Existence of God Handout

My Apologies but God Does Exist

There are numerous issues and topics related to apologetics and only one of these is the existence of God. When it comes to God’s existence, the Christian apologetic has focused on philosophical and scientific arguments.

The Structure of Arguments:

Arguments for the existence of God are generally expressed as syllogisms. These are lists of claims from which a new claim or claims can be deduced. For example;

1)    All bread gets moldy

2)    Wheat is a form of bread

3)    Therefore, wheat gets moldy

There are 2 qualifications for all these kinds of arguments; that they are valid and sound. Validity means that the last statement follows from the last two statements. So the above argument would not be valid if it stated that some bread gets moldy, wheat is a form of bread, and therefore wheat gets moldy. If only some bread gets moldy, then it does not follow that wheat gets moldy just because it is a kind of bread. For an argument to be sound, it must be true. Here is where the debate for most arguments lie. An argument might be valid but make false claims. In the case above, someone might point to a kind of exotic or experimental kind of bread that can be made which never gets moldy.

All syllogisms have as their goal to start with uncontroversial claims and end with controversial claims. In other words, all arguments want to start with ideas everyone believes to be true and draw from those ideas new ideas which few people believe to be true.

A Reasonable Faith:

Kinds of Arguments for God’s Existence;

1)    Cosmological- Arguments from the existence of the universe.

2)    Teleological- Arguments from the purpose or function of the universe.

3)    Moral/Axiological- Arguments from the nature/existence of morals.

4)    Arguments from Reason/logic

5)    Ontological- Arguments from the idea or definition of God.

Cosmological

An example of a Cosmological argument is the Kalam Cosmological argument. It is named after the Islamic philosopher who developed it;

1)    Everything which begins to exist has a cause.

2)    The universe began to exist.

3)    Therefore the universe has a cause.

You’ll notice first of all that this argument doesn’t conclude that God exists. It only argues the modest claim that the universe was caused to exist. This is because there is actually a second part of the argument which operates differently than the first. This second part goes like this;

If something caused the universe to exist what must we say about it? First of all, we must say that whatever caused the universe, it must be timeless and spaceless, because it created space and time (i.e. the universe). This means that the cause is eternal and isn’t made of material (doesn’t have a body). What’s more, it must be enormously powerful and intelligent to create a universe this massive and complex. Finally, the cause of the universe must be personal, meaning it (or he/she) must be capable of making decisions and thereby has free will. This means that the cause of the universe is either God or something like God.

This may sound like the end of the argument, but there are always ways of critiquing or “attacking” arguments. Here the critic of this argument could attack either (1) or (2) as unsound aka false claims. But the theist can also provide further arguments in support of both claims.

In supporting (1) we can argue that everything we observe that begins to exist was caused to exist. We might further argue that if things did come into out of existence out of nothing then it makes no sense why just anything and everything doesn’t pop into existence around us.

In supporting (2) we can point to the overwhelming scientific consensus that the Big Bang marked the beginning of our universe. As an aside the Big Bang theory is not a theory of what caused the universe to come into existence but merely a theory that the universe expanded from a singularity (something like a black hole) 14 billion years ago. In reality, the Big Bang theory is evidence for Christianity more than it is evidence 

against it.

Teleological argument

An example of a Teleological argument is Anthropic (Fine-Tuning) Argument;

If the speed of expansion of the universe had been one part in one million million slower than the universe would have collapsed in on itself before temperatures cooled below ten thousand degrees. If the speed of expansion had increased that same amount would have prevented the formation of galaxies, stars and planets.

Had the gravitational force been slightly greater, then every star in the universe would be a blue giant and would go supernova long before habitable planets could develop. Had it been slightly lower, then heavier elements essential to the formation of life would have never formed.

If the electric charge of electrons had been only slightly different then stars would not have been able to burn hydrogen, or they would have never exploded. In both cases heavier elements necessary for life to evolve.

The difficulty in providing a natural explanation to this kind of fine tuning is that whatever natural explanation you come up with would probably be incredibly fine-tuned itself. This seems to lend positive evidence to the claim that a supernatural entity of supreme intelligence and power created the universe we see today.

Moral Argument

Moral arguments generally run as follows;

1)    If objective moral values and duties exist then God must exist.

2)    Objective moral values and duties do exist.

3)    Therefore, God must exist.

In support of (1) theists argue that because objective moral duties are not just descriptive but also prescriptive then there must be a prescriber for them. We could also say that moral duties operate like laws and so must have been established by a law giver. This law giver must have both the goodness and the power to uphold and enforce these laws. Thus this law giver must be God.

In support of (2) theists argue that it seems apparent that moral values and duties are objective. It seems impossible to believe that if someone murders children they are actually only breaking a social norm and not doing something that is objectively evil.

Argument From Reason

Arguments from reason usually are negative, meaning that they try to disprove naturalism (the belief that nature is all that exists) more than they prove God exists.

A simplified version of this argument would look like this;

1)    If naturalism is true then no beliefs form on the basis of claims or ideas.

2)    But beliefs do form on –the basis of claims (like the claim that God does not exist).

3)    Therefore naturalism is false.

As odd as this argument might seem it is actually a powerful argument. The key statement is (1) and the argument behind it is this; if naturalism is true then all beliefs and thoughts in the mind are really just byproducts of physical reactions in the brain. But if this is true then no belief is really justified on the basis of evidence and arguments, but is only believed because of physical reactions in the brain.

But clearly we do form beliefs on the basis of evidence or claims that are true. This is what every self-respecting atheist and skeptic of all things supernatural thinks! So it is equally clear that naturalism must be false.

Recommended Resources:

Apologetics:

1)    Reasonablefaith.org- Dr. William Lane Craig answers numerous questions about the existence of God and Christianity in an easily accessible way

2)    Peterkreeft.com- Peter Kreeft presents a long list and defense of arguments for God’s existence.

3)    Premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable?- Hosted by Justin Brierley, “Unbelievable?” gathers both Christian and nonChristian scholars together to discuss challenging theological and philosophical questions on a weekly basis.

4)    Biologos.org- Scientists and scholars wrestle with reconciling science with scripture and doctrine from an evolutionary creationist perspective.

5)    Equip.org- Scientists and scholars wrestle with reconciling science with scripture and doctrine from a young/old earth creationist perspective.

6)    Bethinking.org- A website with a large database of articles from a wide range of topics written by scholars in various fields to answer tough questions about the Christian faith.

Theology and Church:

7)    Whitehorseinn.org- a website with numerous podcasts and articles related to Christian theology developed by the well-respected theologian; Michael Horton.

8)    Barna.org- a useful site discussing the Christian sub-culture of America. Numerous studies provide valuable insights into issues such as why high school and college students are leaving the church in such high numbers.

9)    Ccel.org- Christian Classics Ethereal Library is a massive database of classic Christian writings from throughout the past 2,000 years of church history, and it’s all available for free.

 Theopedia.com- Sort of like Wikipedia, but for all things related to Christian doctrine.