10 Arguments for the Existence of God

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mattrose
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10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by mattrose » Fri Apr 12, 2013 5:48 pm

After looking over a few dozen arguments, I made a sheet for an Apologetics class I'm teaching. Personally, I find some of these arguments far more compelling than others in terms of evidence. But I'm only one personality type :) At the bottom are some quotes I collected from my sources.

APOLOGETICS 101
10 Arguments that God exists

#1 The First Cause Argument
Anything that begins to exist has a cause. Most people now agree that the universe at some point in the past began to exist. Therefore, the universe must have had a cause. We can rightfully label that cause the Creator.

#2 The Design Argument
Any careful observer recognizes that the universe displays a high degree of apparent order/design. This could be explained either by chance or by actual intelligence behind the design. But it is so statistically improbable that chance can account for the order/design we observe that intelligence becomes a superior explanation. That intelligent designer can be labeled as God.

#3 The Moral Argument
Throughout history human beings have shared a common sense of right and wrong. The atheistic view cannot adequately explain the source of our shared morality, let alone its existence to begin with. Theism can and does explain it. The source is God.

“The cosmological (first cause) argument shows that God is infinitely powerful; the teleological (design) argument reveals that he is intelligent; the moral argument demonstrates that he is moral.” (Norman Geisler)

“If I find myself with a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, I probably was made for another world.” (C.S. Lewis)

#4 The God-Shaped-Hole Argument
Our sense of need generally corresponds to known realities (hunger exists… so does food). A vast number of people (including many famous atheists) testify that without God they feel they are missing something they desperately need. A God-shaped-hole suggests there is a God.

#5 The Beauty Argument
The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach… A Beautiful sunset… The first breath of a newborn baby… When we recognize utter beauty in this world it points beyond itself to a cosmic artist: God.

#6 The Soul/Spirit Argument
The existence of our personalities... The many reports of spirits/ghosts and/or out of body experiences. Such facts/reports serve as evidence of the immaterial realm. If such a realm exists, the existence of God becomes likely.

#7 The Miracles Argument
Throughout history, there have been numerous reports of miracles. Even if some miracle reports are false, it is unlikely that they are all illegitimate. Miracles, by definition, point to the existence of a deity.

#8 The Common Consent Argument
Almost all people in every era have believed in some form of deity. It is unlikely that the vast majority of people throughout history have been completely wrong about the existence of a higher power. Therefore, God is likely to exist.

#9 The Experience/Testimony Argument
Many people throughout human history claim to have had an experience with the divine. One could argue that it is highly improbable that all such people have been utterly mistaken. It is far more likely an explanation that a divine being exists and has been experienced.

#10 The Jesus Argument
Jesus Christ claimed to be God. He demonstrated his trustworthiness through his life & teachings and his claims were verified through miracles and his resurrection from the dead. Given these realities, it is far more likely that Jesus was who he claimed to be than any other option (the other options include that Jesus is just a legend… that he was a lunatic… or that he was a liar). If Jesus is who He claimed to be then there is a God: Jesus.

“Of course none of the clues we have been looking for actually proves God. Every one of them is rationally avoidable. However, their cumulative effect is, I think, provocative and potent.” (Timothy Keller)

QUOTES OF NOTE

OVERVIEW
“Though there cannot be irrefutable proof for the existence of God, many people have found strong clues for his reality—divine fingerprints—in many places.” (Keller)

FIRST CAUSE
“The atheist is not able to escape the inexplicability of an impersonal first cause.” (Zacharias)

DESIGN
“Perhaps the most popular and intuitively plausible argument for God’s existence is the so-called argument from design.” (former atheist Antony Flew)

DESIGN
“Virtually no major scientist today claims that the fine tuning was purely a result of chance factors at work in a single universe.” (Flew)

MORAL
“Though we have been taught that all moral values are relative to individuals and cultures, we can’t live like that. In actual practice we inevitably treat some principles as absolute standards… what gives us the right to do that…? Nothing gives us the right. Yet we can’t stop it.” (Keller)

MORAL
“If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Heffner.” (Muggeridge)

MORAL
“The atheist uses a merely material thing to explain a spiritual thing. That is a far sillier version of the category mistake than the one the ancients made; for it is possible that the greater (Zeus, spirit) caused the lesser (lightning) and explains it; but it is not possible that the lesser (molecules) adequately caused and explains the greater (morality). A good will might create molecules, but how could molecules create a good will?” (Kreeft & Tacelli)

MORAL
“If you insist on a secular view of the world and yet you continue to pronounce some things right and some things wrong, then I hope you see the deep disharmony between the world your intellect has devised and the real world (and God) that your heart knows exists. This leads to a crucial question. If a premise (there is no God) leads to a conclusion you know isn’t true (napalming babies is culturally relative) then why not change the premise?” (Keller)

GOD-SHAPED-HOLE
“Sartre found atheism ‘cruel,’ Camus ‘dreadful,’ and Nietzsche ‘maddening.’ Atheists who consistently try to live without God tend to commit suicide or go insane. Those who are inconsistent live on the ethical or aesthetic shadow of Christian truth while they deny the reality that made the shadow. But believers and unbelievers evidence a definite need for God.” (Geisler)

GOD-SHAPED-HOLE
“Nothing can discourage the appetite for divinity in the heart of man” (Atheist Albert Camus)

GOD-SHAPED HOLE
“My life now consists in the wish that it [atheism] might be otherwise… and that somebody might make my ‘truth’s appear incredible to me.” (Nietzsche)

GOD-SHAPED-HOLE
“I needed God… I reached out for religion, I long for it, it was the remedy. Had it been denied me, I would have invented it myself.” (Sartre)

MIRACLES
“There are many reports of purported miracles, ancient and modern, some of them quite well documented.” (Swinburne)

EXPERIENCE/TESTIMONY
“In the case of religious experiences, as in the case of all other experiences, the onus is on the skeptic to give reason for not believing what seems to be the case. The only way to defeat the claims of religious experience will be to show that the strong balance of evidence is that there is no God.” (Swinburne)

CASE FOR ATHEISM
“Today’s atheist evangelists hardly even try to argue their case… Instead, they train their guns on well-known abuses in the history of the major world religions. But the excesses and atrocities of organized religion have no bearing whatsoever on the existence of God.” (Varghese)

steve7150
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Re: 10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by steve7150 » Sat Apr 13, 2013 11:14 am

#1 The First Cause Argument
Anything that begins to exist has a cause. Most people now agree that the universe at some point in the past began to exist. Therefore, the universe must have had a cause. We can rightfully label that cause the Creator.









Playing devil's advocate i would respond with, how do you know a single Creator exists? You are just filling in a gap of our human knowledge and guessing that a single great Creator exists. How do you know that a race of "gods" or aliens didn't create the universe?

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mattrose
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Re: 10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by mattrose » Sat Apr 13, 2013 11:41 am

steve7150 wrote:Playing devil's advocate i would respond with, how do you know a single Creator exists? You are just filling in a gap of our human knowledge and guessing that a single great Creator exists. How do you know that a race of "gods" or aliens didn't create the universe?
Personally, I wouldn't necessarily try to argue for monotheism from this argument alone. I have atheists in mind witht his argument. Their big stumbling block is believing in God/gods at all. This argument stands strongly against their position.

In any case, I think monotheism makes more sense than polytheism to most people anyways, which is why only monotheistic religions are really growing... as far as I can tell.

steve7150
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Re: 10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by steve7150 » Sat Apr 13, 2013 12:56 pm

After looking over a few dozen arguments, I made a sheet for an Apologetics class I'm teaching. Personally, I find some of these arguments for more compelling than others in terms of evidence










There is also Gary Habermas's "minimalist facts approach" where he takes a dozen facts about Jesus life,death and resurrection that most scholars of every bent accept and uses that into an apologetics method which completely skips the bigger academic questions of creation and life. The reason is that if someone accepts these facts about Christ everything else falls into place.

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mattrose
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Re: 10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by mattrose » Sat Apr 13, 2013 1:16 pm

steve7150 wrote: There is also Gary Habermas's "minimalist facts approach" where he takes a dozen facts about Jesus life,death and resurrection that most scholars of every bent accept and uses that into an apologetics method which completely skips the bigger academic questions of creation and life. The reason is that if someone accepts these facts about Christ everything else falls into place.
I read the book '5 views of apologetics' and there are some pros and cons of each approach

Some start by trying to prove the existence of God
Some start, as you stated, by trying to prove Christ
Some don't necessarily 'start' anywhere, but just push the cumulative case
Some think apologetics is of little use
Some... I can't remember the other one :)

I think the approach we should use varies from person to person, to be honest.

steve7150
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Re: 10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by steve7150 » Sat Apr 13, 2013 1:53 pm

I think the approach we should use varies from person to person, to be honest.












Undoubtedly true but the other approaches may persuade one of a higher power, still a long way from believing the bible and Christ. Habermas's method if effective cuts to the chase particularly in situations where you may not have the luxury of a lot of quality time with a person. Thinking back, the lady that lead me to the Lord used her own version of this although i already did believe in God.

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steve
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Re: 10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by steve » Sat Apr 13, 2013 11:12 pm

With reference to your argument #6, someone sent me this interesting short video.

http://www.cbn.com/tv/2125902823001

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brody196
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Re: 10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by brody196 » Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:53 am

Have you ever looked into the "Presuppositional" approach? I personally find this way of presenting the truth of God to be very effective.

Here are a few instances where the above approach is used:

The most famous one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VosqLqhms68

This is one of my favs... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=056zh7VPxDc

schoel
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Re: 10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by schoel » Wed Apr 17, 2013 1:41 pm

Are 4, 8 and 9 really pieces of one argument?

Does it make sense to split them out?

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mattrose
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Re: 10 Arguments for the Existence of God

Post by mattrose » Wed Apr 17, 2013 3:54 pm

schoel wrote:Are 4, 8 and 9 really pieces of one argument?

Does it make sense to split them out?
There is definitely some overlap.

But I do think they are different enough to justify the distinction.

#4 (God shaped hole) is about our feelings/desire. It's a very existential point.
#8 (Common Consent) is really about burden of proof. The minority report must persuade others.
#9 (Experience/Testimony) is not about how we all FEEL this hole or about how we ALL feel this hole, but that the INDIVIDUAL found the answer

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