- 22/02/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Attempts to prove the existence of God, which are at least partly based on empirical observation and logic, have been being made for hundreds of years. These rational arguments, in general, are opposed to religious irrationalism, according to which knowledge of God is behind logical analysis sacrament.
There are many such proofs, which can be divided into four major groups – the metaphysical, empirical, logical, and subjective. Reducible evidences shouldn’t be tied to any particular religion, but historically they have been formulated primarily in Judaism, Christianity and Islam on the basis of the metaphysics of ancient Greek philosophy.
The common proof of the existence of God is not formulated since there is no universally accepted definition of God. For the same reason there can not be universally accepted proof of the nonexistence of God, but there may be evidences of the nonexistence of some particular gods with specific tested characteristics.
Nevertheless, the question of the existence of God continues to be one the most controversial subjects of philosophical disputes and public debate.
There are some arguments in favor of the existence of God:
The proof of the degree of perfection. (Moral)
“In our conscience there is an absolute demand of the moral law. Morality is from God.”
Due to the observation that most people follow certain moral laws, realize what is good and what is bad, we can make a conclusion about the existence of objective morality. But because good people commit evil deeds, and bad people are able to do something good , we need the source of morality that does not depend on human. It is concluded that the source of objective morality can only be a supreme being, God.
Cosmological
“Everything must have a cause. The root cause of all is God.”
This proof can be found already in Aristotle’s thoughts, who distinguished the definitions of chance and necessary existence, conditional and unconditional one, and stated the need for recognition among all the reasons the first start of any action in the world.
Avicenna mathematically formulated the cosmological argument for God’s existence as a single and indivisible cause of all things. Subsequently, this proof has been simplified and formalized by William Hatcher.
The cosmological proof has a very long history. In its original form it goes back to Aristotle. It would be more accurate to speak not about one cosmological proof, but about few of them. In all these proofs some aspect of the world are chosen: the presence of motion, cause, degree of perfection, order and harmony, and through these elements of the world the real presence of God in the world is shown. The best known cosmological evidence belongs to Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas didn’t consider them as scientific evidences, although they have a logical structure. His arguments are more of a “road”, that leads to God. The general scheme of all arguments is similar, we consider the various aspects of the reality which surrounds us, and discover that God is the center of existence for all things that form the world. Each aspect of sensitive being needs a cause, and therefore ways, which lead to God are different. Thus Thomas Aquinas does not believe that on the basis of his evidence a definition of God can be given. Of course, the prime mover is God, First Cause is God, but we can not say that God is the prime mover or first cause. The central element of such evidence is not what exactly the reason is (because we can not even raise the question of what is the thing, until we know that it exists), the importance belongs to a word that denotes the cause. For St. Thomas’s effects, which stems from God, are sufficient enough to prove his existence, but not enough to comprehend who and what he is. According to Thomas Aquinas, there must be something which is the existential basis of the whole cosmos.
Mind
Science still does not know the law according to which the atoms and molecules can organize themselves into a living cell and give rise to mind. A well-known Canadian professor, biologist, M.Ryuz, an agnostic by conviction, saying about the idea of so-called natural occurrence of the human mind by evolution, has written: “Biological theory and experimental practice strongly suggest against this. In modern theoretical biology, there is nothing that would show inexorable inevitability of mind’s origins”.
Language
Already more than one millennium people think about the origins of language. All the existing concepts of the origins of language may be more or less possible. But they are nothing more than hypothesis that can not be proved, although for the most part they can not be refuted. However, the religious concept of the origin of language reflects a real fact: the human language is a special gift, and in nature there is nothing like it. Animals’ “languages” are too dissimilar to it. This fact indicates that there are things that science can not explain, but which may be explained by the religion (language is a gift of God).
Genesis
The problem of correlation of existence and nonexistence is considered to be the original philosophical problem. The central question of this problem: what is the beginning and foundation of the world – existence and nonexistence? Within the paradigm of nonexistence philosophy, nonexistence is initial, it gives the start to existence and limits it.
Eternity
Eternity is a sign of transcendent being, of course supratemporal is commonly found in Indian theosophy, in some of the Upanishads; the concept is also developed in Greek philosophy (especially the Neoplatonists), has become the favorite topic for reflection of both Eastern and Western mystics and Theosophists. For the first time we met it in the revelation of the Eternal God of the Jews (Goldstein, 42-70).
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