Arguments Against God's Existence
Just as there are people who claim to see visions and believe strongly in one god or another, there are just as many people who remain skeptical and deny everything. Arguments against the possibility of God's existence have been given by agnostics, atheists, and philosophers. They have all offered criticisms, some stating that God does not exist simply because the idea of God is incoherent or perplexing. In any case, here are some more incredulous thoughts and reasonings concerning God's possible existence. I hope it will give you a broader view of the scale.
One of the strongest and most effective "proofs" that God does not exist is "The Problem of Evil." It states that not all of the following things can be true: (a) evil exists; (b) God is omnipotent; and (c) God is all-loving. The argument is as follows:
- If God has the ability to prevent evil and does not, then He is not all-loving.
- If God has the intention of preventing evil and cannot, then He is not omnipotent.
- If God wants to prevent evil and has the ability to do so, then how can evil even exist?
(Or Lestat, for that matter :-)
Another point made is that the existence of an all-knowing God is incompatible with the idea of free-will ~ that humans and/or other beings do make their own choices. In being omniscient, God would have to be clairvoyant and know beforehand exactly what someone would do in a given situation. In such a case it would mean that the individual really does not have free will. For instance, if one were to "decide" to commit a sin, then how could it rightly be said that they chose to sin freely?
David Hume had several infuential critiques regarding the main arguments for God's existence. Concerning the cosmological argument (Aquinas' third argument), he said that the notion of a necessarily existing being is, in itself, ridiculous when he stated that "Whatever we can conceive as existent, we can also conceive as nonexistent." He also questioned why the ultimate source of the universe could not be the universe itself, without the assistance of any god.
Against Aquinas' fifth argument (the argument from design), Hume believed that there is no possible way to infer the properties of God as the creator of the world from the qualities of His creation. For example, how can we all be sure that the world was not created by a team? (hence polytheism) Or, on a more somber note, perhaps our world is merely a poor first attempt "of an infant deity who afterwards abandoned it, ashamed of his lame performance." And if this last idea is the truth, then God could not be all-loving if he were to abandon what He Himself had created. There are as many contradictions here as there are in the Bible, and that is no low number.
But whatever your stand point may be, from Catholicism to the Baha'i faith, I listen with an open ear and welcome all opinions. Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the Guest Book Or View what others have written.
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