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Recommended: Arguements for the existence of God

From the beginning of time, man has grappled with the possibility that there is a God. Many have questioned his existence and the nature of such a being. During this semester in The Philosophy of Religion, we have discussed these topics in great detail. Possibly the most interesting feature of this course are the three basic arguments that explain the existence of God: the teleological argument, the cosmological argument, and the ontological argument. These arguments not only provide evidence for the existence of God, they demonstrate the expansiveness of the human mind. Through analyzing these arguments, one may better understand how far reasoning can expand.
In the first argument for the existence of God, proponents argue for the existence of an intelligent creator, a human-like design of the universe, and the existence of purpose in nature. This argument is known as the teleological argument, teleo meaning purpose and logical meaning reason. In this argument, the existence of God is the best explanation of the order of the world. One proponent of this argument is William Paley. Paley used the analogy of a watch to explain the existence of the universe and therefore the existence of God. His argument starts with a watch. We see a watch lying on the ground and observe its complexity. It would be logical to assume that the watch has a maker based upon the intricacy of its design. A watch so intricate could not have happened by chance; therefore, there must be a creator. Paley’s notion is to apply this logic to the universe. We see the intricacy of the universe and can assume there to be a universe maker; he is called God. Critiques of this argument come from David Hume who suggested that this argument does not explain God’s exist...

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...xperience.
In short, this course has provided students with an enhanced academic experience. The most interesting of all the topics we covered this semester was that of the three arguments for the existence of God. These arguments greatly overlapped into other sections of the course and provided a great foundation for the whole course. What can be taken away from the course in The Philosophy of Religion is how religion can be used to demonstrate the extensiveness of human reasoning. Logic only goes but so far, but it is always important to grapple with questions about God because it helps to uncover information about the universe as a whole. Although we came to no conclusion this semester about God’s existence, what this course has taught us all is that there must be some psychological need for a creator to exist. Whether he does or does not exist is irrelevant.

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