Good Reason And Religious Belief Essay Example

The idea of God existing is one that has been debated and discussed for centuries and will continue to be discussed throughout time. Through these many years there have been may different arguments to the existence of God. One of these arguments is the ontological argument. This argument is one of the most complex and difficult to understand. Basically, Saint Anselm states that a God exists because in order for God to be the greatest being, which is what is believed, then he must actually exist. Throughout time there have been many people who have refuted this idea and combated what Anselm said, but there has been an answer to many of these objections.
There is an example that discusses how, if Anselm was correct, then it should apply to any object. For example, if an island were to be the greatest thing you could imagine, then that island must exist, stated the objectors of Anselm’s argument. The argument by Anselm was that his great philosophy, and ontological argument, can only apply to something great like God, it cannot apply to ordinary or normal things. There was a major philosopher named Immanuel Kant, who had the most famous of objections to the theory and stated that just because something exists it does not necessarily add to the greatness of the object itself.
Another argument that comes into play is the cosmological argument. The premise of this argument is that the universe must have come from somewhere and that it did not just appear out of nowhere. The idea that the universe came from somewhere shows that there must have been some intellectual thought behind the creation of such an intellectual universe. There are two different aspects of this argument: The First Cause Argument and Clarke’s cosmological argument.
The First Cause Argument comes from everyday things such as cause and effect, like watering crops make them grow. This idea states that there must be a first cause of everything in existence, and under this idea this cause is God. Clarke’s states that there must be a self-existent being in order for this idea to be made, and that self-existent being is God himself, he is the self-existent being that has started the First Cause of all other effects.
The final argument to be discussed is the design argument, which was actually created by Kant himself. This argument states that due to the similarity of all of things in existence there must be a similarity in the creator of these things. Much of the skepticism is that, although this theory proves there is a creator, it does not necessarily show that God is the creator or that God actually exists. This argument, however, is one that is considered one of the most appealing.
The most plausible explanation that there is an existence of God is the Cosmological Argument. I believe this strongly because it has the most evidence to back the fact that not only is there something that created the universe and mankind as a whole but that this person or being is one of great power and is in a supreme position, such as God himself. The discussion of the two aspects as well, especially the First Cause, really lends itself to be believed on a strong and sophisticated level. By looking at everyday things, which we are able to do, we can see that to every effect there must be a cause. Being able to apply this idea and this thought process to the concept of whether or not there is a God allows this theory to work best for those of us who are living day to day in a way that may not be similar to many of the in-depth philosophers.
There is a main discussion that takes place when it comes into account with the existence of a God, and this is the problem of evil. The overall problem is that, if there is an all knowing God, then why would he not just be able to eliminate all evil so that it is no longer present on earth. If God is all knowing and all powerful then why doesn’t God make sure that no human must experience or battle with evil. There are a few arguments that are discussed in order to combat the concept that there cannot be evil if there is a God.
One of the main arguments is that there must be evil for there to be good. Basically there must be a negative in order for there to be a positive. If we do not experience anything that is negative, then how we will ever be able to realize what is something positive in life. This is an argument that is still discussed to this day, even though it was initially discussed by St. Thomas. There is another argument that is human freedom is the reason evil exists. Basically this is the idea of free will. The proponents of this idea are that God believed it would have been able to not allow humans to make their own choices and to have freedom, so he granted us freedom, which allows us as humans to choose between good and evil.
The best response is that there must be an evil for there to be good. Without knowing what a negative feeling is or a negative outcome is it would be highly difficult to understand and to appreciate the goodness of the world. God understood that humans would have a free thinking mind, but also a complex and intriguing mind. This mind would need to be stimulated not just from a positive place but a negative one as well, and that is so that the good times and the good things can be appreciated, but also something as simple as deemed as “good.” Without something being labeled as “bad” or “negative” then there would be no opportunity label something as “good” or positive”. The idea that freewill is upon us so we have the choice of good of evil is one that leaves itself open to much criticism. Not everyone chooses the evil that they are forced to experience in life.