Concept

Existence of God

Overview

The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and theology. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the existence of multiple deities) can be categorized as logical, empirical, metaphysical, subjective, or scientific. In philosophical terms, the question of the existence of God involves the disciplines of epistemology (the nature and scope of knowledge) and ontology (study of the nature of being or existence) and the theory of value (since some definitions of God include perfection).

The Western tradition of philosophical discussion of the existence of God began with Plato and Aristotle, who made arguments for the existence of a being responsible for fashioning the universe, referred to as the demiurge or the unmoved mover, that today would be categorized as cosmological arguments. Other arguments for the existence of God have been proposed by St. Anselm, who formulated the first ontological argument; Thomas Aquinas, who presented his own version of the cosmological argument (the first way); René Descartes, who said that the existence of a benevolent God is logically necessary for the evidence of the senses to be meaningful. John Calvin argued for a sensus divinitatis, which gives each human a knowledge of God's existence. Islamic philosophers who developed arguments for the existence of God comprise Averroes, who made arguments influenced by Aristotle's concept of the unmoved mover; Al-Ghazali and Al-Kindi, who presented the Kalam cosmological argument; Avicenna, who presented the Proof of the Truthful; and Al-Farabi, who made Neoplatonic arguments.

In philosophy, specifically the philosophy of religion, atheism refers to the proposition that God does not exist. Some religions, such as Jainism, reject the possibility of a creator deity. Philosophers who have provided arguments against the existence of God include David Hume, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Bertrand Russell.

Theism, the proposition that God exists, is the dominant view among philosophers of religion. In a 2020 PhilPapers survey, 69.50% of philosophers of religion stated that they accept or lean towards theism, while 19.86% stated they accept or lean towards atheism. However, philosophers as a whole tend to be more skeptical of God’s existence: the same survey found that 66.72% of all philosophers surveyed accepted or leaned towards atheism, while 18.64% accepted or leaned towards theism. Prominent contemporary philosophers of religion who defended theism include Alvin Plantinga, Yujin Nagasawa, John Hick, Richard Swinburne, and William Lane Craig, while those who defended atheism include Graham Oppy, Quentin Smith,

J. L. Mackie, and J. L. Schellenberg.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Existence of God is discussed.

But as Damascene says (De Fide Orth. i, 1,3), "the knowledge of God is naturally implanted in all." Therefore the existence of God is self-evident.
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
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147. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD MORE EVIDENT THAN THAT OF MAN.--Hence, it is evident that God is known as certainly and immediately as any other mind or spirit whatsoever distinct from ourselves. We may even assert that the existence of God is far more evidently perceived than the existence of men; because the effects of nature are infinitely more numerous and considerable than those ascribed to human agents. There is not…
George Berkeley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
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According to Descartes, the existence of God is contained in the _conception_ of God, therefore it becomes an argument for his actual being: according to Spinoza, God is himself contained in the world. Thus what, with Descartes, was only reason of knowledge, becomes, with Spinoza, reason of fact.
Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason, and On the Will in Nature
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XXII. That in knowing the existence of God, in the manner here explained, we likewise know all his attributes, as far as they can be known by the natural light alone. There is the great advantage in proving the existence of God in this way, viz., by his idea, that we at the same time know what he is, as far as the weakness of our nature allows; for, reflecting on the idea we have of…
René Descartes, Selections from the Principles of Philosophy
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Four categories are subject to change:— (a.) Substance.—Changes which affect the substance of a thing are called genesis and destruction. (b.) Quantity.—Changes in reference to quantity are increase and decrease. (c.) Quality.—Changes in the qualities of things are transformations. (d.) Place.—Change of place is called motion. The term “motion” is properly applied to change of place, but is also used in a general…
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
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Philosophers who discussed Existence of God

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Natural theology

Place in the tradition

Part of A. C. Grayling.

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