Monday, January 05, 2015

Top Ten Failed Arguments for God's Existence

There are many failed arguments for God's existence but there is one which is fundamental to them all. This is the Argument from Fear and Ignorance. Take virtually any aspect of our natural world that we don't fully understand and you'll find someone claiming that at the end of the dark tunnel there is light as God: 1.Shifting the Burden of Proof - I know God exists. If you disagree, prove otherwise. Oh you say you can't prove God doesn't exist? That's because you know he does! Well, we claim to "know" this or that we "know" that but we do not even know what "knowing" means. 2.Argument from Popularity - The vast majority of the world believes in God. This supports the universal truth that God is real, otherwise it makes no sense that so many people would believe. The same vast majority of the world also believe that the sun rises each morning and sets each evening which is not true as it but a grand illusion. 3.The Transcendental Argument - God is, by definition, a being greater than which nothing can be conceived (imagined). Existence in reality is better than existence in one's imagination. God must exist in reality; if God did not, then God would not be that than which nothing greater can be conceived (imagined). In the meantime, each unfolding reality contains the seeds of its own destruction and the embryo of the new reality that will replace it. 4.Argument from Coercion - You must believe in God/Jesus. It's your only hope for salvation. We are all doomed if we don't accept Jesus as our personal savior. It says so in the Bible. If you want to live forever and avoid suffering, you must accept God. It also says in the same bible that: "The living know that they shall die; the dead know not anything, neither have any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten." Eccl. 9:5 5.First Cause Argument - Everything that exists in our world is the result of some sort of "first cause" which brought about its existence. Therefore, there must have been a force which created the universe. That "first cause" is what we call God. Also known as Cosmological Argument. But if God can exist without a creator, why can't the world too exist without a creator? In the meantime, if God created created everything, including space and time, where was God located before he created space, and when was it before He created time? 6.Argument from Authority - God is real because the Bible (or whatever sacred text you believe in) says so. Why would so many people write so much about God if it wasn't true? If God were already all-knowing, and already existing here, there, and everywhere, why would God need to inspire authors to write about him in the bible? 7.Argument from Personal Experience - I know god exists because I can feel him. I know it in my heart; he talks to me; I feel his strength and existence flow through every fiber of my being. How do you know that it is not a sick devil who is at the bottom of your sick experience? 8.Argument from Improbability - The second law of thermodynamics says matter inevitably becomes entropic (spreads out in chaos) and this defies the observation on Earth where we see, things becoming more organized. Therefore God is responsible. Well, how come the Philippines as the only Catholic country in Asia since the 16th century still have not learned how to be organized as a people and how to be organized as a nation? 9.Pascal's Wager - It is a "safe bet" to believe in God just in case he is real. What's the harm? If you believe and he doesn't exist, you don't lose anything, but if you don't believe and he does exist, you lose big time. What if it turns out that God is not a catholic, is not a Muslim, or is not Yahweh - the God of the Jew? What then? 10.Argument from Design - If you found a watch on the ground, you never met the watchmaker, but you know from its design, the beauty of it; the way each piece was intricately designed to work together, that this watch had a creator. Theists point to the human body; the precise way each of our organs work with each other and claim it's the most amazing "creation" of all, and surely there was some sort of creator behind it. This is all great and wonderful, but have any of you ever met a world-maker as we have already met watch-makers and watch-repairers? Poch Suzara Twitter# Facebook# Google#

2 comments:

Ken said...

Poch, why should I accept the astounding premises of atheism to account for the origin of the universe and life? You would have me accept that everything ultimately came from nothing, that order came from chaos, harmony came from discord, life from nonlife, reason from irrationality, personality from non-personality, and morality from amorality.

Ken said...

Poch, if simple absence of belief constitutes atheism, then virtually everything from rocks and tree stumps to dogs and cats would have to be numbered among atheists. When a definition is so broad as to include almost everything, it usually means nothing. Smith's definition is useless as well as meaningless.