Is There Really A God?

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The question of whether or not God exists has been pondered for centuries as “God exists” or “God does not exist” are not self-evident principles. For the purposes of this essay, God is defined as “the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the Supreme Being” . I will discuss three of the primary logical arguments for God’s existence including the argument from design, the cosmological argument and The Proofs of St. Thomas Aquinas, and then decide if the counterarguments are valid proof of God’s non-existence.

The most common argument for the existence of God is the argument from design. William Paley, an English philosopher most known for his definition of the teleological argument, wrote in his book titled Natural Theology in 1802 , “If you were walking on a heath and saw a watch on the ground you would assume that the parts had not come together by chance because it is too ordered and complicated. Therefore someone must have designed it or it would not work. Because the universe is also ordered and complicated, someone must have designed that too. That ‘someone’ is God.” However this argument does not prove the existence of God. Two important critics of this argument were David Hume and Charles Darwin. In his Dialogues Concerning Natural Reason Hume argues that even if the world had been designed, we cannot assume that it was a sole creator that made the universe, it may be the product of multiple designers or an inept designer. He also argues that because there is evil in the world, the designer could not be perfect; therefore God could not be the perfect creator. Since there is only one universe, it is possible that the universe did not require a designer and that chance could be responsibl...

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...l. Reaasonable Faith. 4 April 2014.

Richmond, Michael. The Surprising Results of the Michelson-Morley Experiment. Web. 4 April

2014.

Pecorino, Philip. Proofs for the Existence of God: The Cosmological Argument. Introduction to

Philosophy. 2000. Web. 4 April 2014.

Aquinas’ Cosmological Argument for Existence of God. Scandalon: Philosophy of Religion.

Web. 4 April 2014.

The Five Ways of St. Thomas Aquinas are all Dead Ends. Vorpal.us. 16 Oct. 2007. Web. 4 April

2014.

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