Does God Exist?

Atheism

Belief that holds that there is no God.

Atheists

• Carl Marx

• Albert Camus

• Friedrich Nietzsche

• Sigmund Freud

Ontological Arguments

Show the logic of believing in God; They are limited in that what is logical in our minds is not necessarily truly real;God is the most perfect being; Ultimate protection exists only in God

Cosmological Arguments

Highlight the order in creation as a reflection of the creator; they are limited in that they cannot make the jump from a creator to the God of scripture; shows God as the creator of the cosmos

Theism

Belief in God

Agnosticism

Not sure if there is a God

Pragmatic Arguments

Show the usefulness of belief in God; like cosmological arguments, they cannot prove that a useful God is the same God revealed in Scripture.

Theists

• St. Thomas Aquinas

Deism

Involved the belief in the existence of God on purely rational grounds without any reliance in revealed religion or religious authority; founding fathers (Jefferson, Washington, Adams, Paine, Madison)

• Watchmaker God

• Showed God as “retired to Heaven”

• Cannot pray to this God

Experimental Arguments

• Point to the existence of God and show that belief in God is reasonable, but they do not conclusively prove God’s existence

• Anthropic Principle: Evolution has a purpose to support human life

Hans Kong

Existence can neither be proved nor disproved

John Henry Newman

• Experiences that point to God

Kari Rahner

Image/Metaphor; always present but just beyond our view (horizon)

Rosemary Redford Reuther

• God as the empowering matrix

Paul Tiller

God in the depth of things; God is the profound mystery at the bottom

Omnipotent

All powerful

Omniscient

Knows all that is, was, and will ever be

Personal

God has qualities and characteristics that we associate with human beings.

Eternal

Without beginning or end

Transcendent

Not tied to the limits of time and space

Immanent

God is close to us and intimately involved in our world