Philosophical arguments for the existence of God

If you want to check out well-prepared and easy-to-read arguments for the existence of God, I recommend Existence of God.

Tim was an atheist until he studied philosophy at university to post-graduate level, but he found the evidence and the philosophical arguments so persuasive that he was convinced of God's existence. He is now a christian, and has set up his site to present the same arguments to others.

He covers all the standard arguments for God's existence - first cause, design, moral, ontological and two arguments about Jesus - and also considers five arguments for atheism. If you want a simple statement of complex arguments, I recommend it.

is belief in god declining?

The percentage of people believing in God is always of interest to me. What is the latest?

is it natural to believe in god?

We all like to think we make good choices for good reasons. Those who believe in God like to think they are right in their belief, whereas atheists think believers are mistaken, sometimes even 'delusional'. Some atheists would like to see all God-belief eliminated because they believe it does so much harm.

Yet new scientific studies suggest it is 'natural' to believe in God.

healing of cancer in the pelvis

What evidence would it take for you to believe a miracle had occurred? Do you think it would make a difference if it happened to you?

Lisa Larios didn't even know she had cancer. But when she found out she could walk again without pain, she certainly believed it was a miracle.

do miracles really happen?

When we get desperate, most of us would like to think that miracles are possible, that the incurable disease can be cured and those told they are beyond medical help can be healed.

But is there any hope that miracles are really possible?

prayer and healing

Photo: MorgueFile

People all over the world pray that God will help them in their time of need, including when they are sick. But is there any evidence that their praying achieves anything? It may surprise you to know that dozens of medical research studies have been undertaken in recent years to answer this question.

did the universe begin? does it have a cause?

It's an age-old argument - what caused the universe? Some say there is no explanation other than God. Others argue that it didn't begin but has always been, others that they don't know what the cause is, but one day science may discover it.

Jim, who blogs at both Quodlibeta and Agent Intellect, reckons the latest scientific understanding of these two questions is a nail in the coffin of atheism. I think he's both right and wrong.

is the universe designed?

The facts are not scientifically in doubt. There are a dozen or so physical constants (the strength of gravity, the size and charges of fundamental particles, etc) which control how our universe has developed since the big bang, and if some of them had been even a little different, the universe would have collapsed back in on itself long before now, or flown apart, or have remained a thin soup without stars or planets.

It makes some people think that the probability of all this occurring by chance is so small that it must have been designed. But others argue that the logic is all wrong and probability doesn't make sense in this case. How does the argument go?

is it possible i'm wrong?

Have you ever considered something you believe in and asked yourself: "Is it possible I'm wrong?"

If you're an atheist, have you truly considered whether there might really be a God despite what you think? If you're a christian, have you ever considered that you might be fooling yourself?

How would we ever know if we are really being honest with ourselves?

who needs god?

The western world is in the process of deciding that it doesn't need God. Well, most of us that is, or at least, most of the time. But here's one atheist who thinks other people truly need God, even if he doesn't.

where is god in natural disasters?

Yesterday I posted some information on extreme weather events which seem to indicate that global warming is having an increasing effect. But these natural disasters also raise the question of where is God at these times, and why does he allow them?

visions of jesus

After my last post on why believe?, I remembered some other interesting stories I had read. People from non-christian backgrounds, mostly Muslim, having visions of Jesus which led to their conversion.

So I did a bit of searching, and came up with these:

Well-prepared arguments for christian truth

This book (Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig) is the best I have read on the arguments for the truth of the existence of God and the truth of the christian faith.

The arguments between believers and non-believers have hotted up in the last decade,

is burning the Koran a good idea?

In a month it will be 9 years since Islamic terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Centre in the US, with the loss of about three thousand lives. News reports say a church in Florida plans to commemorate the event by publicly burning copies of the Koran. Is this a good idea? Is it a christian idea?

in appreciation of martin rees

Martin Rees is a very interesting character. An eminent British cosmologist (a scientist who studies the universe and its expansion from the initial big bang), he is the Astronomer Royal (a largely honorary title) and president of the Royal Society, Britain's most elite scientific organisation. Along with Stephen Hawking, he was instrumental in proving that the universe had not existed forever, but began with the big bang, about 14 billion years ago.

there is absolutely no evidence for God?

Richard Dawkins is a well known and influential spokesman for atheism and a harsh critic of religion and belief in God. As a well respected scientist, the facts he presents and the opinions he draws from them are taken notice of. But are his facts always well-based?