Arguments about god

Susie Willmott

Contents

Page

3    Introduction

4    Part one: the main arguments Christians put forward about their belief in God.

11   Part two: Difficulties in trying to describe God

14   Part 3: A debate as to whether God exists and if he did, whether or not we should be able to prove it.

18   Bibliography


Introduction

In this RS coursework, I intend to write about the Christian arguments concerning god.  In the first part I will describe some of the main arguments Christians put forward about their belief in God.

In the second part I will explain some of the difficulties in trying to describe God, for example what gender should we use while describing ‘him’.  

The third part will contain a debate as to whether god exists, and if he does then whether or not we should be able to prove it.  I will accomplish these tasks using different points of view, mine included.


Part one: the main arguments Christians put forward about their belief in God.

 

  1. First beliefs picked up from the beliefs of parents

First beliefs are often taught to children from their parents, young children often assume everything their parents say is right, even if it contradicts reality, for example Father Christmas.  Those who grew up in a Christian family are likely to have Christian beliefs, just as those brought up in a Hindu family are likely to have Hindu beliefs. This is because Children have no experience of the world and actuality itself; therefore they have no capability to question their parents.  The beliefs of God, are often enforced through bedtime reading of the bible, or in the case of hell, told as a true horror story; purposely to scare children into believing.  These beliefs, children simply accept until they get older, when they begin to question their parents and challenge them.  Thus a child’s belief as to whether or not God exists is influenced from the start of its life from its family and social experience.

Questions about the existence of God in late childhood and when you are an adult

There are many questions human beings ask at some point in their life: the mysteries of the universe, mainly revolving around one thing, God. These questions have no specific answers and can be dwelled on for years before actually making sense, but there have been many arguments and beliefs people of the past have thought and written about. Only a few of these questions are:

Question 1 -

How has anything come to exist rather than nothing?

If in the beginning there was nothing, what was the reason for the universe to be created?  For what reason did it go to all the bother of creating it/itself.

The answers to this perplexing question are the arguments of St Thomas Aquinas; he was a 13th century philosopher who argued many of his beliefs. One of which was that God was the first uncaused cause. In other words; he believed in the non-believer’s argument of the big bang, (a huge explosion) but he sustained that something had to be behind the big bang; a will for the universe to exist; God. And that’s why something came out of nothing, instead of remaining nothing.

                

Question 2 -

How has the cosmos come to be so well designed and some features purposeful?

This question means how come the universe and everything in it is so well designed for its living environment? For example, evolution.  

    William Paley imposed his idea. His example was a watch, if someone found a watch he wouldn’t simply assume it had evolved, it had to have a maker – the clock maker; but in the universes case, God.

Similarly, the watches are often flawed; they will break eventually due to age.  This is due to the flaws of the design and therefore it’s maker’s, in other words the thing that is made reflects its good and bad attributes to its maker. We can see in wildlife and ourselves how each is designed to fit its purpose magnificently. Hence their maker must also be magnificent.  The answer to these questions is perfectly clear; the cosmos has come to be so well designed because of God.  Simple creatures that cannot think for themselves are so perfectly adapted to their environment, they appear to be almost designed to be that way.  They have no knowledge, they are constantly being guided by a higher entity, which has the spirit and thoughts they don’t.  If you look around outside, you would be able to see how well things seem to fit together, almost as though the world has been synchronized to the highest and most complex way.  

Being impossible for us humans to control creatures and scenery to this extent, we must look to a higher existence, God. 

However, a slight controversy to this would be, many creatures in today’s world are under risk because they’re not well designed for the environment they live in. Among the animal kingdom, the cruel rule is ‘survival of the fittest’ where some animals are blatantly less well designed than others are.  This indicates that the universe is as a result of random chance, not clever design. And then it spirals back to the question of whether we have a malevolent or incompetent God.  Then again, this point of view is flawed because if the animal kingdom were all balanced equally, none of the species would survive.  This is because carnivores need to be able to catch their food, so they would have to be better than their prey wouldn’t they? Besides the world can’t be completely unbalanced in a bad way because then the food chain would spiral out of control.

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Question 3 -

How did organic life come to be in the universe?

        How did everything natural still alive or extinct end up becoming a part of the universe.  

        Everything in this world has a purpose. Without all the organic life on this world there would be no world, just a lifeless, insignificant piece of rock in the middle of a huge universe.  Christians believe in the seven day theory where God created every organic life form within 7 days, (genesis) however these beliefs may not always be taken literally as there is significant evidence that the world ...

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