The Existence of God sample essay

“I know that the soul is eternal, but how?”Cardano

At least 2006 years a human mind is questioning the existence of God. Cardano had a good company of Plato, Paul, Dante, Lewis, Tolkien, Hume, and the list can go on forever. Well, some of them, who are not with us anymore, for sure know the truth now. Not only famous philosophers questioned it, but mere people think of it every day in different corners of the Earth. Some conclude that their existence and entire life is planned ahead before the time began. Others - come to a brave decision to shape its life themselves. The question of God’s existence is still pending in the air. There is not enough evidence for either of the sides. Still, the atheist position looks much weaker than its opponent’s. Each side has numerous tools for this battle of intellects. There are empirical, deductive, inductive, metaphysical and subjective reasoning behind each point of view.

Empirical evidence consists of the arguments that avail themselves of data beyond definitions and axioms. For example, if there is a feeling of hunger and desire to eat something, then this means there should be food out there. Besides, this food exists for some reason, and this desire is put inside for a purpose. In our case, a purpose would be staying healthy and continue living. Inductive arguments achieve the conclusions through inductive reasoning, which gathers a number of evidence and experiments’ results and makes a conclusion. On the contrary, deductive arguments attempt to prove their conclusions by deductive reasoning from true premises. Conversely speaking, it means going from the broad hypothesis to small experiments and evidence, in order to prove the hypothesis. Subjective arguments mainly rely on the testimony or experience of certain witnesses, or the propositions of a specific revealed religion.

All this armor is focused on God’s existence. To prove someone’s existence one needs a clear concept of what is being sought after. By more or less common definition (In the Europe, West and Big part of the South), a God is a supernatural being, possessing extraordinary, unlike other humans, qualities and capabilities, such as omnipotence, omniscience, ideal benevolence, and all possible perfection. There are other definitions stating the very same. Some - complete it, adding God’s existence beyond time and material life, never changing, qualityless and beyond human comprehension (Advaita Vedantan, school of Hinduism). Some, like Greek mythology, picture gods as supernatural beings possessing a big part of human qualities, which are far from perfection and omniscience. Still, the larger part of the planet is occupied by thinking and looking for one, single God (defined in the beginning of the paragraph).

One of the empirical arguments for God’s existence is The Argument from Design or The Teleological argument, which states that the Earth and Universe have a complex orderly design that could have been achieved only by intelligent rational mind which is on the much higher level of development, or in other words, by superior being - God. This argument has many sub argumentations. One of them has been found just recently by British health and biology scientists’ .The scientists were involved into the working out the ideal diet for a man to live and stay healthy and young for a longer time. This diet is very similar to popular nowadays in magazines Mediterranean diet. They have worked out a pyramid of the products that should be consumed daily. The bottom of it consisted of food of plant origin, such as wheat, oils, bread, vine, fruits and vegetables, and went on to the top, to the products which should be consumed just a few times a week, such as meat and milk products. It is important to notice, that the meat useful to our organisms must be of the non – raptor animals, such as small fish, beef, chicken, turkey, rabbits, and so on. The following table is the 90% approximation of this pyramid.

DAIRY

Milk, Yogurt, Cheese Group

(3 cups/equivalent - Low-fat/Fat-free)

Food Serving Sizes: These each count as 1 cup (1 serving) of milk: 1 cup fat-free milk or yogurt, 1.5 ounces natural cheese such as Cheddar cheese or 2 ounces processed cheese.

MEAT

Poultry, Fish, Beans, Eggs, Nuts

(3 ounces)

Food Serving Sizes: These each count as 1 ounce-equivalent: 1 ounce lean meat, poultry, or fish; 1 egg; quarter cup cooked dry beans or tofu; 1 Tbsp peanut butter; half ounce nuts or seeds.

VEGETABLES

(3 Servings)

Food Serving Sizes: 1 cup chopped raw or cooked vegetable, 1 cup vegetable juice, 2 cups leafy salad greens.

FRUITS

(2 Servings)

Food Serving Sizes: 1 cup chopped raw or cooked fruit, 1 cup fruit juice.

GRAINS

Bread, Cereal, Rice, Pasta Group

(4 ounces)

Food Serving Sizes: These each count as 1 ounce-equivalent (1 serving) of grains: half cup cooked rice, pasta, or cooked cereal;

1 ounce dry pasta or rice; 1 slice bread; 1 small muffin (1 oz); 1 cup ready-to-eat cereal flakes.

After the pyramid was done, scientists have noticed an amazing coincidence. The recommendations they have made coincide with the Bible’s and Jesus’ advice as to what must be in human diet every day! The Bible, by its definition, is the holy book of Christian and Jewish religion. Now it is also a cornerstone for Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Puritan and many other religions. Bible states that God has left it as a guide for believers after his departure to heaven thousands years ago. Scientists, who do not take religion into account, still agreed that ancient people had known much more about life on the Earth and human body, than we do nowadays. Theists often ask themselves and their opponents if this is a sheer coincidence. Moreover, the Earth contains just enough of this food to feed the population, as if it was designed for a prosperous living of people.

One of the numerous arguments in favor of the idea that God had designed the universe and the people that populate it, plus gave exact advice how to live and rationally, use material and immaterial resources to make our life flourish, is the psychological factor. The moral advices that God gives in the Bible coincide with the famous works of presently living psychologists! Thousands of people all over the globe pay hundreds of dollars for a conversation with a professional. People walk out of room with the advices in their head on how to fix their lives. They sound something like that: in order to get rid of stress and numerous diseases, one should let go of the envy and inner dissatisfaction with life, forgive their enemies and let go any negative emotions that burden our mind. One of the many advices is also being friendly, positive, loving, in order to feel good about oneself. By some other psychological theories this new attitude to life attracts positive factors to oneself and renovate the life in general. The only thing that doesn’t coincide is – at the end a psychologist does not promise that one’s soul will be saved, while the main part, the body of the message, is perfectly following the Bible. Interesting to notice, that during USSR, communists have used majority of Christian dogmas in their political programs and appeals to public, this drew many people to them. (“Communism is defined as a movement, and consciousness of movement, advancing towards the highest form of social organization. It settles the question of men and nature, existence and essence, freedom and necessity, individual and collectiveness. In theory and practice it solves all these questions and it is mindful that it solves them”) . The idea itself was noble, but the executers were just human men, and it turned out to be a disaster.

Second main argument that theology uses is of empirical nature too, it is the moral argument. It states that if objective morality exists, than there should be someone who shaped it, meaning - God. Because the human morality is made of a set of authoritative commands, only a superior, intelligent nature, which understands and sees the whole picture, could issue such commands. Children, when born, during the first years of their life, can already differentiate between good and bad treatment. Very often we can hear on the street children’s voice crying that “it is unfair!”, when we see them playing a game or during some activity. This ethical sense should come from somewhere. In the movies and in real life, even burglars and robbers have ethics. In mostly unbelieving world of producers and cinematography, where the main stress now is on sexual attractiveness, numerous partners, chocolate, McDonalds, alcohol, etc, there is still an invisible desire to find something pure, the only one path and decision for all situations. These strives for goodness are not really popular and are treated mostly like a legend. Still, they exist and there is this inner desire to have something one cannot find. It is much harder than with food. If there is inner desire for food, we know where to look for and what to do. While if there is inner desire for moral perfection, one thinks that it is irrational to look in supernatural, but no one has ever found an answer on the earth anyways.

“…our natural instincts generally serve us well; every creature is born with an instinct for food because food sustains us, and each of us longs for meaningful relationships because community and friendship allow us to flourish. Generally speaking, if we have an innate desire for a thing then that thing both exists and is good for us. The natural instinct to look to the transcendent, therefore, which is made evident by the fact remarked upon above that every culture of every time has had some form of religion, suggests that there might well be something transcendent out there to be found. This instinct, according to the argument from desire, hints at the existence of God”

As we know, only the 6% of the human brain are used. These full 6% are used by the greatest minds of the planet: inventors, philosophers, composers, painters, and writers. Maybe in the rest of our 94% of the brain there is an answer to our inner struggle with moral questions. If there is no Creator of life then there can be no meaning of life. Everything we create ourselves is for a purpose, even small things, but if we, ourselves, are not created with some purpose, then the life now has no sense.

Next point that supporters of God make is about the majority principle. majority principle claims that throughout the globe, at different and sometimes close times, religion appeared with its supporting elements, such as main holy books, telling the history of creation and the last message of God, such as paintings, songs, myths and stories. This fact cannot be ignored, because it is too big of a coincidence. In 842 different locations “over 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns” exist! Koran, Bible, the Babylonian Flood story, they all follow the similar plot and values. The difference is in the interpretation of the claims made in all books. Aztec, Maya, Hinduism, Buddhism and Stoics - all have one god and similar teachings. The majority principle wants to prove that there is one mind, if it is possible to put it this way, which regulates or exists in all of us, even though we can be on different sides of the globe. As a possible proof of the common spirit or majority’s inner intuition can be key inventions in physics and chemistry. Some of them were made at two places on the Earth at the same time, by different scientists. Like with the invention of the radio and Popov, “But, at almost the same time Marconi was making his "discovery" in 1895, a Russian professor made the same discovery. The main difference was that Marconi was an enthusiastic entrepreneur who rushed to spread news of his discovery to the world and to sell it to them” . Or another example could be Bell and Golubetski telephone, which was invented almost at the same time. Nobody still can explain the Mendeleyev inspiration from above. As it is known, when he woke up one morning, he suddenly understood the necessity to record his dream – the table of chemical elements. Later, it turned out to be more than correct. The majority have the same concepts of good and evil, love and hate, happiness and sorrow. These facts are not of random nature.

Another argument and the one that has influenced Earth’s history the most – is the historical existence of Jesus Christ. Theists argue that his life is the major evidence of God’s existence and nothing more is needed to prove the point. Still, it is necessary to find if Jesus was of supernatural origin. His figure has brought us to major historical events, church and community foundations, and creation of new philosophies, tractates, books and literature. Atheists argue that Jesus was a mere human, although possessing a great amount of knowledge and wisdom, which made him a great and influential philosopher. Theology, in its turn, argues that in addition to this, he was of supernatural origin, namely – son of God, as Jesus himself claimed to be. There are a few theories on the person of Jesus: a liar, a lunatic or lord. As he was a central figure at his time, his claims, teachings and words had reached us unchanged. Both his enemies and followers wanted to preserve his words to achieve their own goals, which is understandable.

The first theory about Jesus assumes that his claims are false and he knew it, but purposely kept spreading his views and supporting his authority by further lies. This thinking leads one to believe Jesus was a great liar. Therefore, this means he was a genuine charlatan who was able to systematically deceive people. He had to support his divine origin all the time without any proofs for 33 years. Taking into account this theory, people were convinced to the extent that the Bible was written. More than that, it had reached us through thousands of years, despite religious wars and violent suppressions. Even Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey had not reached us in the approximately as good state as the Bible did. But Jesus had made astonishing and very serious claims about society and ethics, and his teachings were closely connected with his own person. So, if he was a great philosopher, teaching the moral goodness, his lying about himself would not fit into the overall picture. Another theory is coming to mind by itself – that Jesus was an extremely intelligent, but crazy lunatic. Meaning that his claims were not true, but he did not realize it. Consequently, this means that millions of people had followed the lunatic and died in Crusades for his ideas. Usually, when people agreed to deceive a large number of public and to spread a rumor or some idea, when they get caught, they will never die for their ideas. While here we see followers of Christ dying for his teachings and secretly spreading them. Even if Jesus was a high class hypnotist, there is a low probability that people would remember him and his ideas and actively practice them 2000 years after his death. The only option that is left is to agree that his claims were true and serious, just as his teachings were. It is hard to agree with the third theory, even if it follows logic, but whatever decision is made, Jesus would never remain just an intelligent great human teacher. He would be either much less than a normal human being or way more. The claims about Jesus being a bad teacher and his ideas making little sense are seldom or none, that’s why they are not often considered or discussed in apologetics and here too.

Opponents of the question challenge theology with the problem of pain, which is basically a set of questions about the existence of evil, diseases, wars, and unfairness in life. It is also questions about God’s inability to gather more believers on Earth, inability to renew the atmosphere, enlarge resources, and make everything possible to transform old planet into the flourishing garden. Opponents ask about Sodom and Gomorrah people, which God killed as a punishment for sins, according to the Bible. If God is all loving and perfectly benevolent, he would never let this happen, as well as all the current wickedness. In the Bible, God calls himself our father. By definition a father is a biological descendant of a person, a male parent of a child or an animal, a person who is acting as a father to a child. Father is a tutor, a doctor, a mentor, a friend, a loving person. If a child gets sick, for example by gangrene, it is necessary to cut off the infected part of the body in order to cure a person. Most people would call a father insane, if he would do it to a child, but nobody thinks that it is sane to leave the disease like that. Gangrene has a property to spread and infect the blood of the whole organism, which leads to a fatal end and here it would be a death of the child. Which father is better – the one who saves all parts of the body and lets the kid die, or the one, who, through loving and understanding the whole picture, still saves the kid, although it will take pain in the beginning? This is a parallel to God killing people in Sodom and Gomorrah. The existence of diseases is mostly connected with the insufficient ecology level, for which the whole humanity is responsible. As it is says in the Bible, God, as a father, gives us freedom of action, though he warns beforehand about the consequences. As a result, people live shorter lives and the secret of immortality was not found yet. No one forces people to start wars, and till the very end we have a choice to stop it. For the same reason, there will be no sense in forcing people to believe in supernatural. As Bible states it, God has love for its creation. By definition, love is a perfect feeling of benevolence, mercy and kindness, which cannot make the object of its love to do things against will. In addition, the problem of pain attacks mostly the qualities of God, but not its existence. However, if the qualities of God will be challenged, the Bible will fall under doubt too, as well as the religion that has survived for thousands of years.

Opponents also attack the differences in various religious books in the world and differences in religious traditions. For example, there is discrepancy between the four gospels and details of Jesus’ witnesses. Usually it is about the time and place of his sermons. We can really see that Sermon on the Mount is actually a sermon on the flat plain in one of the gospels. These statements make sense, but only if we do not take into considerations that Jesus could have about a hundred sermons during his ministry, which could take place anywhere. Usually the dissimilarities that are attacked are small details that never make the prime difference in the main idea or plot. These differences mean that man y people were recording the events, which were numerous. Also the people were of different nationalities and had various mother tongues. It would be a miracle if we could trace the exact words of the Bible and their meaning to our days. This still does not diminish The Bible’s importance and the main message still has reached the readers even hundreds of generations afterward.

Another argument against the theology is that the Bible is written by people and it is no guarantee of truth with human fallen nature. There is a popular saying appeared not long ago that Bible had not came to us by fax from the heaven. It is hard not to agree with this. Truly, if people wanted to change anything in this ancient document, they could. It will not be easy though to liquidate thousands of manuscripts and write double as much new versions and spread them back all around. Nevertheless, if the person with great power and obedient servants in hands would really want it, it is possible. But there is a problem here. There was never a king, Caesar or any other governor that could have influence all over the planet and fight all of the Jesus’ followers, so that even a drop of truth won’t be left. The truth is still to be found if it is not in the Bible. There are still gospels under ground waiting for its lucky hour. For example, for the next Easter the gospel of Maria Magdalene and Judas Iscariot will be completely translated, and therefore, the new evidence will be born. If not, there are other religions telling the same story over and over again.

Questions like “who was the first – the chicken or the egg?” or “Can God create a stone so heavy that he won’t be able to lift it?” question the qualities of God, but not His existence. Let us imagine that there are answers to both questions, there could be about 4 answers, but they won’t deny God’s existence. They might diminish his authority or they might proclaim that some other being or material was the beginning. Even then, facing this new answer, its imperfection will be understood. So, this is a verbal confrontation only, which does not carry proofs that God, as a creator, does or does not exist.

Even after lengthy disputes on this topic, the clear answer can not be found. The only thing that is left is to choose the side that stands on a firmer logical and evidential ground. Theology had developed its apologetics far deeper and wider than atheism. So, the question of God’s existence is still in the air. Despite of the lack of evidence on either of the sides of the barricade, the theology’s position looks much stronger than its opponent’s. As Albert Einstein (1879-1955) fairly said about our competence in such questions, “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods”. Still, if we are right and God exists, we have a chance! “Dieu me pardonnera. C'est son metier”. (God will forgive me. It's his job), Heinrich Heine, Last words.
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