The Existence of God

The Existence of God

Everything must have a cause. It is impossible to continue backwards

to infinity with causes, therefore there must have been a first cause

which was not conditioned by any other cause. That cause must be God.

Objections: If you allow one thing to exist without cause, you

contradict your own premise. And if you do, there is no reason why the

universe should not be the one thing that exists or originates without

cause.

Animals, plants and planets show clear signs of being designed for

specific ends, therefore there must have been a designer.

A very large number of people claim to have personal religious

experiences of God.

Objections: We cannot assume that everything imagined in mental

experiences (which include dreams, hallucinations etc) actually

exists. Such experiences cannot be repeated, tested or publicly

verified. Mystical and other personal experiences can be explained by

other causes.

While theology may take God's existence as absolutely necessary on the

basis of authority, faith, or revelation, many philosophers-and some

theologians-have thought it possible to demonstrate by reason that

there must be a God.

St. Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteenth century, formulated the famous

"five ways" by which God's existence can be demonstrated

philosophically:

* 1. The "unmoved mover" argument. We know that there is motion in

the world; whatever is in motion is moved by another thing; this

other thing also must be moved by something; to avoid an infinite

regression, we must posit a "first mover," which is God.

* 2. The "nothing is caused by itself" argument. For example, a

table is brought into being by a carpenter, who is caused by his

parents. Again, we cannot go on to infinity, so there must be a

first cause, which is God.

* 3. The cosmological argument. All physical things, even mountains,

boulders, and rivers, come into being and go out of existence, no