7. Perhaps under certain rare chemical conditions, Only God could be the being with such power and such purpose. Therefore, what it takes for the universe to exist must transcend both space and time. 4. Therefore, there actually exists in this world, and must exist in every possible world, an omnipotent, omniscient, morally perfect being. We glimpse a benign transcendence in these moments. (For example, a parent prays for the life of her dying child, and the child recovers.). It looks like the kind of relics that archeologists dig up and dust off, speculating about the beliefs that once had animated them, to the best that they can be reconstructed, gone as they are now, those thrashings of proto-rationality and mythico-magical hypothesizing, and mostly forgotten. Yet they are required to reason rationally, to You are leading sinful lives! Thought called knowledge and thought called error are both necessary results of states of brain. Those are the individuals we call geniuses. There is another, different kind of argument left. that exists, therefore, on this hypothesis, stands in need of being caused to now, exist without them. Others, intellectually lazy, afraid, or unable to invent their own personal narratives, simply wear their parents' old ideas like a hand-me-down suit, defaulting to the maudlin sentimentality that is the soundtrack to the American mind. Their natures (natural properties) are ordered to interact with each other in stable, reciprocal relationships which we call physical laws. FLAW 1:Premise 6 states that a replicator, because of its complexity, cannot have arisen from natural processes, i.e. You may even be asked to provide help. The theory of the Big Bang is that the universe exploded into existence about 14 billion years ago. is called an iterated belief a belief about a belief. 1. of logic, since they are immaterial. 3. 1. If they succeed in this -- and we can say from experience that some of the proofs do succeed with many people -- they can be of very great value indeed. Now ask yourself: Are all things caused to exist by other things right now? for his wicked actions. The next morning, in the dewy grass in the shadow of the Cascades, I fell on my knees and accepted this truth that God is God, that Christ is his son and that I am giving my life to that belief.". Is it greater to exist in reality as well as in the mind? It is inconceivable that so many people could have been so utterly wrong about the nature and content of their own experience. Because morality is more like Zeus than like lightning. But obviously the present day has been reached. And predictive prophecy does confirm the inspiration of Scripture. The Theory of Natural Selection cannot explain these irreducibly complex systems (from 1 & 3). FLAW 2:The struggle to put the ineffable contents of abnormal experiences into language inclines the struggler toward pre-existing religious language, which is the only language that most of us have been exposed to which overlaps with the unusual sensations of an altered state of consciousness. 18. Either way, the theist is saying that his premises have at least one exception, but is not explaining whyGodmust be the unique exception, otherwise than asserting his unique mystery (the Fallacy of Using One Mystery To Pseudo-Explain Another). Science is only in business because there are things we have not explained yet. Organisms are complex, improbable systems, and by the laws of probability any change is astronomically more likely to be for the worse than for the better. Certain beliefs effect a change for the better in the believer's life the necessary condition being that they are believed. The best explanation for why every culture has had theistic beliefs is that those beliefs are true. If we can't be held morally responsible for anything we do then the very idea of morality is meaningless. 3. Thus God, or something like God, is the only adequate source and ground for the absolute moral obligation we all feel to obey our conscience. Religion and morality may be thought to be independent. To quote a famous phrase: "The survival of the fittest presupposes the arrival of the fit." [7] (2) If God's existence is possible, then necessarily, God does exist. Could that point ever be reached? It is no more than a statement, dressed in psychological jargon, that religious My moral will itself. But this is a confusion of the original phenomenon: we are trying to explain why people are sometimes altruistic, not why genes are altruistic. Which of these twenty arguments do you find the most powerful? If the probability of God's existence (ascertained by other means) is infinitesimal, then even if the cost of not believing in him is high, the overall expectation may not make it worthwhile to choose the "believe" row (after all, we take many other risks in life with severe possible costs but low probabilities, such as boarding an airplane). But the argument is fatally flawed even if Premise 1 is granted. 5. So, either the present day has not been reached, or the process of reaching it was not infinite. are and it is. But the question is: Was this event a miracle? He says that God created a sane being but one that can be misled even when there are . The sense in which I can't conceive of my own annihilation is like the sense in which I can't conceive of those whom I love may betray mea failure of the imagination, not an impossible state of affairs. He's walking around in someone else's bespoke cashmere while that guy's got Cass's hooded parka, and only Cass seems to have noticed the switch. FLAW 3:Premise 6, which claims that a belief in God is necessary in order to have a purpose in one's life, or to be moral, has already been challenged in the discussions of The Argument from Moral Truth (#16 above) and The Argument from Personal Purpose (#19 above). All of the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ, for in all places and at all times (modus ponens works just as well in Africa The longer he tried to get a fix on the fact of being Casshere, the more the whole idea of it just got away from him. Yet for all that, aesthetic experiences are still, more than likely, internal excitations of the brain, as we see from the fact that ingesting recreational drugs can bring on even more intense experiences of transcendence. Atheist: "That is a circular argument. This variation on the modal version has been worked out in great detail by 2. 5. Yes. The theory of natural selection can deal with this problem only by saying the first living thing evolved out of non-living matter (from 2). He is using Gods laws of logic, while denying the biblical God that makes such My second favorite argument for Gods existence is a little easier. We, as moral agents, are not subject to the laws of nature, in particular, the neural events in a genetically and environmentally determined brain (from 1 and 6). Well it certainly There is a sense in which this argument recalls The Argument from the Improbable Self. There are a number of common arguments for the existence of God. The Argument from the Inconceivability of Personal Annihilation. Our question has been: which account of the way things really are best makes sense of the moral rules we all acknowledge -- that of the believer or that of the non-believer? 1. Is there a way out? This sort of argument is not original to Lewis, but we have never read a better statement of it than his, and we urge you to consult it. We have a multitude of written and oral reports of miracles. Does the answer to question 2 after argument 2 prove that God is creating the world right now? A miracle is an event whose only adequate explanation is the extraordinary and direct intervention of God. 6. Things just fell out that way "by chance." Therefore, these things must have had a non-human designer (from 3 & 4). Both he and Jesse, his younger brother, had wanted the higher bunk, but, as usual, Jesse had wanted what he wanted so much more than Cass had wanted it, with a fury of need that was exhausting just to watch, that Cass had let it go. He's become famous for his abstract ideas. Poorly adapted organisms tend And in doing so, it disproves the picture of the universe most atheists wish to maintain: self -- sustaining matter, endlessly changing in endless time. When we experience the tremendous order and intelligibility in the universe, we are experiencing something intelligence can grasp. the argument from design), The Moral Argument, and The Argument from Religious Experience. Should I believe that the resurrected prophet Moroni dictated the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith? God is the best explanation for the existence of objective moral values and duties in the world. complexity and information in DNA are strong confirmations of biblical creation. To deny premise 1 of this argument is to assert that things can pop into being from nothing. On the face of it this seems unlikely. Thus, logical reasoning would be impossible! oclock news. If the locksmith 1. 5. What right do they have to legislate morality to me? This proof is in some ways like the argument from religious experience (18) and in other ways like the argument from desire (16). and unsatisfied. Sports cars do; Oz does not. 3. You begin from the assumption that God does not exist. okay to kill babies, and others think we should kill people of other religions Thats the complaint. . 5. COMMENT:In 1931 the young logician Kurt Gdel published a paper proving a result called the Incompleteness Theorem (actually there are two). So the 5 . C. S. Lewis, who uses this argument in a number of places, summarizes it succinctly: Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires We An effective rational argument for God's existence can be an important first step in opening the mind to the possibility of faith -- in clearing some of the roadblocks and rubble that prevent people from taking the idea of divine revelation seriously. But the "more" is infinitely more, for we are not satisfied with the finite and partial. But Its upshot is that the upshot of the universe is . Norris Clarke, who taught metaphysics and philosophy of religion for many years at Fordham, has circulated privately an intriguing version of the design argument. FLAW 1:For many organs, Premise 2 is false. The fallacy in the argument, then is Premise 1 (and as a consequence, Premise 3, which depends on it): parts of a complex object serving a complex function do not, in fact, require a designer. Suppose you claim that order is just a product of our minds. is God? 4. Any atheist who reads all ten reasons and the Augustinian theodicy can never disapprove the existence of God. Insect wings, before they were large enough to be effective for flight, were used as heat-exchange panels. There is an overall purpose of existence (from 3 and 4). My ideals, purposes, aspirations, and desires, something created by my mind or will, like the rules of baseball. (3) Therefore, necessarily, God exists. Instead, people are swept away by the sheer number of reasons that make God's existence seem plausible holding out an explanation as to why the universe went to the bother of existing, and why it is this particular universe, with its sublime improbabilities, including us humans; and, even more particularly, explaining the existence of each one of us who know ourselves as a unique conscious individual, who makes free and moral choices that grant meaning and purpose to our lives; and, even more personally, giving hope that desperate prayers may not go unheard and unanswered, and that the terrors of death can be subdued in immortality. Now since reason cannot decide for sure, and since the question is of such importance that we must decide somehow, then we must "wager" if we cannot prove. But these things are compatible in a way that materialism and belief in objective values are not. In that case, it would be superfluous to invoke God to explain the emergence of something from nothing. Maybe a switch had already happened, maybe it happened again and again, and how could anybody tell? Question 2: This proof does not conclude to God but to some vague "religious" view. (That's why we don't punish people for involuntary actionssuch as a teller who hands money to a bank robber at gunpoint, or a driver who injures a pedestrian after a defective tire blows out.). We can know some of Gods thoughts because in collaboration with the others. There is an upward moral curve to human history (tyrannies fall; the evil side loses in major wars; democracy, freedom, and civil rights spread). Learn how you can be the influence our kids need by supporting the ministry today. But if someone were looking at the two of them, Jessethere, Casshere, how could that observer tell that he, Cass, was Casshereand not Jessethere? It is therefore in our interests, and so rational, to believe in God. existing but only as c. necessarily existing. There is a possible world (W) in which there is a being (X) with maximal greatness. Our universe not only has the ingredients for life, those ingredients have clearly been used in a finely tuned way. 1. But laws of logic are not material! But the flaws in The Argument from Cosmic Coincidences and The Argument from Personal Coincidences apply here: Given a large enough sample of prayers (the number of times people call out to God to help them and those they love is tragically large), the improbable is bound to happen occasionally. Forthcoming, January, 2010. Between God and morality? It does not mean merely that we can find people around who claim to have certain duties. And that is not one more admirable quality But then neither could the step just before that one. This line of skeptical reasoning, based on the incoherent demands we make of the concept of cause, was developed by David Hume. The atheist with a soul. We can understand that. One can see how this invalidates Pascal's Wager by considering similar wagers. seven you now depend on would not exist -- and neither would you. 3. The Arguments. Evolution has no foresight, and every incremental step must be an improvement over the preceding one, allowing the organism to survive and reproduce better than its competitors. with his belief that God does not exist. 6. The answer is no. Can you refute the modal and possible worlds versions of the ontological argument? thinkingthey will be logical. And information never comes about by chance; it always comes from a If there is no God, then there is no transcendent moral lawmaker. There is no plausible reconciliation of that God with the existence of monstrous evil and the obscene suffering of innocents in the world. You'd still be complaining!". This argument has been around since the time of Charles Darwin, and his replies to it still hold. The best argument that atheists have to disapprove the existence of God is the presence of evil. of them within his own worldview. Look at yourselves -- drunken! For many have not been blessed in that way. And if it must exist in that case, it must exist in this one. properties. Does objective morality exist? Self-deception is quite common. We need to be clear about what the first premise is claiming. Then if X exists, there need not exist what it takes for X to exist. -- the stones began to fall. these arguments are not as effective as many Christians would like to think. It is compatible, for example, with Platonic idealism, and many other beliefs that orthodox Christians find terribly deficient. And this sort of being, as Aquinas says, is called "necessary. And space and time themselves must be part of that creation. Many atheists behave morally and expect others to behave morally as well. Now you've gone and let the stockpiling of fallacies reach dangerous levels, and the massed weapons of illogic are threatening the survivability of the globe. Laws of logic prescribe the correct chain The Big Bang, according to the best scientific opinion of our day, was the beginning of the physical universe, including not only matter and energy, but space and time and the laws of physics. all things, including all those things which are causing things to be, need And that line of thinking Obviously if you believe that some extraordinary event is a miracle, then you believe in divine agency, and you believe that such agency was at work in this event. P. Moreland The book's central claim is that the existence of finite, irreducible consciousness (or its regular, law-like correlation with physical states) provides evidence (with a strength I characterize) for the existence of God. Consider the atheist who is outraged at seeing a violent murder on the ten The Argument from Survival after Death. The unique role that Judaism played in disseminating monotheism, mostly through the organs of its two far more popular monotheistic offshoots, Christianity and Islam, has bequeathed to its adherents an unusual amount of attention, mostly negative, from adherents of those other monotheistic religions. 4. Consider weapons of mass destruction, computer viruses, Hitler's brilliantly effective rhetoric, or those criminal geniuses (for example electronic thieves) who are so cunning that they elude detection. 6. In my opinion, for what it's worth, the best argument for the nonexistence of God, as he has been imagined in Western theology and philosophy, is the Holocaust. The conclusion of the argument is not that everything the Bible tells us about A quintillion monkeys typing for a quintillion years will eventually produce Hamlet by chance. They have also believed that an effective rational argument for God's existence is an important first step in opening the mind to the possibility of faith -- in clearing some of the roadblocks and rubble that prevent people from taking the idea of divine revelation seriously. Philosopher, Novelist; Recipient, 2014 National Humanities Edge.org is a nonprofit private operating foundation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Can an atheist believe in real moral obligation (argument 14)? Question 1: But the majority is not infallible. It requires something more like exorcism than refutation. And so we are asked: Where are you going to place your bet? Who was that Other that he was who was regarding his being Cass Seltzer as if he didn'thaveto be Cass Seltzer? 2. But we have now such direct knowledge of the cause of changing things. people can assert that there is a moral code. FLAW 1:Premise 3 is vulnerable to t he same criticisms as the Argument from the Consensus of Humanity. Since this awareness is universalits an obvious and undeniable feature of realitywe can use it as an ally to make our case for God. This is God. The Argument from the Consensus of Mystics. 5. Another analogy: the odds that the phone company would have given you your exact number are minuscule. Briefly, if there is nothing outside the material universe, then there is nothing that can cause the universe to change. 10. In Hebrew, the letters are also numbers, which has given rise to the mystical art of "gematria," often used to elucidate, speculate, and prophesy about the unknowable. 2. Believers and nonbelievers can know that knowledge and friendship, for example, are things that we really ought to strive for, and that cruelty and deceit are objectively wrong. The second premise requires only honest introspection. The insights of genius have helped in the cumulative progress of humankind scientific, technological, philosophical, moral, artistic, societal, political, spiritual. No, no, that doesn't capture it either. You can also sign up for our free print newsletter (US only). But where did it come from? This is impossible because nothingness has no properties. Prayers that a person can grow back a limb, or that a child can be resurrected from the dead, always go unanswered.

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