God To Be Or Not To Be

God: To Be Or Not To Be? Essay, Research Paper

Philosophy poses us questions that we long to have answers for. One most popular philosophical question boggles the minds of people around the world: Is there a God? Ever since mankind was created, this question was among the speculations that clouded our minds. The world is a grand and intricate place, so where did it come from? There are many theories about the wonders of the world, and it is, as of now, scientifically impossible to prove that there is an ever existing God. So, why do so many of the world s people continue to believe? Some people DO believe that there is good, reasonable evidence that God exists. There are two world-views about the existence of God: the transcendentalist and the naturalist. God is the creator of the universe. He is all-good and all-knowing. He is considered to be among the supernatural, in comparison to our natural world. This is the belief of the transcendentalist called theism. This view coincides with the western world s dualistic world-view. Pertaining to Christians, Jews and Muslims, the fact that the world has order and complex, interdependent parts (such as the food chain) that are beyond the creating capability of man is convincing enough reasonable evidence that God exists. The regularities of our natural laws, such as gravity and velocity, are also good explanations for the existence of God. The casual theist believes in God for the reasons of cause and effect. Everything in the world has a cause. There are two facts which the casual theist stands by: 1) Everything in the world is caused by something, and 2) The series of causes cannot extend back in time infinitely, for it is scientifically proven that there was a beginning to the world. Therefore, there must be a first cause. That cause is God. He is the source and origin of the world. He created the world, and consequently He created you and me. The design theists are also convinced that God exists but for slightly different reasons. They view the world as a machine. All machines have a designer. Man could not have created the complexity of the world. Therefore, the design theists believe in the existence of God as the world s designer. It would require supernatural, incomprehensive powers to create the world. The casual theist and the design theist belong to the transcendentalist world-view, but not everyone is convinced. The atheist is a part of the naturalist world-view. The atheist believes that there is no convincing evidence that God exists. They believe that we all just evolved from materials and particles. They also find it difficult to believe in a God that allows pain and suffering in the world. An all-powerful all-good God could never allow that to happen to his people, therefore, God does not exist for the atheists. The retreat atheists claim that the questions that the existence of God have previously answered have been replaced by explanations from modern science. Projection atheists believe that religion is a fairy tale. We make our fathers the image of God. He can do all that our fathers can and more. But that does not make Him real. The more knowledge that the scientific world gains, the more skepticism floats around the globe. Combining the retreat and projection atheists, we confront the opposite of transcendentalism: naturalism. The question that the atheist raises is important: if there is a God, why would He allow pain and suffering in the world? The transcendentalist has two reasonable explanations for the existence of evil. They compile to make the compatibilism theory. The character compatibilist believes that our ability to live through the hard times makes us stronger. The trials that we go through in life are character builders which combine to make a true, dignified human being. We have the chance to live to our fullest potential. As a free will compatibilist, the evils of the world are explained by the two-world theory: God created the world, and God created humans. He had a choice to make. He could create World #1 for us in which we have the ability to make our own decisions. This is the idea of free will. We, therefore, have the choice to do evil if we please. We are not all robots programmed to do all good. If God had chosen World #2 for us, we would all live in harmony, but we could not do as we please. We would all be good and the same. It would, ultimately, be a boring world in which to live. We would have no freedom. God had a decision to make about our existence and He chose the greater good: our freedom.

Contrary to the transcendentalist s belief, the naturalists believe that the existence of evil disproves the existence of God. This is called the theory of incompatibilism. They believe that if there were a good, caring God, He would want and would be able to get rid of evil. The bare fact of life is that there is evil in the world, and that proves that there is no all-good all-powerful God. If God cared, He would not allow children to die or people to starve, therefore, it is unreasonable to continue to believe in an all-good all-powerful God. What is religious belief based on? Do we have tangible evidence to believe in the existence of God? The transcendentalists, once again, have two different views about the evidence: the believer and the theistic rationalist. The believer, also known as the fideist, thinks that it is ok to believe in God without evidence. Human knowledge has limits, and