The Proofs of the Existence of God - Essay Example

The Proofs of the Existence of God There is a spiritual part of human life. Varieties of religions provide different approaches regarding whom to believe in – some religions are monotheistic, like Christianity, while the others may present the pantheon of gods, like Hinduism. Religions or doctrines may concern mainly human issues, omitting God’s figure, for instance, Buddhism or Confucianism. Some people are atheists – they do not believe in any god. The troublesome issue is that it is hard to provide evidence, which would be clear and credible for all the people. This paper is focused on the consideration of the evidential reasons to believe in God’s existence and to believe in His non-existence. Humanity has searched for the discovery of the nature of God for the long time since the conscious living. It is important to realize, whether people have any reason to be believe in Gpd’s existence – or His absence. Faith widely does not incorporate reasoning. It looks like that these two areas of human perception lie in the parallel layers if reality and, thusly, do not cross. How does the concept of God’s foreknowledge corresponds the concept of human freedom? There are also debated represented widely on the topics around the creationism and evolution. There is question, what is the real role of the Godn in the creation of the universe and was He actually the one, who forced all this to start from the beginning of times? One of the brilliant approaches was proposed by one of the greatest figures in the fields of philosophy, mathematics and physics – Blaise Pascal. He is a genius of French origin, who invented the first mechanical adding machine. He also was one of the developers (together with Fermat), of modern probability theory. He was a genius indeed, as he invented his basic theorem of projective geometry at the age of 16 only. All the before-mentioned aimed to ensure the credibility and authority of the weight of his argument from probability for believing in God’s existence (Hacking). His approach is absolutely practical. It simply claims that the expected utility of belief in the existence of God far outreaches the expected utility of the absence of belief in God. Defining what he meant by that, it is important to know that he was a brilliant mathematician and his approach is absolutely logical and well-structured. Pascal states that it is reasonable to believe in God’s existence as risks and benefits actually point on that. He proposed to utilize the four positions, which are probable in case of the combining presence of belief and existence. He stated that in case a person believes and God exists, the person gets very high total amount of happiness. In case a person believes, however, God does not exist is a bit low. In case when a person does not believe, yet God exists, the person looses a very high amount of happiness he or she might obtain. In final case, when a person does not believe, and God does not exist, happiness is a bit high. Thus, leaning on this scheme, it is clear that losses are higher in case of not believing, while the benefits in case of the positive outcome are absolutely incredible. There are two major types of all the reasons, which may be considered: prudential and evidential (Haldane). Prudential reasons strive for making people and their lives better; evidential discover the truth. As far as the one provided by Pascal is an amazing example of the prudential reason, but it does not fulfill the evidential reason requirement totally. Further the several reasons would be observed. The belief of the existence of the almighty creature, a genuinely wise creator of the universe is a core of the doubt, which separates atheists and religious people. The three major evidential reasons are cosmological, ontological and teleological (Hegel). Cosmological reason is also called causal, as it states that it has to be a purpose of everything to be done as it is. It has to be an ultimate creator who had an idea and made it true. Ontological reason is a kind of a priori argument. It is not needed to search for earthly proofs of God’s existence. It has non-empirical nature. In case godlike features are observed, it mean that there is somebody there, who obtains these divine features. This argument is being widely discussed as not valuable; it had met many objections. Teleological argument states that all the things are created for a purpose; all is created by the intelligent designer. Probably, while the cosmological argument stresses on the cause of existence of everything, the teleological one point on the complexity of the structure. It is hardv to believe that the world could just appear from nowhere, having no purpose and just developed surprisingly, having no ultimate guidance. In case God exists, why would all this grief exist? How is it possible so that all the wars, famines, and cruelty take place on the Earth, under the sight of God? All these questions come into minds of people, which support the consideration of the belief of God’s non-existence. It is a kind of argument from evil. In Christianity God is kind and almighty – so why does such amount of pain, suffering and death exists currently? There are controversies found even according to the Bible data. In Christianity God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent. However, it is shown he did not know the Earth is round (Luke 4:5, when all the kingdoms are seen from the high mountain). He was with Judah and cannot deal with the inhabitants of the valley as they possessed iron chariots. Also, the Lord cannot lie. Thus, he seems not to be omnipotent. Observing the scene about eliminating Sodom and Gomorrah, he was not omnibenevolent, as he killed not only dreadful sinners, but the whole city with their small children, animals – actually everything was erased from the Earth surface. In my point of view, there is a great order, the balance that has to be maintained. People have to realize that they have each a particular role, a plenty of roles through the lifetime. Going through the pain and suffering they learn important life lessons. God is wise indeed. People cannot realize the truth on their current level of consciousness. All the nature is organized in the manner, where there are simple forms of life and higher forms of high complexity. A human is observed to be the highest level of life organization. However, just as plants cannot perceive how animals perceive existence; as animals cannot perceive the existence how humans do, it is quite possible that people cannot perceive the existence how the higher creator feels it. The part of the puzzle can not realize the whole puzzle and its real size and the overall picture. People tend to obtain black-and-white worldview. Like God is omnibenevolent – thus why I am suffering? People have their understanding of what is good and bad. But God may see it more profound. Evil know can help to avoid greater evil further – otherwise it may give something that will help to achieve greater good, obtained due to the features worked out due to pain and grief experienced earlier. People appear to be here and now. Even they have fantasies of future and memories of the past, they merely distract them from the happiness of conscious life, perception and actions right now. Still it is not God’s foreknowledge people have. People have to widen their perspective. God is not only a subject from the Bible. Or Quran, or Bhagavad Gita. It is a creature to be perceived on own experience. People have to search God. Mainly all the religions have common core points. The perspectives may vary, however, for any religion, there an almighty creator (sometimes it is a couple in religious streams that point on duality of all the existing thing – for example, in Shintoism). There is an order of things. It can be healthy and reasonable – according to the creator’s plan. Following it leads to happiness and sense of fulfillment, while disruptions lead to suffering. It is a kind of a tool to forward people on the right way. There is a sacred text, which provides the instructions on how to live. All the sacred texts have it – the Bible, Quran, Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads etc. Even Confucianism which is a philosophical doctrine, proposes quite religious instructions, clear to those met in all the other texts. If avoid surface level, which concerns clothing and festivals, the core point within the religions are very close. All the religions have their prophets. There is also a dark side, always present through the religions – Satan, gods that depict evil aspects of the universe. There are prayers of different kinds, meditations, rituals and so on – all of them lead to the altered state of consciousness and a kind of communication with God. This joint agreement, covered by the false ‘surface’ disagreement and even wars based on the religious background, leads to the assumption, which can be added to the arguments for God’s existence – how could that be possible that people would observe the same core laws of the universe? People know the inner truth. It can be hidden deeply, however, people can realize mainly, what is good and what is bad. To underline all the discussed above, everyone has a free will, even if limited by determinism and reasons and presuppositions for everything; and is capable of deciding whether to believe in God. In case of confusion, Pascal’s argument created a convenient base for logical consideration in case of lack of spiritual revelation. Works cited Hacking, Ian. "The logic of Pascal's wager." American Philosophical Quarterly (1972): 186-192. Haldane, John. "Issues: Nicholas Rescher on Religion and Philosophy." Rescher Studies: A Collection of Essays on the Philosophical Work of Nicholas Rescher 2 (2008): 121. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. "Lectures on the Proofs of the Existence of God." (2007). Holy Bible. "New international version." Grand Rapids: Zondervan (1984). Read More