Essay/Term paper: The existence of god

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Philosophy Essays

The Existence of God


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