God The mere claim, that there could be “Proof for the Existence of God,” seems to invite ridicule. As far as the ideal, that the Earth might be round. Not always are those who laugh first and think later right. Many well-known scientists now admit that certain discoveries tend to indicate that God rather does exist than not. However, if I picture God as being everywhere, surrounding us like air or awareness then, an understanding of what God is suddenly becomes real. Simply by looking at what constitutes our world, we can say that all matter consists of energy. How, then, do we know this energy exists? The simple answer is, we are aware of it. We then only have to find out how this awareness came about. Did it come from dead matter or lifeless energy as the materialists have us believe? Did Awareness exist first? Or did awareness co-exist with energy, out of which the awareness then formed matter? Is awareness the out-put, a by-product of electro-chemical activities in the brain. I am more certain considering our thoughts. Thinking is definitely an out-put. But, who is thinking and who is aware? Whether it is the whole universe or our own thoughts, who or what is the first cause? It is only logical to conclude that awareness cannot be the product of dead matter or life-less energy. For the universe to exist, something had to bring it into existence called first cause. The only thing that could qualify as this first cause is God. Therefore God exists. I am sure everyone would agree: if there is a God, then God has to exist and has to be aware of His own existence. That is the safest thing we can say without too much speculation. And, in fact, that is precisely what God is self-energetic awareness. I claim that God can be proven indirectly through very convincing circumstantial evidence and directly through personal experience. The body of circumstantial evidence that has been collected over the years is tremendous and by itself a proof simply through the overwhelming accumulation proofs. We fear death and seek assurance that survival is not only possible but guaranteed. Since we can only survive within a condition that is not undergoing constant change and decay, we need something that exists forever and is not subject to change such condition of eternal being known as God. Philosophy may lead to something we may call intellectual enlightening, intellectual knowledge that God does exist. We know that something is there to find that is of ultimate value, why stop there? Endless discussion over something that is within reach is of secondary quality to actually arriving at the destination. Philosophy real value is that it be used as a tool to give us the assurance that we need to start us on our path. Once we know for sure that ultimate knowledge of survival and God can be found I may ask these questions: Is the end worth all the trouble? Here one can turn to the advice and experiences of our saints, mystics, sages, self-realized persons, and to the scriptures in the bible. The value of heavenly bliss also made clear in this quote from the New Testament, “The Kingdome of Heaven is like this. A man happens to find a treasure hidden in a field. He covers it up again, and is so happy that he goes and sells everything he has, and then goes back and buys that field (King James, Matt. 13:44-46). Philosophers use the word argument in a somewhat different way, one that emphasizes the idea that arguments put forth reasons to accept a conclusion. Philosopher’s uses the term “argument” doesn’t imply the idea it often does when we use the term to suggest anger, emotion and hurt feelings. Rather arguments simply present a conclusion and suggest why certain reasons indicate that conclusion is true or probable (Mosser, 3). Ideally the participants try to establish their claims on the basis of evidence, reasons, and logic. Sometimes these arguments can become very heated, and some arguments have been known to lead to
Feuerbach – God is a projection of our needs and our desires FREUD - Understands religion in terms of mental health – ideal authority (God) is bad for you due to repressing your needs and desires MARX - Understands religion in terms of social control – one group having control over another in society Descartes – mind-body dualism – mind and body are essentially different Dennett – mind is merely a description of matter, and we are essentially physical bodies Turing test – if a machine and…
Peter Nolan Professor Daniel Shannon Introduction to Philosophy November 24, 2014 God & the Necessity of Evil In Rene Descartes Meditation IV, he explores the problem of error (evil) and why he is “subject to an infinitude of errors”(20) when it is inconsistent to believe that God, the most perfect being, would be directly responsible for evil through the creation of defective creatures. By analyzing Descartes premises in Meditation IV, I will demonstrate how he has truly solved the problem of…
the author uses structure to impact the readers understanding of truth by using the literary device Foreshadowing and another literary device situation Irony. “It is forbidden to cross the Great river and look upon the place that was the place of the gods-This is the most strictly forbidden”. The author gives hints along the story that changes the readers perspective from what seems a long lost broken down civilization full of rituals from ancient time to an understanding that it’s based on the future…
One Secular Humanism 1. The Question of Origin: A humanist rejects any existence of god and believed that modern science can answer the question of how life began Origin of the universe and life, the scientific method is most respected as the means for revealing the mysteries of the origins of the universe and life. (What Secular Humanists Believe www.beliefnet.com). “ Atheists, proposed the idea that god is not necessary for life or morals, and the answer to mankind’s existence id found only…
is synthetic meaning that it is from observation. The argument is also inductive meaning there a number of possible conclusions. The main basis of the Teleological argument is based on a designer commonly known as ‘the classical God of theism’ (hereafter referred to as God) The outline of the design argument is that the universe has order and purpose and is regular, the complexities of the universe demonstrate some form of design, a design requires a…
into the subject shows the analogy as false. There is certainly order in the universe, just as in a machine, but it is a different sort of order, and doesn't require a designer. Further, the argument fails to prove the existence of a single all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good deity. The design argument purports to prove the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and human-like God by analogy. It states that if we look at a creation of humans, such as a watch, house, or computer…
says that there is no ultimate end or purpose to human life • Hobbes belies that we are naturally selfish creatures • He doesn’t believe that human beings have souls • He said the human being is a kind of machine: a machine that desires and thinks • We are machines tat have a desire for self preservation • Deliberation is the process of deciding t act upon your appetites and aversions • The word “freedom” simply mean not being physically constrained • He believes that…
believe to be true is a contradiction. Imagine a world that is suffering a slow decay, and a culture on the edge of extinction. A world in chaos brought to obedient order by the machines that man created. The linear programming that the system machine created to bring order is failing steadily due to the one variable the machines cannot compute... humanity. In this time, man has become a docile creature herded into submission under the mechanical laws that apply, programmed and desensitized for their…
as to why they believe in “God” or a higher being or no being at all. Whether you side with those that believe that god does exist or with those who believe that we evolved through the process of evolution, I will be siding with neither. Instead, I will explain the main points from both the advocate of the teleological argument and the Theory of Evolution. The Teleological Theory states that the world that we live in possesses a highly ordered structure, like a machine. Our world’s design is so…
Is a person a machine, an organism, a Gestalt, a spirit or some combination? * A person’s body is a biological machine, it is not ours as stated in I Corinthians 6:19-20 “19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” Our souls though are completely different; they are what God breathed into our bodies. They are what God uses to identify…