Saturday, March 11, 2017

Arguments For The Existence Of God

  • The Argument From First Cause:
          -How did everything existing in the universe come into being? If the answer is gasses or atoms or celestial bodies or whatever else secular scientists may want us to believe, then where did all of these things come from? It is logically impossible for something to originate from nothing. We need to keep going back in time until we discover a beginning. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the first cause of everything must be a God who has existed for all eternity. That is His very nature. Thus, He is the first cause of all things. We know beyond any shadow of a doubt that something cannot create itself from nothing. That is not scientific reasoning but myth-making.
  • The Argument From Fine-Tuning:
          -The fine tuning of the universe is worth our consideration. Notice how everything in the solar system orbits around the sun, how the planets rotate (with moons even rotating around them), and how everything stays in perfect order. The planet Earth, which is about 93 million miles away from the sun and is third in the sequence of planets as to their distance away from the central star that provides us with light, is the only known environment that is able to sustain human life. Furthermore, life on this planet functions in a very sophisticated and orderly manner. If the universe simply originated out of merely "nothing" and by chance, then how come life is not disorganized and chaotic?
          -"Summary: These are the fundamental constants and quantities of the universe. Each of these numbers have been carefully dialed to an astonishingly precise value - a value that falls within an exceedingly narrow, life-permitting range. If any one of these numbers were altered by even a hair's breadth, no physical, interactive life of any kind could exist anywhere. There'd be no stars, no life, no planets, no chemistry…The fact is our universe permits physical, interactive life only because these, and many other numbers, have been independently and exquisitely balanced on a razor's edge…The probabilities involved are so ridiculously remote as to put the fine-tuning well beyond the reach of chance." (http://www.reasonablefaith.org/transcript-fine-tuning-argument)
  • The Moral Argument:
          -How life should work is dictated by universal moral principles. In other words, every decision that we plan to execute should be made on the basis of an objective standard of good. The fact that we appeal to a moral standard in our daily argumentation, expect everyone to behave in morally good manner, make apologies, and try to make excuses to justify our wrongdoings proves that there must be an ultimate, unchangeable standard of morality. Mentally deranged people have a perception of good, even if their view of goodness is extremely twisted. In fact, the heart of the ancient civilizations had a sense of good, though their practices or customs may have been radically different and even repulsive in our sight. This innate sense of good and evil cannot be mere instinct because it is based upon our free will, which operates on the basis of human reason. The difference between a mere animal instinct and this transcendent moral code is that the first one is automatic and unable to be resisted, whereas the second concept can indeed be resisted. The existence of objective moral truths presupposes the existence of God.
  • The Argument From Contingency (Cosmological Argument):
          -In order for the universe to come into existence, an outside entity that exceeds the boundaries of space, matter, and time must also exist. Nothing material can exist on its own behalf or whim. The existence of the universe is dependent on an outside source, just as fire needs oxygen to burn or trees need water to grow. What is needed for the universe to exist exists independently of whether other beings exist or not. This mysterious being exists in and of itself, that is, an eternal source. This divine Giver is completely different than the created, finite particles of matter. He is infinite, unchangeable, and immaterial. He transcends space and time. In contrast, the universe is finite and changeable.
  • The Argument From Efficient Cause:
          -There is no such thing as infinite regress in the sense of a never ending series of causes. It is logically impossible for something to exist prior to its existence. So every material object must have a beginning. An effect cannot occur without a cause. It is reasonable to conclude that God set the universe into the orderly fashion that we observe today. A first mover would be distinguished from a first cause.
  • The Argument From Degrees Of Perfection (Henological Argument):
          -We tend to classify personal preferences, chains of events, lifetime experiences, and various decisions from least to greatest. In other words, one of the processes on which our judgment operates is ranking things according to being better or worse or by being more or less extreme in nature. A few examples of this sort of activity will be provided to illustrate the point that degrees of perfection do exist and how they relate to the existence of God. For example, we classify being a genius as better than having an average intelligence; an average intelligence as better than being unintelligent. Our way of being is much better and more complete than that of animals or inanimate objects. If these degrees of perfection are pertinent to being, which does exist in finite creatures, then there must be an ultimate degree of perfection that transcends our understanding. One exists who has all of the good qualities that we posses as beings, but to an infinitely perfect and full extent. God has the highest degree of perfection and being.
  • The Argument From Desire:
          -"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 137)
  • The Argument Of The Unmoved Mover:
          -Everything that is placed into motion has a mover. In other words, things cannot merely set themselves into motion without a being applying the force to put that object into a state of movement. All moving things have a mover. Therefore, the universe could not have began and put everything into motion by itself. There is an Unmoved Mover from whom all motion proceeds. God is the one who set the order of everything into motion.

No comments: