THE PROBLEM OF EXISTENCE OF GOD

 The problem of belief in God/gods is one of the most controversial philosophical

questions
 Belief in God/gods occupies a central position in religious faith and practice; men all over
the world, from time immemorial believe in God/god in some form.
 To religious people the issue of God’s existence provides less challenge, if any, because
through faith they have come to the conclusion that God’s existence is incontestable
reality.
 However sometimes this faith is shaken particularly in the event of challenges that seem
to contradict this view.

To the philosopher, existence of God is a real philosophical problem because:

 Philosophy by its method relies and requires evidence either empirically derived or
logically established to justify any claims to knowledge.
 Philosopher are therefore anxious to know if belief in God is intellectually respectable;
that is whether existence of God can be proved scientifically or by logical means

Positions about belief in God

Belief in God is not homogenous; rather it takes different forms as follows:

Theism-the belief in a personal God who is the creator of the universe and everything in it and
who is both immanent and transcendent-Christianity and Islam.

Deism-the belief in God who created the universe, but allows his creation to administer itself
through the laws of nature, he is transcendent but not immanent.

Atheism-this is the denial of the existence of God.

Pantheism-belief that God is all and all is God; does not separate God from his creation.

Agnosticism- the belief that knowledge of God is limited or impossible; it is not possible to
either affirm or deny God’s existence

1
The nature of God

Is God just an idea in the human mind (a creation of the human mind?)

God and the idea of God

To say that God is (exists) is not just to have an idea in the mind (creation of the human mind)

To say that God exists is an affirmation of God as an objective reality that exists independent of
the human consciousness, human mind.

Arguments for existence of God

Cosmological argument-This argument was put forth by Aristotle and later Thomas Aquinas. It
based on the principle of Sufficient Cause which states that every even has a cause, sufficient to
explain its being. From the series of causes of events in the universe, it postulates the first cause
or self-existing being which cannot be material in form that is the cause of the universe.

Criticisms

David Hume severely criticized this argued by posing the following questions:

 What is the cause of the first cause-probably the series of cause have no beginning (the
Chinese believe so)
 If every event must have a cause why stop at God
 If there can be uncaused event then the concept of God is unnecessary
 The argument implies deism which renders God’s existence superfluous

Ontological argument

The argument was set forth by St.Anselm. The idea of perfection entertained by the human mind
leads to the postulation of a Perfect Being. That mental picture of perfection is what God is.

Criticisms

 We can conceive of all sorts of things as existing but still not know whether or not they
exist as defined
 We cannot merely deduce the existence of a being from the idea of that being

2
The teleological argument

That the design, order apparent in the universe discloses or implies a designer. Therefore God is
probably the intelligent designer of the universe. This argument was put forth by Cicero.

Criticisms

 Immanuel Kant criticized this argument, arguing that the best the argument can prove is
that there is design in the universe. It does not prove that the designer is necessarily God
who is the omnipotent creator of the universe
 The Darwinian doctrine of evolution and natural selection has severely weakened this
argument

The moral argument

Moral order in the universe implies a God who is the source of our values and moral order in the
universe. This argument was put forth by Immanuel Kant

Criticisms

 Morality and sense of moral values do not need to be located outside rational and
humanistic order
 The argument equates morality and belief in existence of God
 Evidence shows that people who ground their moral values, standards in theistic beliefs
are not necessarily better morally.

Argument from personal experience

 Long testimony from seers, prophets, ordinary people from all nations in the world
 Many people have reported direct personal experience is a significant fact of the world
 Men have felt intuitively the presence of God and they have come to know him in reality
 Experience is beyond logical and philosophical argument beyond sensory and intellectual
consciousness

Criticisms

The argument raises a number of philosophical challenges:

3
  Epistemological challenge revolving around the by the following sources of knowledge:
 Revelation-how do we verify these claims
 Testimony; how reliable is it a source of knowledge; it is a secondary source of
knowledge
 Intuition as sources of knowledge; how do we decide which is genuine;
 How do we know that such experiences are not mere hallucinations-they lack
intersubjective verification

OBSTACLES TO BELIEF IN GOD

Epistemological challenge /objections

 One of the major problems points of conflict between philosophical knowledge and
religious truth is in the manner in which the two try to justify or validate their claims
 Philosophy relies on logical argument or empirically established evidence while religion
believes in such supra rational means like revelation and faith, and also such sources as
intuition, testimony
 Therefore one of the major obstacles to belief is about verifying the existence of God. So
Critics say belief in God is unscientific and merely wishful thinking.

The Epicurean Paradox

 The presence of evil and pain and suffering in the world

 The philosophical problem, or dilemma is how we reconcile the presence/existence of
God who is all knowing, loving, good, powerful, and benevolent with the presence of so
much evil and suffering in the world:
 physical evil including disease
 mental agony from fears and stress
 social evils poverty, war, terrorism
 natural evil-earthquakes, flooding, global warming

The response by the philosopher called Epicurus on this question is called the Epicurean paradox
or the riddle of Epicurus

In regard to belief in God, Epicurus saw an inconsistent triad

4
  either god wishes to take away evil but he is unable
 he is able to take away evil but he is unwilling
 he is nether willing nor able

The implication of this inconsistency is that either God does not exist or he is not what people
belief he is. Therefore Epicureanism tends towards a Deistic conception of God

The Marxist challenge

 The ideas of Karl Marx and his friend Fredrick Engels constitute a philosophical school
known as Marxism, which contains some of the most controversial and revolutionary
ideas
 Karl Marx did not believe in teachings based on faith, arguing that belief in such
amounted to believing is superstitions

The central idea of the Marxist ideology on religion is captured in the now famous Marxian
dictum that “religion is the opium of the masses “This basically meant that:

 religion has a narcotic effect on the masses (poor)

 religion is an escape from reality, it is merely comforting
 it diverts people from their immediate problems of this world such as suffering,
exploitation thus blinding the poor from the realities of life
 Religion gives people a false sense of security, salvation, an illusory happiness by
focusing on other worldly concerns.
 it gives the poor a false sense of hope and comfort
 religion is alienating
 therefore in at some point religion will become superfluous or redundant because the
conditions that create the need for the illusion would be overcome

According to Karl Marx, communism would create such conditions that will obliterate the need
for the illusion.