What philosopher thought that God’s existence cannot be proved but must be assumed?

Question

I though it was Pascal but this assignment is not giving me as an option. The only philosophers I have left to chose from are
Julian of Norwich
Rene Descartes
Gottfried Wilhelm,
Baron von Liebniz
John Henry Newman or
William James

Answer 1

Immanuel Kant.
Things in themselves cannot be known, only our ideas of them based upon our senses and the concepts necessary to have those or indeed, any ideas.

The existence of God is a necessary concept for what Kant thought were the unavoidable ideas of Ethics and Justice, but could never be proven from experience of things in the world of the senses.

OOPS!!!
Sorry, I didn't read your list of philosophers before.

The closest one would be DesCartes I think, because if God didn't exist, then we would have gotten the idea of a perfect, truthful God from an imperfect, and possibly lying source.
But that's a kind of indirect logical proof, and not really assuming, I think.

Answer 2

Given that list, your professor is probably making a reference to William James' argument about the "will to believe," although I don't think WJ would really put his point that way.

What he said was, "Our passional nature not only lawfully may, but must, decide an option between propositions, whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds."

Answer 3

The foolish ones.

A child can hypothesize that a monster exists under their bed. We are not required to believe or to assume that this is true based on a hypothesis.

Answer 4

I think you mean the "wager argument" by seventeenth century philosopher Blaise Pascal:

If you erroneously believe in God, you lose nothing (assuming that death is the absolute end), whereas if you correctly believe in God, you gain everything (eternal bliss). But if you correctly disbelieve in God, you gain nothing (death ends all), whereas if you erroneously disbelieve in God, you lose everything (eternal damnation).

Answer 5

Gottfried Wilhelm,
i am not sure but its a guess.