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Theistic approaches Deism · Henotheism Monotheism · Panentheism Pantheism · Monolatrism Specific conceptions Names · "God" · Existence · Gender Creator · Architect · Demiurge · Sustainer Lord · Father · Monad · Oneness Supreme Being · The All · Personal Unitarianism · Ditheism · Trinity Omniscience · Omnipotence Omnipresence · Omnibenevolence in Bahá'í · in Buddhism · in Christianity in Hinduism · in Islam · in Judaism in Sikhism Experience and practices Faith · Prayer · Belief · Revelation Fideism · Gnosis · Metaphysics Mysticism · Hermeticism · Esotericism Related topics Philosophy · Religion · Ontology God complex · Neurotheology Euthyphro dilemma · Problem of evil (Theodicy) This box: view • talk • edit

Arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, and others. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. Deism is the belief that a supreme God exists and created the physical universe and that religious truths can be arrived at by the application of reason alone without dependence on revelation Henotheism ( Greek heis theos "one god" is a term coined by Max Müller, to mean devotion to a Single god while accepting For the Celtic Frost album see Monotheist (album In Theology, monotheism (from Greek grc [[wiktμόνος μόνος]] Panentheism (from Greek (pân "all" (en "in" and (Theós "God" "all-in-God" is a belief system Pantheism ( Greek: πάν ( 'pan') = all and θεός ( 'theos') = God it literally means " God is All Monolatrism or monolatry ( Greek: μόνος ( monos) = single and λατρεία ( latreia) = Worship) is the recognition of the existence See also God Conceptions of God can vary widely despite the use of the same term for them all The English word god continues the Old English ang god ( got-Latn guþ gudis in Gothic, gem gud in modern The gender of God can be viewed as either a literal or an allegorical aspect of a deity A creator deity is a Deity in a Creation myth responsible for the creation of the World (or Universe) The Great Architect of the Universe (also Grand Architect of the Universe or Supreme Architect of the Universe) is a conception of God discussed by many Demiurge (the Latinized form of Greek demiourgos, δημιουργός, literally "public or skilled worker" from demos God the Sustainer is a theological term referring to the concept of a God who sustains and upholds everything in existence God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. In many religions the supreme Deity ( God) is given the title and attributions of Father. Monad (from Greek μονάς monas, "unit" monos, "alone" which according to the Pythagoreans, was a term for God Oneness is a spiritual term referring to the 'experience' of the absence of egoic identity boundaries and according to some traditions the perception of an absolute The term Supreme Being is often defined simply as " God " and it is used with this meaning by theologians of many religious faiths including but not limited to The All (also called The One The Absolute, The Great One The Creator The Supreme Mind The Supreme Good The The expression Personal God, refers to the belief that God is - and can be related to as - a Person. Unitarianism as a theology is the belief in the single personality of God in contrast to the doctrine of the Trinity (three persons in one God Dualism denotes a state of two parts The word's origin is the Latin duo, "two". SSC RF "Troitsk Institute of Innovative and Termonuclear Research" or TRINITY for shprt Троицкий Институт инновационных и термоядерных Omniscience (ɒm'nɪsɪəns (or Omniscient Point-of-View in writing is the capacity to know everything infinitely or at least everything that can be known about a character Omnipotence ( Omni Potens: "all Power " is unlimited power Omnipresence is the ability to be present in every place at any and/or every time unbounded or universal presence Omnibenevolence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "unlimited or infinite Benevolence " Bahá'ís believe in a single, imperishable God, the creator of all things including all the creatures and forces in the universe Since the time of the Buddha the refutation of the existence of a creator has been seen as a key point in distinguishing Buddhist from non-Buddhist views The term "Godhead" The term Godhead is a term denoting deity or divinity In Hinduism the concept of God is complex and depends on a particular tradition In Islam, God is believed to be the only real supreme being all-powerful and all knowing Creator Sustainer Ordainer and Judge of the universe Islam puts a heavy emphasis The conception of God in Judaism is Monotheistic. The God of Israel was known by two principal names in the Bible The fundamental belief of Sikhism is that God exists not merely as an idea or concept but as a Real Entity indescribable yet knowable and perceivable to anyone who is prepared to dedicate Faith is a Belief in the trustworthiness of an Idea. Formal usage of the word "faith" is usually reserved for concepts of Religion, as in Prayer is the act of attempting to communicate with a Deity or spirit Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a Proposition or Premise to be true Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing (see etymology or in the theological perception making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication Fideism is the view that Religious belief relies primarily on Faith or Special revelation, rather than rational inference or observation Gnosis (from one of the Greek words for Knowledge, γνώσις is the spiritual knowledge of a Saint or mystically enlightened human being Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science Mysticism (from the Greek grc μυστικός mystikos, an initiate of a Mystery religion) is the pursuit of communion with identity Hermeticism is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, who is put forth as a Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part A God complex is a psychological state of mind in which a person believes that they have supernatural powers or god-like abilities Neurotheology The Euthyphro dilemma is found in Plato's dialogue Euthyphro, in which Socrates asks Euthyphro "Is the pious ( τὸ ὅσιον In the Philosophy of religion and Theology, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of Evil or Suffering in the world Theodicy (θiːˈɒdɪsi (adjectival form theodicean) is a specific branch of Theology and Philosophy that attempts to reconcile the existence of In Logic, an argument is a Set of one or more Declarative sentences (or "propositions") known as the Premises along God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. In philosophical terminology, "existence-of-God" arguments concern schools of thought on the epistemology of the ontology of God. Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part

The debate concerning the existence of God raises many philosophical issues. A basic problem is that there is no universally accepted definition of God. Some definitions of God's existence are so non-specific that it is certain that something exists that meets the definition; in stark contrast, there are suggestions that other definitions are self-contradictory.

Arguments for the existence of God typically include metaphysical, empirical, and subjective types. Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science Empirical research is any research that bases its findings on direct or indirect Observation as its test of Reality. Subjectivity refers to a subject's perspective particularly feelings beliefs and desires Arguments against typically include empirical, deductive, and inductive types. Deductive reasoning is Reasoning which uses deductive Arguments to move from given statements ( Premises to Conclusions which must be true if the Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of Reasoning in which the premises of an argument are believed

Although once regarded as a non-issue in much of western academia, the question of the existence of God is now subject to lively debate both in philosophy^[1] and in popular culture. ^[2]

Contents 1 Philosophical issues 1.1 Definition of God's existence 1.2 Epistemology 1.2.1 The problem of the supernatural 1.2.2 Nature of relevant proofs/arguments 2 Arguments for the existence of God 2.1 Arguments from historical events or personages 2.2 Inductive arguments 2.3 Arguments from testimony 2.3.1 Arguments grounded in personal experience 3 Arguments against belief in God 3.1 Empirical arguments 3.2 Deductive arguments 3.3 Inductive arguments 3.4 Subjective arguments 4 Conclusions 4.1 Theism 4.1.1 God exists and this can be demonstrated 4.1.2 God exists, but this cannot be demonstrated or refuted 4.2 Atheism 4.2.1 Strong atheism 4.2.2 Weak atheism 5 Psychological Issues 6 See also 7 Further reading 8 Notes 9 References and Further Reading

Philosophical issues

Definition of God's existence

Main articles: Definition, God, Deity, and Ontology

Today in the West, the term "God" typically refers to a monotheistic concept of a supreme being that is unlike any other being. A definition is a statement of the meaning of a Word or Phrase. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. See also List of deities A deity is a Postulated Preternatural or Supernatural Being, who is always In Philosophy, ontology (from the Greek, genitive: of being (part God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. For the Celtic Frost album see Monotheist (album In Theology, monotheism (from Greek grc [[wiktμόνος μόνος]] Classical theism asserts that God possesses every possible perfection, including such qualities as omniscience, omnipotence, and perfect benevolence. Theism, in its most inclusive usage is the belief in at least one Deity. Omniscience (ɒm'nɪsɪəns (or Omniscient Point-of-View in writing is the capacity to know everything infinitely or at least everything that can be known about a character Omnipotence ( Omni Potens: "all Power " is unlimited power Omnibenevolence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "unlimited or infinite Benevolence " Of course this definition is not the only possible definition of "God". Other philosophical approaches take a logically simple definition of God such as "the prime mover" or "the uncaused cause",^[3] or "the ultimate creator"^[4] or "a being greater than which nothing can be conceived"^[5] from which the classical properties may be deduced. The unmoved mover is a philosophical concept described by Aristotle as the first cause that sets the Universe into motion The cosmological argument is an Argument for the Existence of God or a " First Cause " ^[6] By contrast Pantheists do not believe in a personal god. Pantheism ( Greek: πάν ( 'pan') = all and θεός ( 'theos') = God it literally means " God is All For example, Spinoza and his philosophical followers (such as Einstein) use the term 'God' in a particular philosophical sense, to mean (roughly) the essential substance/principles of nature. Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21, Albert Einstein ( German: ˈalbɐt ˈaɪ̯nʃtaɪ̯n; English: ˈælbɝt ˈaɪnstaɪn (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955 was a German -born theoretical ^[7]

In the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism, reality is ultimately seen as being a single, qualityless, changeless being called nirguna Brahman. Advaita Vedanta ( IAST Advaita Vedānta; Sanskrit अद्वैत वेदान्त əd̪vait̪ə veːd̪ɑːnt̪ə is a sub-school of the Nirguna Brahman, (literally the attributeless Brahman, Devanagari: निर्गुण ब्रह्म refers to Supreme Reality which pervades through the However, nirguna Brahman is understood to be beyond "ordinary" human comprehension. What we ordinarily perceive - that is, a world of many things - is brought on by consequences of our actions. Thus, Advaitin philosophy introduces the concept of saguna Brahman or Ishvara as a way of talking about Brahman to people. Ishvara ( Sanskrit: Īśvara sa ईश्वर Malay: Iswara, Thai: Phra Isuan) is a philosophical concept in Hinduism Ishvara, in turn, is ascribed such qualities as omniscience, omnipotence, and benevolence. ^[8]

Polytheistic religions use the word "god" for multiple beings with varying degrees of power and abilities. Polytheism is belief in or worship of multiple Gods (usually assembled in a pantheon) together with associated Mythology and Rituals See also List of deities A deity is a Postulated Preternatural or Supernatural Being, who is always Some stories such as those of Homer and Ovid portray gods arguing with, tricking and fighting with one another. A narrative or story is a construct created in a suitable format (written spoken poetry prose images song Theater, or Dance) that describes a sequence of Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Publius Ovidius Naso ( March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD was a Roman poet known to the English -speaking world as Ovid who wrote on many topics including

Epistemology

Main articles: Epistemology and Sociology of knowledge

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy which studies the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge. Epistemology (from Greek επιστήμη - episteme, "knowledge" + λόγος, " Logos " or theory of knowledge The Sociology of Knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies One cannot be said to "know" something just because one believes it. Knowledge is, from an epistemological standpoint, distinguished from belief by justification. Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a Proposition or Premise to be true

Knowledge in the sense of "understanding of a fact or truth" can be divided in a posteriori knowledge, based on experience or deduction (see methodology), and a priori knowledge from introspection, axioms or self-evidence. Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding Understanding (also called intellection) is a psychological Process related to an abstract or physical object such as Person, situation or Generally a fact is defined as something that is true something that actually exists or something that can be verified according to an established standard of evaluation The meaning of the word truth extends from Honesty, Good faith, and Sincerity in general to agreement with Fact or Reality "A priori" redirects here For other uses see A priori. Experience as a general concept comprises Knowledge of or skill in or Observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or Methodology (also called manner) is defined as "the analysis of the principles of methods rules and postulates employed by a discipline" "A priori" redirects here For other uses see A priori. Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of Conscious inner Thoughts desires and Sensations It is a conscious mental and usually In traditional Logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be either self-evident, or subject In Epistemology (theory of knowledge a self-evident proposition is one that is known to be true by understanding its meaning without proof. Knowledge can also be described as a psychological state, since in a strict sense there can never be a posteriori knowledge proper (see relativism). Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Compare Moral relativism, Aesthetic relativism, Social constructionism, Cultural relativism, and Cognitive relativism. Much of the disagreement about "proofs" of God's existence is due to different conceptions not only of the term "God" but also the terms "proof", "truth" and "knowledge". Religious belief from revelation or enlightenment (satori) falls in the second, a priori class of "knowledge". Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a Proposition or Premise to be true Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing (see etymology or in the theological perception making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication Satori ( 悟 Korean oh; Japanese satori (from the verb Satoru) Chinese: wù

Different conclusions as to the existence of God often rest on different criteria for deciding what methods are appropriate for deciding if something is true or not; some examples include

• whether logic counts as evidence concerning the quality of existence
• whether subjective experience counts as evidence for objective reality
• whether either logic or evidence can rule in or out the supernatural.

The problem of the supernatural

One problem posed by the question of the existence of a god is that traditional beliefs usually ascribe to God various supernatural powers. The term supernatural or supranatural ( Latin: super, supra "above" + natura "nature" pertains to entities events Supernatural beings may be able to conceal and reveal themselves for their own purposes, as for example in the tale of Baucis and Philemon. In Ovid 's moralizing fable ( Metamorphoses VIII which stands on the periphery of Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Baucis and Philemon In addition, according to concepts of God, God is not part of the natural order, but the ultimate creator of nature and of the scientific laws.

Religious apologists offer the supernatural nature of God as one explanation of the inability of empirical methods to decide the question of God's existence. Scientific method refers to bodies of Techniques for investigating phenomena In Karl Popper's philosophy of science, the assertion of the existence of a supernatural God would be a non-falsifiable hypothesis, not in the domain of scientific investigation. Sir Karl Raimund Popper ( July 28 1902  &ndash September 17 1994) was an Austrian and British Philosopher and a professor Philosophy of science is the study of assumptions foundations and implications of Science. Falsifiability (or "refutability" is the logical possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or a physical experiment The Non-overlapping Magisteria view proposed by Stephen Jay Gould also holds that the existence (or otherwise) of God is beyond the domain of science. Stephen Jay Gould (September 10 1941 &ndash May 20 2002 was a prominent American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science Stephen Jay Gould (September 10 1941 &ndash May 20 2002 was a prominent American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science

Proponents of intelligent design (I. Intelligent D. ) believe there is empirical evidence for Irreducible complexity pointing to the existence of an intelligent creator, though their claims are challenged by the scientific community. This article covers irreducible complexity as used by those who argue for Intelligent design. Even some scientifically literate theists appear to have been impressed by the observation that certain natural laws and universal constants seem "fine-tuned" to favor the development of life (see Anthropic principle). In Physics and Cosmology, the anthropic principle states that humans should take into account the constraints that human existence imposes on the kind of theoretical However, reliance on phenomena which have not yet been resolved by natural explanations may be equated to the pejorative God of the gaps. The God of the gaps refers to a view of God deriving from a Theistic position in which anything that can be explained by human knowledge is not in the domain of God

Logical positivists, such as Rudolf Carnap and A. J. Ayer viewed any talk of gods as literal nonsense. Logical positivism (later and more accurately called logical empiricism) is a school of philosophy that combines Empiricism, the idea that observational evidence is Rudolf Carnap ( May 18, 1891 &ndash September 14, 1970) was an influential German -born philosopher who was active in Sir Alfred Jules ("Freddie" Ayer ( October 29, 1910 &ndash June 27, 1989) better known as A Nonsense is a verbal communication or Written text which appears to be a Human language or other Symbolic system, but in fact does not carry any identifiable For the logical positivists and adherents of similar schools of thought, statements about religious or other transcendent experiences could not have a truth value, and were deemed to be without meaning.

Nature of relevant proofs/arguments

Since God (of the kind to which the proofs/arguments relate) is neither an entity in the universe nor a mathematical object it is not obvious what kinds of arguments/proofs are relevant to God's existence. Even if the concept of scientific proof were not problematic, the fact that there is no conclusive scientific proof of the existence, or non-existence, of God^[9] mainly demonstrates that the existence of God is not a normal scientific question. John Polkinghorne suggests that the nearest analogy to the existence of God in physics are the ideas of quantum mechanics which are paradoxical but make sense of a great deal of disparate data. John Polkinghorne, Quantum mechanics is the study of mechanical systems whose dimensions are close to the Atomic scale such as Molecules Atoms Electrons ^[10]

Alvin Plantinga compares the question of the existence of God to the question of the existence of other minds: both of which are notoriously impossible to "prove" against a determined skeptic. Alvin Carl Plantinga (born 1932 is a contemporary American Philosopher known for his work in Epistemology, Metaphysics, and the Philosophy ^[11]

One approach, suggested by writers such as Stephen D. Unwin, is to treat (particular versions of) theism and naturalism as though they were two hypotheses in the Bayesian sense, to list certain data (or alleged data), about the world, and to suggest that the likelihoods of these data are significantly higher under one hypothesis than the other^[12] Most of the arguments for, or against, the existence of God can be seen as pointing to particular aspects of the universe in this way. Stephen D Unwin is a Physicist and author best known for his book The Probability of God. Theism, in its most inclusive usage is the belief in at least one Deity. Philosophical naturalism has been described in various ways In its broadest and strongest sense naturalism is the metaphysical position that "nature is all there is Bayesian probability interprets the concept of Probability as 'a measure of a state of knowledge'. In almost all cases it is not seriously suggested by proponents of the arguments that they are irrefutable, merely that they make one worldview seem significantly more likely than the other. However, since an assessment of the weight of evidence depends on the prior probability that is assigned to each worldview, arguments that a theist finds convincing may seem thin to an atheist and vice-versa. A prior probability is a marginal probability, interpreted as a description of what is known about a variable in the absence of some evidence. ^[13]

Arguments for the existence of God

• The cosmological argument argues that there was a "first cause", or "prime mover" who is identified as God. The cosmological argument is an Argument for the Existence of God or a " First Cause "
• The teleological argument argues that the universe's order and complexity are best explained by reference to a creator god. A teleological argument, or argument from design, is an Argument for the Existence of God or a creator based on perceived evidence of order purpose design The fine-tuned Universe is the idea that the conditions that allow Life in the Universe can only occur when certain universal Physical constants lie within
• The ontological argument is based on arguments about a "being greater than which can not be conceived". An Ontological argument for the existence of God attempts the method of a priori proof, which uses intuition and reason alone Alvin Plantinga formulates this argument to show that if it is logically possible for God (a necessary being) to exist, then God exists. Alvin Carl Plantinga (born 1932 is a contemporary American Philosopher known for his work in Epistemology, Metaphysics, and the Philosophy ^[14]
• The mind-body problem argument suggests that the relation of consciousness to materiality is best understood in terms of the existence of God. Philosophy of mind is the branch of Philosophy that studies the nature of the Mind, Mental events Mental functions mental properties
• Arguments that some non-physical quality observed in the universe is of fundamental importance and not an epiphenomenon, such as justice, beauty, love or religious experience are arguments for theism as against materialism. See also Epiphenomenalism, Medicine An epiphenomenon (plural - epiphenomena is a secondary Phenomenon that occurs alongside or in parallel The argument from morality is one of several Arguments for the existence of God. The argument from beauty is an Argument for the Existence of God as against Materialism. The Argument from love is an Argument for the Existence of God, as against Materialism and reductionist forms of Physicalism. The Argument from religious experience is an Argument for the Existence of God, as against Materialism. Theism, in its most inclusive usage is the belief in at least one Deity. The Philosophy of materialism holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is Matter, and is considered a form of Physicalism.
• The anthropic argument suggests that basic facts, such as our existence, are best explained by the existence of God. In Physics and Cosmology, the anthropic principle states that humans should take into account the constraints that human existence imposes on the kind of theoretical
• The moral argument argues that the existence of objective morality depends on the existence of God. The argument from morality is one of several Arguments for the existence of God.
• The transcendental argument suggests that logic, science, ethics, and other things we take seriously do not make sense in the absence of God, and that atheistic arguments must ultimately refute themselves if pressed with rigorous consistency. The Transcendental Argument for the existence of God ( TAG) is an argument for the existence of God that attempts to show that Logic, Science, Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding Ethics is a major branch of Philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life
• The will to believe doctrine was pragmatist philosopher William James' attempt to prove God by showing that the adoption of theism as a hypothesis "works" in a believer's life. "The Will to Believe" is the title of William James 's classic lecture (published in 1897 defending the adoption of beliefs as Hypotheses and self-fulfilling Pragmatism generally considered to have originated in the late nineteenth century with Charles Peirce, who first stated the Pragmatic maxim. For other people named William James see William James (disambiguation William James (January 11 1842 – August 26 1910 was a pioneering This doctrine depended heavily on James' pragmatic theory of truth where beliefs are proven by how they work when adopted rather than by proofs before they are believed (a form of the hypothetico-deductive method). Pragmatic theory of truth refers to those accounts definitions and theories of the concept Truth that distinguish the philosophies of Pragmatism See also Falsifiability The hypothetico-deductive model, or method is a proposed description of Scientific method.
• Arguments based on claims of miracles wrought by God associated with specific historical events or personages. A miracle is an event believed to be caused by interposition of Divine intervention by a Supernatural being in the Universe by which the ordinary operation

Arguments from historical events or personages

• Islam asserts that the life of Muhammad and especially the revealing of the miraculous Quran by an angel vindicates Islam. For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. IMPORTANT PLEASE READ ##### For all questions relating to the addition of (pbuh peace be upon him or other honorifics A miracle is an event believed to be caused by interposition of Divine intervention by a Supernatural being in the Universe by which the ordinary operation The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran An angel is a Spiritual Supernatural being found in many Religions Although the nature of angels and the tasks given to them vary from tradition to tradition For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation.
• Judaism asserts that God intervened in key specific moments in history, especially at the Exodus and the giving of the Ten Commandments, thus demonstrating his special care for the Jewish people, and a fortiori his existence. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Exodus ( Greek: έξοδος eksodos = "departure" is the second book of the Jewish Torah and of the Christian Old Testament. The Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, are a list of religious and moral imperatives that according to Judeo-Christian tradition were authored by God and given
• The argument from the life of Jesus. The Christological argument for the existence of God is based on certain claims about Jesus. This asserts that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, that in this he was either delusional, deceitful or truthful, and that it is possible to assess Jesus's character sufficiently from the accounts of his life and teaching to rule out the first two possibilities. Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) C S Lewis put forward this argument (the Trilemma), and it is explicated in the widely adopted Alpha Course. Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963 Lewis's Trilemma (or the Lewis Triumvirate) is a Syllogism intended to demonstrate the logical inconsistency of both holding Jesus of Nazareth to be a "great The Alpha course is a basic course on the Christian faith commonly advertised as "an opportunity to explore the meaning of life" ^[15]
• The argument from the Resurrection of Jesus. This article concerns itself with Jesus Christ Christian, Islamic and other religious interpretations of resurrection in general Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) This asserts that there is sufficient historical evidence for Jesus's resurrection to support his claim to be the son of God and indicates, a fortiori, God's existence. ^[16]
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Mormonism, similarly asserts that the miraculous appearance of God, Jesus Christ and angels to Joseph Smith and others and subsequent finding and translation of the Book of Mormon establishes the existence of God. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the fourth largest Christian denomination in the United States and the largest and most well-known Mormonism is a term used to describe the religious, ideological and cultural elements of certain branches of the Latter Day Saint movement The Book of Mormon is a Sacred text of the churches in the Latter Day Saint movement.

Inductive arguments

Inductive arguments argue their conclusions through inductive reasoning. Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of Reasoning in which the premises of an argument are believed

• Another class of philosophers asserts that the proofs for the existence of God present a fairly large probability though not absolute certainty. A number of obscure points, they say, always remain; an act of faith is required to dismiss these difficulties. Faith is a Belief in the trustworthiness of an Idea. Formal usage of the word "faith" is usually reserved for concepts of Religion, as in This view is maintained, among others, by the Scottish statesman Arthur Balfour in his book The Foundations of Belief (1895). Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Arthur James Balfour 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC (25 July 1848 - 19 March 1930 was a British Conservative politician and Year 1895 ( MDCCCXCV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The opinions set forth in this work were adopted in France by Ferdinand Brunetière, the editor of the Revue des deux Mondes. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Ferdinand Brunetière ( July 19 1849 &ndash December 9 1906) was a French writer and Critic. The Revue des Deux Mondes (Review of the Two Worlds is a monthly literary and cultural affairs Magazine published in the French language. Many orthodox Protestants express themselves in the same manner, as, for instance, Dr. E. Dennert, President of the Kepler Society, in his work Ist Gott tot?. ^[17]

Arguments from testimony

Arguments from testimony rely on the testimony or experience of certain witnesses, possibly embodying the propositions of a specific revealed religion. Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing (see etymology or in the theological perception making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos Swinburne argues that it is a principle of rationality that one should accept testimony unless there are strong reasons for not doing so. Richard G Swinburne (born December 26, 1934) is an eminent British Professor and Philosopher primarily interested in the ^[18]

• The witness argument gives credibility to personal witnesses, contemporary and throughout the ages. The witness argument is an Argument that is meant to help prove the Existence of God, based on the assumption that many people have claimed to have personal A witness is someone who has firsthand knowledge about a Crime or dramatic event through their Senses (e A variation of this is the argument from miracles which relies on testimony of supernatural events to establish the existence of God. The argument from miracles is an argument for the existence of God relying on eyewitness testimony of the occurrence of Miracles (usually taken to be physically impossible/extremely
• The majority argument argues that the theism of people throughout most of recorded history and in many different places provides prima facie demonstration of God's existence. An argumentum ad populum ( Latin: "appeal to the people" in Logic, is a fallacious argument that concludes a Proposition to be true Prima facie is a Latin expression meaning "on its first appearance" or "by first instance"

Arguments grounded in personal experience

• The Scotch School led by Thomas Reid taught that the fact of the existence of God is accepted by us without knowledge of reasons but simply by a natural impulse. Thomas Reid ( April 26, 1710 – October 7, 1796) Scottish Philosopher, and a contemporary of David Hume, was That God exists, this school said, is one of the chief metaphysical principles that we accept not because they are evident in themselves or because they can be proved, but because common sense obliges us to accept them. Common sense (or when used attributively as an Adjective, commonsense, common-sense, or commonsensical) based on a strict construction
• The Argument from a Proper Basis argues that belief in God is "properly basic"; that it is similar to statements like "I see a chair" or "I feel pain". The Argument from a proper basis is an Ontological argument for the Existence of God related to Fideism. Such beliefs are non-falsifiable and, thus, neither provable nor disprovable; they concern perceptual beliefs or indisputable mental states.
• In Germany, the School of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi taught that our reason is able to perceive the suprasensible. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi ( 25 January, 1743 - 10 March, 1819) was a German Philosopher notable for coining the term Jacobi distinguished three faculties: sense, reason, and understanding. Reason involves the ability to think understand and draw Conclusions in an Abstract way as in Human thinking Just as sense has immediate perception of the material so has reason immediate perception of the immaterial, while the understanding brings these perceptions to our consciousness and unites them to one another. ^[19] God's existence, then, cannot be proven (Jacobi, like Immanuel Kant, rejected the absolute value of the principle of causality), it must be felt by the mind. Immanuel Kant (ɪmanuəl kant 22 April 1724 12 February 1804 was an 18th-century German Philosopher from the Prussian city of Königsberg
• In Emile, Jean-Jacques Rousseau asserted that when our understanding ponders over the existence of God it encounters nothing but contradictions; the impulses of our hearts, however, are of more value than the understanding, and these proclaim clearly to us the truths of natural religion, namely, the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. Emile or On Education (1762 which Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed to be the “best and most important of all my writings” is largely a philosophical treatise The soul, according to many religious and philosophical beliefs is the self-awareness, or Consciousness, unique to a particular living
• The same theory was advocated in Germany by Friedrich Schleiermacher (died 1834), who assumed an inner religious sense by means of which we feel religious truths. Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (ˈʃlaɪɐmaxɐ ( November 21, 1768 &ndash February 12, 1834) was a German theologian Year 1834 ( MDCCCXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common According to Schleiermacher, religion consists solely in this inner perception, and dogmatic doctrines are inessential. ^[20]
• Many modern Protestant theologians follow in Schleiermacher's footsteps, and teach that the existence of God cannot be demonstrated; certainty as to this truth is only furnished us by inner experience, feeling, and perception. Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation.
• Modernist Christianity also denies the demonstrability of the existence of God. For liberal political views within Christianity see Christian left. According to them we can only know something of God by means of the vital immanence, that is, under favorable circumstances the need of the divine dormant in our subconsciousness becomes conscious and arouses that religious feeling or experience in which God reveals himself to us. In condemnation of this view the oath against modernism formulated by Pius X says: "Deum . Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Saint Pius X ( Latin: Pius PP X) ( June 2, 1835 &mdash August 20, 1914) born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the . . naturali rationis lumine per ea quae facta sunt, hoc est per visibilia creationis opera, tanquam causam per effectus certo cognosci adeoque demostrari etiam posse, profiteor. " ("I declare that by the natural light of reason, God can be certainly known and therefore his existence demonstrated through the things that are made, i. e. , through the visible works of creation, as the cause is known through its effects. ")

Arguments against belief in God

Each of the following arguments aims at showing either that a particular subset of gods do not exist (by showing them as inherently meaningless, contradictory, or at odds with known scientific or historical facts) or that there is insufficient reason to believe in them. Reductio ad absurdum ( Latin for "reduction to the absurd" also known as an apagogical argument, reductio ad impossibile Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology

Empirical arguments

Empirical arguments depend on empirical data in order to prove their conclusions. In Philosophy, empiricism is a theory of Knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from Experience.

• The argument from inconsistent revelations contests the existence of the deity called God as described in scriptures -- such as the Jewish Tanakh, the Christian Bible, or the Muslim Qur'an -- by identifying apparent contradictions between different scriptures, within a single scripture, or between scripture and known facts. The argument from inconsistent revelations, also known as the avoiding the wrong hell problem, is an argument against the existence of God. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut See also Old testament, Septuagint, Targum, Peshitta The Tanakh (תַּנַ"ךְ (taˈnax or; also Tenakh or Tenak is Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran To be effective this argument requires the other side to hold that its scriptural record is inerrant, or to conflate the record itself with the God it describes. Biblical inerrancy is the conservative evangelical doctrinal position that in its original form the Bible is totally without error and free from all contradiction

• The problem of evil contests the existence of a god who is both omnipotent and omnibenevolent by arguing that such a god should not permit the existence of evil or suffering. In the Philosophy of religion and Theology, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of Evil or Suffering in the world Omnipotence ( Omni Potens: "all Power " is unlimited power Omnibenevolence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "unlimited or infinite Benevolence " Evil, in many cultures is used to describe acts or thoughts which are contrary to some particular religion Suffering, or pain, is an individual's basic Affective experience of unpleasantness and aversion associated with harm or threat of harm The theist responses are called theodicies. Theodicy (θiːˈɒdɪsi (adjectival form theodicean) is a specific branch of Theology and Philosophy that attempts to reconcile the existence of

• The argument from poor design contests the idea that God created life on the basis that lifeforms exist which seem to exhibit poor design. The dysteleological argument or argument from poor design is an Argument against the existence of God, specifically against the existence of a Creator God

• The argument from nonbelief contests the existence of an omnipotent God who wants humans to believe in him by arguing that such a god would do a better job of gathering believers. The argument from nonbelief (also known as the argument from divine hiddenness) is a philosophical Argument which seeks to prove the non-existence of God

• The argument from parsimony contends that since natural (non-supernatural) theories adequately explain the development of religion and belief in gods,^[21] the actual existence of such supernatural agents is superfluous and may be dismissed unless otherwise proven to be required to explain the phenomenon. Parsimony is a 'less is better' concept of frugality economy stinginess or caution in arriving at a hypothesis or course of action

• It is impossible to prove, or disprove, the "pot of gold at the end of a rainbow's" existence, as it is impossible to actually get to the end of the rainbow and check, due the the (circular, and hence "endless") nature of a rainbow. This "inability to check" is taken by most to be proof that the "pot of gold" does not in fact exist (there is no end of the rainbow for the pot to be at. ) For God, this lack of proof, and the similar lack of ability to check it, is taken by some to be "proof of existence. " A case of "absence of proof is not proof of absence. " Some see this to be proof that "God must exist, as he/she/it can't be disproved. " The absence of proof is taken by others to be the same as the "pot of gold". If you can't get to a place that does not exist, then it's obvious that there is nothing there.

Deductive arguments

Deductive arguments attempt to prove their conclusions by deductive reasoning from true premises. Deductive reasoning is Reasoning which uses deductive Arguments to move from given statements ( Premises to Conclusions which must be true if the These arguments inherently depend on specific definitions of the term "God".

• The Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit states that because "God" is omnipotent and omniscient he is also infinitely complex. The Ultimate Boeing 747 gambit is an Argument for the improbability of the Existence of God. This makes his spontaneous appearance or existence far more unlikely than the universe simply coming into existence, which has a finite complexity. It also states that design fails to account for complexity, which natural selection can explain.

• The belief that God created the universe and God just exists makes too many unproven assumptions, therefore using Occam's Razor one can "shave" off the unnecessary assumptions, leaving the universe just exists. Occam's razor (sometimes spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English Logician and Franciscan Friar,

• The omnipotence paradox suggests that the concept of an omnipotent entity is logically contradictory, from considering a question like: "Can God create a rock so big that he cannot lift it?" or "If God is all powerful, could God create a being more powerful than itself?". The omnipotence paradox is a family of related Paradoxes having to do with the question of what an Omnipotent being can do Omnipotence ( Omni Potens: "all Power " is unlimited power

• Another argument suggests that there is a contradiction between God being omniscient and omnipotent, basically asking "how can an all-knowing being change its mind?" See the article on omniscience for details. Omniscience (ɒm'nɪsɪəns (or Omniscient Point-of-View in writing is the capacity to know everything infinitely or at least everything that can be known about a character

• The argument from free will contests the existence of an omniscient god who has free will - or has allotted the same freedom to his creations - by arguing that the two properties are contradictory. The argument from free will contends that Omniscience and Free will are incompatible, and that any conception of God that incorporates both properties Omniscience (ɒm'nɪsɪəns (or Omniscient Point-of-View in writing is the capacity to know everything infinitely or at least everything that can be known about a character The question of free will According to the argument, if God already knows the future, then humanity is destined to corroborate with his knowledge of the future and not have true free will to deviate from it. Therefore our free will contradicts an omniscient god.

• The Transcendental argument for the non-existence of God contests the existence of an intelligent creator by suggesting that such a being would make logic and morality contingent, which is incompatible with the presuppositionalist assertion that they are necessary, and contradicts the efficacy of science. The Transcendental Argument for the Non-existence of God (also called TANG) was first proposed by Michael Martin in a 1996 article in New Zealand Rationalist A more general line of argument based on this argument seeks to generalize this argument to all necessary features of the universe and all god-concepts. ^[22]

• The counter-argument against the Cosmological argument ("chicken or the egg") takes its assumption that things cannot exist without creators and applies it to God, setting up an infinite regress. The cosmological argument is an Argument for the Existence of God or a " First Cause " This attacks the premise that the universe is the second cause (after God, who is claimed to be the first cause).

• Theological noncognitivism, as used in literature, usually seeks to disprove the god-concept by showing that it is unverifiable by scientific tests. Theological noncognitivism is the argument that Religious Language, and specifically words like " God " (capitalized are not Cognitively

• It is alleged that there is a logical impossibility in theism: God is defined as an extra-temporal being, but also as an active creator. The argument suggests that the very act of creation is inconceivable and absurd beyond the constraints of time and space, and the fact that it cannot be proven if God is in either. ^[23]

Inductive arguments

Inductive arguments argue their conclusions through inductive reasoning. Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of Reasoning in which the premises of an argument are believed

• The atheist-existentialist argument for the non-existence of a perfect sentient being states that if existence precedes essence, it follows from the meaning of the term sentient that a sentient being cannot be complete or perfect. Atheism Existentialism is a philosophical doctrine which posits that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives and that this essence follows from their existence It is touched upon by Jean-Paul Sartre in Being and Nothingness. Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (21 June 1905 &ndash 15 April 1980 commonly known simply as Jean-Paul Sartre (ʒɑ̃ pol saʁtʁə was a French Being and Nothingness An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology ( French: L'Être et le néant: Essai d'ontologie phénoménologique) sometimes subtitled Sartre's phrasing is that God would be a pour-soi [a being-for-itself; a consciousness] who is also an en-soi [a being-in-itself; a thing]: which is a contradiction in terms. The argument is echoed thus in Salman Rushdie's novel Grimus: "That which is complete is also dead. Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie Kt (born 19 June 1947 is an Indian - British novelist and essayist Grimus is a 1975 Fantasy and Science fiction novel written by Salman Rushdie. "
• The "no reason" argument tries to show that an omnipotent or perfect being would not have any reason to act in any way, specifically creating the universe, because it would have no desires since the very concept of desire is subjectively human. As the universe exists, there is a contradiction, and therefore, an omnipotent god cannot exist. This argument is espoused by Scott Adams in the book God's Debris. Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8, 1957) is the creator of the Dilbert Comic strip and the Author of several Business God's Debris A Thought Experiment (ISBN 0-7407-4787-8 is a 2001 Novella by Dilbert creator Scott Adams.

Subjective arguments

Similar to the subjective arguments for the existence of God, subjective arguments against the supernatural mainly rely on the testimony or experience of witnesses, or the propositions of a revealed religion in general. Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing (see etymology or in the theological perception making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos

• The witness argument gives credibility to personal witnesses, contemporary and from the past, who disbelieve or strongly doubt the existence of God.
• The conflicted religions argument where specific religions give differing accounts as to what God is and what God wants. All the contradictory accounts cannot be correct, so many if not all religions must be incorrect.

Conclusions

Conclusions on the existence of God can be divided along numerous axes, producing a variety of orthogonal classifications. Theism and atheism relate to belief about the existence of gods, while agnosticism relates to belief about whether the existence of gods is (or can be) known. Theism, in its most inclusive usage is the belief in at least one Deity. Atheism Agnosticism ( Greek: α- a-, without + γνώσις gnōsis, knowledge after Gnosticism) is the philosophical view that the Ignosticism concerns belief regarding God's conceptual coherence. Ignosticism is the theological position that every other theological position (including Agnosticism) assumes too much about the concept of God and many other theological

Theism

The theistic conclusion is that the arguments indicate there is sufficient reason to believe that at least one god exists. Theism, in its most inclusive usage is the belief in at least one Deity.

God exists and this can be demonstrated

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, following the Thomist tradition and the dogmatic definition of the First Vatican Council, affirms that it is a doctrine of the Catholic Church that God's existence has been rationally demonstrated. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, or CCC, is an official exposition of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and the twenty-two Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas. The First Vatican Council was summoned by Pope Pius IX by the bull Pastor Aeternus of June 29, 1868. For the proofs of God's existence by Saint Thomas Aquinas see Quinquae viae. The Quinque viae, or Five Ways, are five arguments of the Existence of God summarized by St Many other Christian denominations share the view that God's existence can be demonstrated without recourse to claims of revelation.

On beliefs of Christian faith, theologians and philosophers make a distinction between:

1. doctrines arising from special revelation that arise essentially from faith in divinely inspired revelations, including the life of Christ, but cannot be proved or even anticipated by reason alone, such as the doctrines of the Trinity or the Incarnation, and
2. doctrines arising from general revelation, that is from reason alone drawing conclusions based on relatively obvious observations of the world and self. Special revelation is a theological term that states a belief that knowledge of God and of spiritual matters can be discovered through Supernatural means SSC RF "Troitsk Institute of Innovative and Termonuclear Research" or TRINITY for shprt Троицкий Институт инновационных и термоядерных Incarnation which literally means embodied in flesh, refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature (generally a human who is the General revelation is a theological term which refers to a universal aspect of God of God's knowledge and of spiritual matters discovered through natural means such as observation of

The argument that the existence of God can be known to all, even prior to exposure to any divine revelation, predates Christianity. St. Paul made this argument when he insisted that pagans were without excuse because "since the creation of the world [God's] invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made". ^[24] In this Paul alludes to the proofs for a creator, later enunciated by St. Thomas^[25] and others, but that had also been explored by the Greek philosophers.

Another apologetical school of thought, a sort of synthesis of various existing Dutch and American Reformed thinkers (such as, Abraham Kuyper, Benjamin Warfield, Herman Dooyeweerd), emerged in the late 1920s. The Reformed churches are a group of Christian Protestant Denominations formally characterized by a similar Calvinist system of doctrine historically Abraham Kuijper ( Maassluis, 29 October 1837 Den Haag, 8 November 1920 generally known as Abraham Kuyper, was a Dutch Politician Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield ( November 5, 1851 &ndash February 16, 1921) was the principal of Princeton Herman Dooyeweerd ( October 7, 1894, Amsterdam - February 12, 1977) was a Dutch Juridical scholar by training This school was instituted by Cornelius Van Til, and came to be popularly called Presuppositional apologetics (though Van Til himself felt "transcendental" would be a more accurate title). Cornelius Van Til ( May 3, 1895 &ndash April 17, 1987) born in Grootegast, the Netherlands, was a Christian Presuppositional apologetics is a school of Christian apologetics, a field of Christian theology that aims to (1 present a rational basis for the Christian The main distinction between this approach and the more classical evidentialist approach mentioned above is that the presuppositionalist denies any common ground between the believer and the non-believer, except that which the non-believer denies, namely, the assumption of the truth of the theistic worldview. In other words, presuppositionalists don't believe that the existence of God can be proven by appeal to raw, uninterpreted (or, "brute") facts, which have the same (theoretical) meaning to people with fundamentally different worldviews, because they deny that such a condition is even possible. They claim that the only possible proof for the existence of God is that the very same belief is the necessary condition to the intelligibility of all other human experience and action. In other words, they attempt to prove the existence of God by means of appeal to the alleged transcendental necessity of the belief -- indirectly (by appeal to the allegedly unavowed presuppositions of the non-believer's worldview) rather than directly (by appeal to some form of common factuality). In Philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey three different but related primary meanings all of them derived from the word's literal In practice this school utilizes what have come to be known as transcendental arguments. The Transcendental Argument for the existence of God ( TAG) is an argument for the existence of God that attempts to show that Logic, Science, In these arguments they claim to demonstrate that all human experience and action (even the condition of unbelief, itself) is a proof for the existence of God, because God's existence is the necessary condition of their intelligibility.

God exists, but this cannot be demonstrated or refuted

Others have suggested that the several logical and philosophical arguments for and against the existence of God miss the point. The word God has a meaning in human culture and history that does not correspond to the beings whose existence is supported by such arguments, assuming they are valid. The real question is not whether a "most perfect being" or an "uncaused first cause" exist; the real question is whether Yahweh or Vishnu or Zeus, or some other deity of attested human religion, exists, and if so, which deity. For information about Yahweh see God in Abrahamic religions, which provides useful links For other meanings see Vishnu (disambiguation. Vishnu ( IAST viṣṇu Devanagari विष्णु (honorific Zeus (zjuːs in Greek: nominative: Zeús /zdeús/ genitive: Diós; Modern Greek /'zefs/ in Greek mythology Most of these arguments do not resolve the issue of which of these figures is more likely to exist. Blaise Pascal suggested this objection in his Pensées when he wrote "The God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob — not the god of the philosophers!", see also Pascal's wager. Blaise Pascal (blɛz paskal (June 19 1623 &ndash August 19 1662 was a French Mathematician, Physicist, and religious Philosopher The Pensées (literally "thoughts" represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French Philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the Existence of God

Some Christians note that the Christian faith teaches "salvation is by faith",^[26] and that faith is reliance upon the faithfulness of God, which has little to do with the believer's ability to comprehend that in which he trusts. In Theology, salvation can mean three related things being saved from or Liberation from something such as Suffering or the punishment of Faith is a Belief in the trustworthiness of an Idea. Formal usage of the word "faith" is usually reserved for concepts of Religion, as in

The most extreme example of this position is called fideism, which holds that faith is simply the will to believe, and argues that if God's existence were rationally demonstrable, faith in its existence would become superfluous. Fideism is the view that Religious belief relies primarily on Faith or Special revelation, rather than rational inference or observation Soren Kierkegaard argued that objective knowledge, such as 1+1=2, is unimportant to existence. If God could rationally be proven, his existence would be unimportant to humans. It is because God cannot rationally be proven that his existence is important to us. In The Justification of Knowledge, the Calvinist theologian Robert L. Reymond argues that believers should not attempt to prove the existence of God. Calvinism (sometimes called the Reformed tradition, the Reformed faith, or Reformed theology) is a theological system and an approach to the Robert L Reymond is a Christian theologian of the Protestant Reformed tradition Since he believes all such proofs are fundamentally unsound, believers should not place their confidence in them, much less resort to them in discussions with non-believers; rather, they should accept the content of revelation by faith. Reymond's position is similar to that of his mentor, Gordon Clark, which holds that all worldviews are based on certain unprovable first premises (or, axioms), and therefore are ultimately unprovable. Gordon Haddon Clark ( August 31, 1902 &ndash April 9, 1985) was an American Philosopher and Calvinist In traditional Logic, an axiom or postulate is a proposition that is not proved or demonstrated but considered to be either self-evident, or subject The Christian theist therefore must simply choose to start with Christianity rather than anything else, by a "leap of faith. A leap of faith, in its most commonly used meaning is the act of believing in something without or in spite of available Empirical evidence. " This position is also sometimes called presuppositional apologetics, but should not be confused with the Van Tillian variety discussed above. Presuppositional apologetics is a school of Christian apologetics, a field of Christian theology that aims to (1 present a rational basis for the Christian

An intermediate position is that of Alvin Plantinga who holds that a specific form of modal logic and an appeal to world-indexed properties render belief in the existence of God rational and justified, even though the existence of God cannot be proven in a mathematical sense. Alvin Carl Plantinga (born 1932 is a contemporary American Philosopher known for his work in Epistemology, Metaphysics, and the Philosophy A modal logic is any system of formal logic that attempts to deal with modalities. Plantinga equates knowledge of God's existence with kinds of knowledge that are rational but do not proceed through proof, such as sensory knowledge. ^[27]

Atheism

The atheistic conclusion is that the arguments indicate there is insufficient reason to believe that any gods exist. Atheism

Strong atheism

Strong atheism is the position that a god or gods do not exist. Strong atheism is a term generally used to describe atheists who accept as true the proposition " gods do not exist" The strong atheist explicitly asserts God's non-existence. ^[28] Some strong atheists further assert that the existence of some or all gods is logically impossible, for example claiming that the combination of attributes which God may be asserted to have (for example: omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, transcendence, omnibenevolence) is logically contradictory, incomprehensible, or absurd, and therefore that the non-existence of such a god is a priori true. Omnipotence ( Omni Potens: "all Power " is unlimited power Omniscience (ɒm'nɪsɪəns (or Omniscient Point-of-View in writing is the capacity to know everything infinitely or at least everything that can be known about a character Omnipresence is the ability to be present in every place at any and/or every time unbounded or universal presence In Religion, transcendence is a condition or state of being that surpasses physical existence and in one form is also independent of it Omnibenevolence is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "unlimited or infinite Benevolence " "A priori" redirects here For other uses see A priori. It needs to be noted that believing the qualities of a particular god to be contradictory is not the sole basis of strong atheism; many strong atheists would assert that, owing to the lack of evidence, even a god described in a manner that was not contradictory is still unlikely to exist.

Weak atheism

The term weak atheism is used of those who neither believe that a god or gods exists, nor believe that no gods exist. Strong atheism is a term generally used to describe atheists who accept as true the proposition " gods do not exist" This is orthogonal to agnosticism which states that whether gods exist is either unknown or unknowable. Agnosticism ( Greek: α- a-, without + γνώσις gnōsis, knowledge after Gnosticism) is the philosophical view that the There is some controversy in the use of this term. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion uses the term "strong atheist" but not "weak atheist"^[29]

Psychological Issues

In his book "Minds and Gods: The Cognitive Foundations of Religion," Todd Tremlin argues that universal human cognitive process naturally produce gods. Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941 is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and Popular science The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding In particular, an agency detection device (ADD) and a theory of mind module (ToMM) lead us to expect an agent behind every event. " Theory of mind " is the ability to attribute mental states—beliefs intents desires pretending knowledge etc We err on the side of attributing agency where there isn't any - a trait that no doubt served our ancestors well.

We ask why we are here and whether life has purpose; we are anxious about being alone. Religious beliefs may recruit the cognitive mechanisms. William James emphasized the inner religious struggle between melancholy and happiness, and pointed to trance as a cognitive mechanism. For other people named William James see William James (disambiguation William James (January 11 1842 – August 26 1910 was a pioneering Trance denotes a variety of processes techniques modalities and states of mind awareness and consciousness Sigmund Freud stressed fear and pain, the need for a powerful parent to care for us, the obsessional nature of ritual, and the hypnotic state a community can induce. Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded A ritual is a set of actions often thought to have Symbolic value the performance of which is usually prescribed by a Religion or by the Traditions

See also

• Apologetics
• Conceptions of God
• Conversational intolerance
• Efficacy of prayer
• Elohim
• Existence of Jesus
• God in Buddhism
• God in Hinduism
• God in Sikhism
• Gödel's ontological proof
• Human history
• Metaphysics
• Mythology
• Philosophy of religion
• Polemic
• Problem of evil
• Quinquae viae
• Rationalism
• Spectrum of Theistic Probability – a way of categorizing ones belief about the existence of a deity, first formulated by Richard Dawkins in "The God Delusion"

Further reading

• The Classical Islamic Arguments for the Existence of God by Majid Fakhry
• Philosophy of Religion.Info Introductory articles on philosophical arguments about the existence of God (for and against)
• A collection of arguments for the existence of God
• Jesus Evidence Arguments for the existence of God based upon the evidence for Jesus Christ. See also God Conceptions of God can vary widely despite the use of the same term for them all Sam Harris (born 1967 is an American Non-fiction writer and Philosopher. Measuring the efficacy of Prayer has been attempted in various studies since Francis Galton first addressed the subject (partly as satire in 1872 Elohim ( אֱלוֹהִים, אלהים) is a Hebrew word which expresses concepts of Divinity. The historicity of Jesus concerns the historical authenticity of Jesus of Nazareth. Since the time of the Buddha the refutation of the existence of a creator has been seen as a key point in distinguishing Buddhist from non-Buddhist views In Hinduism the concept of God is complex and depends on a particular tradition The fundamental belief of Sikhism is that God exists not merely as an idea or concept but as a Real Entity indescribable yet knowable and perceivable to anyone who is prepared to dedicate Gödel's ontological proof is a formalization of Saint Anselm's Ontological argument for God 's existence by the mathematician Kurt Gödel. Prehistory See also Prehistory Paleolithic See also Paleolithic, Recent African Origin, Early Homo sapiens Metaphysics is the branch of Philosophy investigating principles of reality transcending those of any particular science The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" Philosophy of religion is a branch of Philosophy that is concerned with the philosophical study of religion including arguments over the nature and existence of God religious Polemics (pəˈlɛmɪks/ /poʊ- is the practice of disputing or controverting religious, philosophical, or political matters In the Philosophy of religion and Theology, the problem of evil is the problem of reconciling the existence of Evil or Suffering in the world The Quinque viae, or Five Ways, are five arguments of the Existence of God summarized by St In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286 Popularized by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, the spectrum of theistic probability is a way of categorizing one's belief regarding the Probability Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941 is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and Popular science The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding
• Christian Bible God/Jesus Truth A collection of Bible quotes pertaining to the flawed morality of God.
• Arguments for the Existence of God from the Christian Cadre.
• Proofs of God's Existence - Islam - Ahmadiyyat
• Arguments for Atheism from Infidels.org
• StrongAtheism.net References page A listing of references containing atheistic arguments. Internet Infidels, Inc is a Colorado Springs Colorado -based nonprofit educational organization founded in 1995 by Jeffery Jay Lowder and Brett Lemoine that maintains
• "50 simple proofs" that God is imaginary.
• The Existence of God - Catholic Encyclopedia
• The Rationality of Theism London: Routledge (2003) ISBN 0415263328 - a collection of essays by 13 philosophers exploring the arguments for and against the existence of God
• Does the Divine exist ?
• Two Dozen (or so) Theistic Arguments by Alvin Plantinga
• http://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/index.html Islamic position of Existence of God by the 4th Successor of the Promised Messiah

Notes

30. Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941 is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and Popular science Bertrand Arthur William Russell 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970 was a British Philosopher, Historian The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding Critical examination of Richard Dawkin's position http://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/part_5_section_13.html

14. ^ See eg The Probability of God by Stephen D. Unwin, its criticism in The God Delusion, the critical comment in that article, and elsewhere. Stephen D Unwin is a Physicist and author best known for his book The Probability of God. Stephen D Unwin is a Physicist and author best known for his book The Probability of God. The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding The God Delusion is a 2006 bestselling non-fiction book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding

References and Further Reading

• Broad, C. D. "Arguments for the Existence of God," Journal of Theological Studies 40 (1939): 16-30; 156-67.
• Jordan, Jeff. "Pragmatic Arguments for Belief in God", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed. )
• Cohen, Morris R. "The Dark Side of Religion," Religion Today, a Challenging Enigma, ed. Arthur L. Swift, Jr. (1933). Revised version in Morris Cohen, The Faith of a Liberal (1946).
• FreeThoughtPedia "Common Theist Arguments" and "Theological Criticisms"
• Haisch, Bernard. The God Theory: Universes, Zero-Point Fields and What's Behind It All. Red Wheel/Weiser Books, 2006.
• Hume, David. 1779, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Richard Popkin (ed), Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.
• Mackie, J. L. The Miracle of Theism. Oxford, Eng. : Oxford Univ. Press, 1982.
• Nielson, Kai. Ethics Without God. London: Pemberton Books, 1973.
• Oppy, Graham. "Ontological Arguments", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2005 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed. )
• Paley, William, 1802, Natural Theology. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1963.
• Plantinga, Alvin. Warranted Christian Belief. Oxford Univ. Press, 1993.
• Pojman, Louis P. Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology, Fourth Ed. , Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003. ISBN 0-534-54364-2.
• Ratzsch, Del. "Teleological Arguments for God's Existence", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2005 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed. )
• Rouvière, Jean-Marc, Brèves méditations sur la création du monde L'Harmattan, Paris (2006), ISBN 2-7475-9922-1.
• Swinburne, Richard. The Existence of God. New York: Clarendon, 1991.
• Everitt, Nicholas (2004). The Non-Existence of God: An Introduction. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-30107-6.  
• Mackie, J. L. (1982). The Miracle of Theism: Arguments for and against the existence of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-824682-X. Retrieved on 2006-10-27. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 312 - Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.  
• Matson, Wallace I. (1965). The Existence of God, xv–xvii.  
• McTaggart, John & McTaggart, Ellis (1927). The Nature of Existence. Volume 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Sobel, Jordan H. (2004). Logic and theism: Arguments for and against beliefs in God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-87975-307-2.  
• Ahmad, Mirza Tahir (1998). "Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth". http://www.alislam.org/library/books/revelation/index.html

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