Arguments for the Existence of God

1. Arguments for the Existence of God

2. Is there a God? • The Cosmological Argument • God is the only adequate explanation for the existence of the universe. • The Teleological Argument • All the intricate design in the universe argues for a purposeful first cause. • The Anthropic Principle • The universe seems fine-tuned for human life. • The Moral Argument • The sense of moral obligation all possess points to a Moral Lawgiver. • The Argument from Religious Experience • Even if only one person has had a genuine experience with the Divine, the Divine must exist.

3. The Cosmological Argument Arguments for the Existence of God

4. Leibniz’s Cosmological Argument • 1. Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence. • It is either necessary (its own explanation) or has an external cause. • 2. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God. • God by definition is self-existent, independent, and necessary. • 3. The universe exists. • 4. The universe has an explanation of its existence. • It is not self-existent or necessary. • 5. Therefore the explanation of the universe is God.

5. The Cosmological Argument (pt. 1) • Anything that exists must have an explanation for its existence. • The universe exists. • Therefore the universe must have an explanation for its existence.

6. The Cosmological Argument (pt. 2) • One’s existence can be necessary (thus one can be self-existent, and be its own explanation) or it can be explained by an external cause. • The universe is not self-existent, or necessary. • The universe can only be explained by an external cause.

7. The Cosmological Argument (pt. 3) • The external cause of the universe must be self-existent. • God by definition is self-existent and necessary (he couldn’t not exist). • Therefore, God is an adequate explanation for the universe.

8. The Kalam Cosmological Argument • 1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. • 2. The universe began to exist. • 3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

9. The Kalam Cosmological Argument • Premise 1: Whatever Begins to Exist has a Cause • Something cannot come from nothing. • A vacuum is not nothing. • If something can come into being from nothing, then why doesn’t anything and everything come from nothing? • Scientifically, premise 1 is constantly verified and never falsified. Common experience also confirms the truth of premise 1.

10. The Kalam Argument • Premise 2: The universe began to exist. • If the universe always existed, then an (actually) infinite number of past events occurred prior to today. But that is impossible, since an infinite number could never be reached (in actuality). • You can’t pass through an infinite number of elements one at a time. • If you can’t count to infinity, then you can’t down from infinity. • The expansion of the universe points to a beginning. • The beginning of the universe is also the beginning of time. • The second law of thermodynamics • Given enough time, all the energy in the universe will spread itself out evenly. The universe will experience a “heat death.” If the universe were eternal, why are we not already in this state of equilibrium?

11. The Kalam Argument • Premise 3: Therefore the universe has a Cause. • On the basis of both philosophical and scientific grounds, we know that the universe has a beginning. Since anything with a beginning has a cause, the universe has a cause. • The universe cannot be self-caused. • The universe must have a transcendent cause. • The cause must be uncaused because an infinite series of causes is impossible. • The cause must be immaterial, non-physical, and unimaginably powerful. • The cause must be personal.

12. Why a Personal First Cause • Only a Mind could be immaterial, non-physical, transcendent, unimaginably powerful. • A personal cause is the only way to explain how a timeless cause can produce a temporal effect (beginning of the universe). Without a will, there would be no permanent cause without a permanent effect. • A personal being with freedom of the will could bring about something spontaneous and new, such as the creation of the universe. • This personal, powerful, timeless, necessary, self-existent First Cause is the God of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.