The Existence Of God Essay -- essays research papers

The Existence of GodThe existence of a God has for generations been the theme of fiercedebate. This most usu e very(prenominal) last(predicate)y occurring between members of the religious societyand, everybody else. As a liaison of fact the religious world itself has notalways been fit to agree on God. This has resulted in many a holy man to takeup the fight for his deity through the realm of words. Many theories bewilder beenproposed, and in all think that theirs proves beyond a doubt on whether or not Godexists. To write this paper I read four of those theories by assorted men ofthe cloth, who all attempt to make the argument for a God in the Christian sense.The basic of the theories I looked at was that of St.Anslem ofCanterbury. He supplies the ontological argument for the existence of God. Theontological argument states that by ascertaining the nature of God himself, wecome to realize he exists. He explains this argument by first defining what Godis. Anslem says that God is a being than which nothing greater can be conceivedto exist, that it can not even be con sidered not to exist. In short, the factthat said being can not be considered not to exist, would thereby make itgreater than any that could be considered not to exist. This would in allreality be the secret to Gods omnipotence in Anlsems eyes. Another point thathe stresses is that just be understanding the concept of what a God is, you argonproving his existence. This is because if you understand who God is, you can in like manner accept his existence, and therefore cannot conceive that he does not exist.Therefore making him that which nothing greater can be conceived of, and whichcannot be conceived not to exist which we have already defined as God.The second argument for a God comes from St. Tomas Aquinas, who arguesfor the cosmological point of view. The cosmological argument states that allthings in this universe have a cause, and since these causes cannot go on forever there must be a first cause, i.e. God. He argues that there are five waysto argue for the existence of God, the first is the argument from head. Thisstates that everything in this world has certain potentials for motion. It alsostates that for these potentials to be met another object n motion must set offsaid potential. That object in turn would have ... ...ad and the point would be moot.So by looking at these paths pop decided to look at the risks of eachwager. In the first you get infinite rewards from only one life of believing.Plus he felt that you also probably had a fulfilling and enjoyable life too. Sothe first, can be looked at as a win win situation in which you risked verylittle, and won much. The second and fourth possibilities did not reallyconcern Pascal much because by thinking of it in terms of odds, neither seemedprobable, and again wouldnt matter anyhow because you would no longer exist.The third possibility however, in which you could end up in hell, seemed to helppersuade Pas cal into believing in a God. He felt that for the amount you had tolose in this situation, no intelligent human would take the risk. So inconclusion, Pascal came to believe that believing in a God was a safe bet, inthat it had the least risk with the highest returns.As for myself, after reading these papers I find myself tending to sidewith Pascal the most. I dont think that a little insurance could hurt, becauseuntil there is proof otherwise none of us really know.