What are the best arguments for and against religion/god?

Question

answer both questions please

Answer 1

Ontological:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontological-arguments/

Cosmological:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cosmological-argument/

Plantinga:

http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/library/plantinga/index2.html

KCA:

http://www.leaderu.com/truth/3truth11.html

Answer 2

Religion is about belief. God is about faith. Religion starts as a practice or as tenents, it becomes dogma in order to maintain power.
A person sits under a boddhi tree or wanders in the desert for 40 days, runs into some friends and tells them he's thought of a good way to live life. That is a practice. A hierarchy develops around these principles, they set those ideas up as dogma. They develop into a church, with dues and members. The practice becomes a religion in order to perpetuate power and keep believers in line. And non-believers must be wrong.
Try this: develop faith in a God of your understanding, without a structure to tell you you're right or wrong. Live by spiritual principles, ie love your neighbor, do unto others, right thought, right mind, right action. Do it without a bunch of like minded people to pat you on the back and do it without judging people who don't agree with you. That is Faith.
God is within; religion is without.

Answer 3

For: Daniel prophesied the exact day the savior would arrive, which turned out to be the day Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem and they said "Hosanna". All of Jesus disciples were tortured to death for claiming to have seen Jesus risen from the dead. Maybe one or two could have held onto a lie under torture or been insane but the fact that all of them did is compelling. While many people of other religions die for their faith, these men died for what they saw with their eyes. Except John who survived boiling in oil and later wrote the book of revelation from an island prison.

against: I cannot fit the infinite into my finite reasoning mind, therefore by my pride I choose not to believe in the infinite. (the best answer is humble, honest and open-minded)

Answer 4

Besides the many witnesses, the best argument for the existence of God that I know of is the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

"The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy. In simple terms, it is an expression of the fact that over time, differences in temperature, pressure, and density tend to even out in a physical system which is isolated from the outside world. Entropy is a measure of how far along this evening-out process has progressed."

This law refutes the idea that complex life evolved from simpler life spontaneously.

Answer 5

Supporting argument - At least we can see the creation of God.

Opposing argument - The presence of evil in the world disproves the existence of any god that is simultaneously benevolent and omnipotent, because any benevolent god would want to eliminate evil, and any omnipotent god would be able to do so.

Answer 6

For: We don't want to think that this life is all there is, cuz right now, we want to be "more". We want to be important. We want to be special, powerful, loved. We want to think there is more than just this boring life.
We marvel at the natural beauty of nature and think there must be someone smarter than us to design it.
We don't want to think that we are nothing, and death is all there is.

Against: The Discovery Channel
Mutated babies, freaks, tumors with teeth
That insane freakshow book called The Old
Testament.
Every time someone holds a crucifex or other
holy object, and cries to god......guess what?
nothing happens!
This cool link below:
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/index.htm

Answer 7

Science is the best argument against religion.
The things that happen in life that science cannot explain is the best argument for religion.

Answer 8

That's an easy one. Life or death. You choose. That is what it all really boils down to. We can argue all day about the pros and cons and what happens as a result of religion and what happens as the result of not having religion etc. but in the big picture, it is really a matter of whether we want to believe in something that can give us eternal life in a better place...or we don't choose to believe.

Answer 9

Best for "because it speaks to me in a profound way and makes me happy"

Best against "because its an unsubstantiated fairy tale that adds nothing to my life"

Answer 10

For: makes some people behave better.

Against: makes some people behave worse.

Answer 11

For: You'll go to Heaven
AGAINST: Heaven is just an illusion.