The Classical Arguments for the Existence of God

 

There have been many attempts made to prove the existence of God but none have been definitive or inarguable. Some have pointed out that even if definitive proof existed that would not be enough. Knowing is not the same as believing.

There are three classical arguments for the existence of God. Argument to most people carries

the idea of an angry exchange of words sometimes leading to a physical altercation, but there is also an understanding of the word from a classical legal background. Ancient orators (the forerunners of attorneys) and their descendants, modern scholars, professors, and attorneys offered arguments on numerous subjects, giving persuasive statements for or against a particular matter or understanding of a subject. Modern lawyers present closing arguments to a jury at a trial.

The three classical arguments for the existence of God are the ontological, cosmological, and the teleological. The English-language word ontology is derived from the Greek words ὄν or ὄντος (being, that which is) and λογία (word, study). The English-language word cosmology is derived from the Greek words κóσμος (order, arrangement, or adornment) and λογία. The English-language word teleology is derived from the Greek words τέλος (end, aim purpose, goal, finality) and λογία.

The Ontological Argument says that since we can conceive of a perfect being, then God must exist. The weakness here is that we can also conceive of H.P. Lovecraft’s extremely complex mythology of ancient gods like Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, or Cthulhu but that does not mean that they actually exist.

The Cosmological Argument says that everything in the universe has a cause and that there must be a first cause, which is God. The weakness here is how to explain how God can be an uncaused cause. To say that God caused himself is just talking in a circle and does not answer the objection.

The Teleological Argument: is generally considered to be the strongest of the three.  This is also known as the argument from design. This argument points to the apparent order, purpose, and complexity of the universe as strong evidence pointing to an intelligent designer. This argument often mentions the fine-tuning of physical constants which must be the way they are for the existence of life, and of multiple complex biological systems which must all function correctly together the very first time or the organism will not be viable. The weakness here is that this argument can point but cannot prove. It can only define a degree of probability.

This argument cannot answer numerous objections. Was God designed by another designer who also had a designer who also had a …? Are there other designers creating other universes? Do suffering and natural disasters show God to be cruel or evil? Does the designer care at all about what he designed? Do we so much want to see design that we see it when it is not really there? Does the apparent presence of design point to the God of the Judeo-Christian tradition or to some other deity? Every one of these questions and objections and many others have been brought up over the centuries and have led to the development of the field of apologetics.

Apologetics absolutely cannot prove the existence of God. What it seeks to do is to find and explore every possible provable fact which adds to the probability of the truth of the Judeo-Christian tradition. There are literally thousands of these provable facts. Do not expect any of this to convince a true confirmed skeptic.

One can easily get bogged down in all the arguments, but I believe that the point of apologetics can be summed up by a line from the Jean-Pierre Jeunet secular comedic film masterpiece, Amelie: “When the finger’s pointing at the sky, only a fool looks at the finger.” 

The field of apologetics attempts to pile facts upon facts to raise the probability of God’s existence to the point at which even hostile total skeptics have to admit that it is at least a viable argument.

The Worldview Shift in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

“What happened in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was that what for many had been the minimal theology of the Old World became the maximal of the New. … They found it in the world of Nature.”  John  V. Fleming (a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, university professor at Princeton University, and medievalist).

The “minimal theology of the Old World/maximal theology of the New World” is that the obvious order, mathematical nature,  and logic of the natural world all strongly imply the existence of an intelligence, a Creator.  Everything works as it must for us to exist at all.  If anything at all; gravitation, body pH, the amount of radiation in the atmosphere, the attractive and repellant forces between subatomic particles, etc.,  is  varied by even minute amounts, we will all die.  The extreme order and complexity of the physical world led to what is called the Argument from Design.  Design implies a Designer.

The shift  in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries denied the importance and sometimes even the existence of the Designer.  At best this is Deism (God exists but that is all that can be said), at worst, it is Atheism (God does not exist).

This shift in worldview led ultimately to the philosophy known as scientific materialism or naturalism.  This is the idea that the only things which can be known are those things which can be empirically measured.  A few steps more led to overt militant atheism.  A few steps more led to the idea that nothing can be known absolutely; that there is no Absolute Truth of any sort.  From this, people feel that they can, with a straight face, declare , “That is your truth, my truth may be different.”  Essentially, they are saying that there can be no universal standards of any sort, no declaration that anything is always wrong or right, and, ultimately, that “there can be no criticism of ME.”  This is the ultimate meaning of sin, the elevation of self above everything and everyone else.  Man making himself into God.

This is the Bible’s response to Deism and Atheism: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” Romans 1:20