Arguments For and Against

Arguments FOR God’s Existence

Religious Upbringing

Some Christians baptise their children at a young age
The child is usually taught to pray and they go to church.
Families usually celebrate Christmas and Easter (and the meaning of those festivals and stories around them)
Some Christian parents arrange for their children to attend a ‘Sunday School’ where there is encouragement to be a good Christian and lead a Christian life.

How would this support a person’s belief in God?

Being born into a Christian family might support someone’s belief in God because they are surrounded by others who are convinced of the existence of God.
If the religion has been handed down through generations it may seem perfectly natural to members of that family to believe in God.
Learning about God at home, school and in the church could lead some people to decide that God must exist.

Religious Experiences

Sometimes religious experiences can convince people that God exists without a religious upbringing.

For some this is the ‘wow’ factor and they see something that takes their breath away and gives feelings of awe and wonder. This is called numinous and could be felt by looking up at a starry sky or a wonderful sunset and convinced that God is behind it all.
Prayer is an important and personal way for some people to communicate with God. If a prayer is answered then it can strengthen a person’s faith in God.
Miracles can also convince people that God exists e.g. surviving a plane crash, Jairus’ daughter
Conversion happens after an event where people believe they have experienced God and want to commit their life to God e.g. St Paul on the road to Damascus

Design Argument

Several hundred years ago WIillam Paley put forward the design argument. He said that if somebody happened to find a watch and had never ever seen one before, they would be astounded. The fact that finding something so tiny with lots of mechanisms inside it had been made by someone very clever (a designer) and it could NOT have been made by accident.

Paley said that the same argument could be said about the universe which is even more complicated than a watch! The universe must have been designed by an extremely clever being, not by accident. The only possible designer of the universe must be God – therefore God exists. E.g.s of design = DNA, evolution…

Causation Argument

Things do not happen by themselves; for example, if we drop an egg it may smash (the cause would be us dropping it – the effect would be the smashing of the egg) the causation argument says that the existence of the universe proves that God exists.

If the universe has a beginning then something must have caused it, it did not happen by accident so something caused it and brought it into existence – this is God, and so this proves that God exists.

Arguments AGAINST God’s Existence

Scientific Explanations of the world

Science can explain how the universe began without the need for God e.g. the Big Bang says how the universe began and Evolution explains where animals and humans came from. Christians respond in 3 ways;

Science is true but God controlled the process e.g. not strictly due to chance.
Science and the Bible are correct. Main points fit e.g. 7 days of creation could be 7 periods of time.
Science is wrong! God made world look older Apparent Age Theory

Unanswered Prayers

God not answering ‘good’ prayers e.g. end poverty, cure cancer…

Key Words

Agnosticism- not being sure whether God exists
Atheism- believing that God does not exist
Theism- believing that God does exist
Prayer- an attempt to contact God, usually through words
Omnibenevolent- the belief that God is good or kind
Omnipotent- the belief that God is all powerful
Omniscient- the belief that God knows everything that has happened and everything that is going to happen
Conversion- when your life is changed by giving yourself to God
Miracle- something which seems to break the law of science and makes you think that only God could have done it
Numinous- the feeling of presence of something greater than you, e.g. in a Church or looking up at the stars
Religious Experience – an event where people feel that they have had direct contact with God
Free Will – the idea that human beings are free to make their own choices
Moral Evil – actions done by humans which cause suffering
Natural Evil – things that cause suffering but have nothing to do with humans

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