nuclear force
• Gravitational force
• Neutron to Proton Mass Ratio
• Polarity of water
• The speed of universal expansion
• The charge amount on protons and electrons

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Argument from Reason

• The existence of human reason gives us good
  reason to suppose that God exists.
• If the world were as the materialist supposes,
  then we would be unable to reason to this
  conclusion.

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Other Arguments

• Argument from Scriptures
• Argument from Miracles
• Argument from Special Revelation

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If God exists, which God is it?

• The existence of God tells us nothing about who
  God is
• Nature can reveal specific characteristics about
  Gods character
• God can be
• Theistic
• Pantheistic
• Deistic

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