Strong arguments FOR and AGAINST the existence of God?

Question

Does anybody have a strong argument for or against the existence of God?

Answer 1

God springs forth from the primitive limbic system of your brain, the last remnants of your reptillion past. The area where our raw emotions reside, including the irrational belief systems.

The 'religious' experience is triggered by deep depression, starvation, near death, or other highly charged situations. The 'born-again' christian phenomena has a scientific basis....yes, your limbic system. Why has man evolved this mechanism you might ask? Simple...it was a survival mechanism of our cave man ancestors to cope with a hostile and unknown universe.

The cerebral cortex is a more recent development. Here is where our rational and logical thought processes take place. It is here that the atheists have found their basis in reality.

In reality, there is no sentient, omnipresent, omnipotent supernatural being, supernatural entity or force....therefore all the inequities and misery of the world will always persist, some will have good things happen to them and some not, some will blame the invisible entity but objective reality wins all the time....no matter how hard some try to get that limbic brain of theirs to work...sorry

And why does bad things happen to good people all the time? When the tectonic plates crash into each other causing human calamity, they don't worry about Karma, good and bad, evil and riteousness. Life's paths are made up of randon circumstances, some predictable and some not. Most religious people will state that god has a 'bigger' plan for them and humans in general, that we can't know the 'big picture.' Most say there can't be good unless we know or experience the depths of evil.

Is it fair to have predation, disease, deformities, child rape, parasites and evil in the world? If the answer is yes, then with god(s) like that, who need them?

Answer 2

We know it isn't that God should remove all evil from the world ---no we don't. A world without some bad folks and bad events would be unmitigated boredom. There would be no excitement and no heroism. ---Hello ? 'Omnipotent' entity ? If He wants to have a world with no evil that is still exciting and has lots of heroism, he can freaking make it.Hello ? 'Omnipotent' ? Is this thing on ? So yeah, that God is supposedly an 'omnipotent entity who loves us', well, logically, he ain't. Just watch the news or remember your own life. Besides, it's pretty easy to imagine a world that's exciting but DOESN'T have cancer and famine and child molesters and terrorists and so on. Sports teams for one.Fine arts for another. And so on. There simply is no omnipotent entity who loves us. Theists who define their god that way don't have an existing god. Theists who posit a NON omnipotent entity who may or may not give a damn about us, well, they may have a god. There are also other equally good arguments against the Abrahamic gods (Jehovah, Allah, etc) but if you're not going to listen to the omnipotent benevolence thing, you're probably also not going to listen to those. Also, if a world without bad folks would be boring, well, will Heaven have bad people ? If not, won't it be boring ? If so, why isn't that bad person in Hell ? See how it all doesn't make any freaking sense ?

Answer 3

I cannot argue FOR and AGAINST at the same time. I am FOR.

Your question will arouse controversy among our friends here and that's understandable.

Let me put it this way. Questions: Did we and the universe just sprout out of nowhere like mushrooms? Does one, without mental dishonesty, think we all appeared out of thin air, from invisibility to visibility, from nothingness to existence?

There must be a First Cause, or God. It is difficult to think without contradiction that there is not. If it is otherwise than I believe there is, then where did we all come from, and how else did we come into existence? Of course, science has observed life forms will introduce themselves under certain conditions but conditions are existence themselves. So how do you explain existence within existence without the First Cause?

Just an argument OK. Nothing personal. I will respect yours as well. Thanks. Cheers!

Answer 4

The rationalist argument of God is mostly the concepts of intelligent design and first cause.

Intelligent Design means the world is too amazing to have 'happened on its own'. Everyone, even evolutionists, admit that the world is an amazing wonder. Not perfect to the detail, but amazing enough to appreciate that saying it happened by chance is hard to digest.

First Cause means there has to be a first thing that triggered creation. What was the very first thing that caused earth? A physical thing must always have a cause. The God theory states that God, a non-physical entity that is not bound by the laws of the universe, was the first cause. He does not need a prior cause.

Both of these arguments for God are just possibilities, and even if they are true they do not lead us to believing anything about the God popular today.

Answer 5

AGAINST:

Argument from Evil:

If God is Benevolent, why doesn't he stop evil? If he were Omnipotent, he certainly could. Either he is not all-powerful, or he is himself evil for allowing evil to be.

Argument from Incoherence of Free Will:

If God is Omniscient, all-knowing, then he knows all our actions in advance.
If God is Omnipotent any action in the universe must be a manifestation of his power.
Ergo we can have no Free Will as we can take no action contrary to God's Will.
Thus sin has no meaning and the Christian concept of God can not be true.

Argument from Incoherence of Divine attributes:

God is Omnipotent, but as such can not take any action that truncate his Omnipotence. Ergo he can not be Omnipotent.

If God is Omniscient, he knows what it feels like to have enjoyed the most depraved evil acts imaginable. Since knowing without experience is qualitiatively different then knowing without experience, for God to be Omniscient he must have done and enjoyed these acts. Thus he can not be Omnibenevolent. (All loving)

By the same logic, God can not know what it is like to have made a mistake, making Omniscience illogical in and of itself.

As above, God can not learn how to do something, as he knows everything, but no being able to do something makes him less then all-powerful.

By the same token, he can't become an atheist or conceive of what it is like to be an atheist.

And so on.

Argument from Total Bullshit of Scriptures.

This has been documented numerous times.

Argument from Retardedly Inefficient Design

If God were an intelligent designer, he could have done a hell of a lot better then some of the things we've seen in nature.

Answer 6

All that we can truly know is that we know nothing in the grand scheme of it all.
All we really can do is at best... guess...

but i say if the existence of god is real then isn't it likely that god is improbable, complex beyond words, and impossible in the eyes of men.

and scientist may say "this and that" proves that evolution did "this and that" and not god.

but in truth, god would be the master scientist... the creator of all science... so he'd know more about how every little detail and law than we do.

good or evil? perhaps we are just blind as to believe that god owes us something... that god must save us...but if we are created by him... then it is us that owes him... for he does not do evil but rather we do...if a man shoots another man...are you personally to blame for this act?...similarly should god be blamed for the sins of man?

he created us to be in his image with free will...god does not chose to do evil...however we do...can god stop this? perhaps... but without destroying humanity in its own essence... perhaps not.

the topic of heaven and hell...we know not where or what happens when we die... this is speculation...all we really can do i suppose is believe what we will...and hope.

and if you really want to know more about god then listen, look, and feel... the world will tell you....in it's own way.

Answer 7

The literal existence of God makes no sense to me. Here's one random paradox (among many) that illustrates my inability to get on board. If someone I love goes to hell, and I go to heaven, how can I be happy; how can I experience paradise knowing that my loved one is suffering the torments, or oblivion, of hell? I don't know; maybe God will destroy my awareness of my loved one. Maybe he/she/it will deceive me into believing that my loved one is with me in heaven. Maybe I'll be so high on whatever they're smoking up there that I won't care. Or maybe I will realize the foolishness of my earthly love, and I will be able take pleasure in looking down, self-righteously, upon my former love. None of these theories sounds like heaven to me. Lobotomies and lies are not my idea of heaven at all.

Here's another problem I have: statements like - "The universe had to come from somewhere; it had to begin somewhere. It couldn't have just happened; it had to be created by something." and "God and His ways are mysterious, and beyond the comprehension of Man. Mankind cannot perceive God through logic and reason; only through faith alone can Man come to God." Well, if we can accept that God is beyond comprehension, why can't we accept that the origins of time and space are beyond us? If we're going to accept that something can't be explained, why don't we leave it at: "The origins of the universe are unknowable" instead of going the extra step by saying, "The origins of the universe are explained by the existence of God, but God is not explainable.

Answer 8

Mysteries of Existence, which in end lead to god cant be solved, reveled, understood or experienced by logical arguments. Its no scientific theory or a puzzle you want to solve.

I don't agree with the question in first place.

~ Love, soul reveals it all~

Answer 9

god is god with out god there would be nothing to talk about,good vs evil, etc. there has to be something to, or not to, believe in .people are born with the sense of right and wrong.some need god to live bye these.some do not.and lets face it god is a good scape goat.believe or not god had something to do with it ...lol

Answer 10

Absolutely impossible.Those who believe in God ,no explanation is necessary.Those who do not believe in God,no explanation is possible.

EDIT....We cannot use human reasoning to understand the mind of God.It is beyond our comprehension.God's ways are not man's ways.Our vocabulary is primitive when trying to find words to prove or disprove the existence of God.You would have to be on God's level to understand,which is impossible.God does not create misery,we do.That is why the devil is still in control at the moment.[If you believe in God and the devil.]