The philosopher Nietzsche is famous for his claim that God is dead. As a philosopher, he gained fame as the overthrower of the Almighty, creating an original concept of the superman. But the news of the death of the Most High may be too exaggerated. Here are some of the most fascinating and provocative philosophical arguments for the existence of God.
The article provides philosophical arguments. They are not associated with any religious scriptures, nor with any scientific observation or fact. Many of these pieces of evidence (some of them thousands of years old) serve as interesting intellectual exercises that tantalize the idea of the universe and our place in it. Some of the arguments are attempts to reconcile positions that currently baffle scientists and philosophers.
The very concept of a perfect being means that God must exist
This is a classic ontological or a priori argument. It was first formulated in 1070 by Saint Anselm, who argued that since humanity has the concept of a perfect being, which he defined as “that nothing else can be conceived,” then God must exist. In his essay Prosvion, Saint Anselm conceived God as a being with every conceivable perfection. But if this being "existed" simply as an idea in our consciousness, then it would be less perfect than if it really existed. Thus, God must exist.
Something from above should have led to the emergence of the universe
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Philosophers call this argument overriding or cosmological evidence. Early adopters of this line of reasoning include such famous thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, and Saint Thomas Aquinas.
This view is based on the assumption that every event must have a cause, and this cause, in turn, must have a cause, and so on.
Assuming there is no end to the regression of causes, this sequence of events will be endless. But an infinite series of causes and events does not make sense, since an infinite chain of cause and effect cannot exist. There must have been some first reason. This required some kind of "unconditional" or "higher" being, which philosophers call God.
There must be something there
German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz wrote: “Why is there something and not nothing? A sufficient cause … is found in a substance that … is a necessary being, carrying the reason for its existence within itself. " According to the thinker, the existence of only contingent beings is impossible, there must be a necessary being, which we call God. In the "Monadology" of the philosopher, it was argued that "no fact can be real or existing, and no statement is true without a sufficient reason for its existence, and not otherwise."
Something had to design the universe
The universe is akin to a watch mechanism, because when a watchmaker works on assembling a complex mechanism, he carefully adjusts the details, uses a spring of precisely specified length, chooses hands of a certain size, etc. The result is a well-coordinated mechanism, the expediency of which is a vivid proof of the fact that the mind worked for him.
As William Paley argued, just as the existence of a clock indicates the presence of a great mind, the existence of the universe and various phenomena within it indicate the presence of an even greater intelligence, namely, God.
Teleological evidence suggests that we live in a universe that was undoubtedly originally designed. The cosmos demonstrates orderliness and an obvious purpose. For example, there are many physical laws within the universe, and many things are interconnected.
For example, the famous medieval astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who was the author of the theory that the Sun is in the center of the universe, and the Earth revolves around it, argued that such a mechanism is nothing more than proof of the great wisdom of the Almighty, for who else, how nor God, could have placed this great sanctuary sun in a better position?
The great physicist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, who is the author of the theory of relativity, argued that the harmoniously coexisting laws of nature indicate the presence of a mind that is much superior to us. Any deed of a person, as well as systematized thinking, acts as a pathetic attempt to imitate this wisdom.
According to the ancient Greeks, the Universe is a "space", that is, a harmonious and ordered system, which consists of interconnected parts. Each component is subject to specific laws, and everything as a whole is governed by general laws. So setting a specific goal in a strange way contributes to the overall goal of the whole.
Needless to say, this line of reasoning was more than compelling before the idea of naturalism (the theory that everything can be explained without the benefit of supernatural intervention) and Darwinian evolution. According to the naturalistic view, the human eye, for all its apparent complexity and purpose, is not a product of the Creator, but rather the result of constant variation and selection.
Consciousness proves that there are non-material entities
The strangeness of consciousness and our inability to understand the presence of the Most High gave rise to the concept of substantial dualism, also known as Cartesian dualism, which describes two fundamental types of things: mental and material.
Dualists argue that the material itself does not have inner thoughts, subjective awareness, and feelings.
We live in computer simulations performed by hacker gods
Unlike the thinker Anselm, who portrays the Creator as something that can no longer be conceived, the gods can represent beings vastly beyond our understanding of the world.
If the modeling hypothesis is true, then we are the result of prehuman ancestors (or some unknown creature), and we simply have no choice but to recognize them as gods. Our collective or even individual behavior can be controlled by them from above. These gods will be akin to the Gnostic gods of yesteryear - powerful beings who decide destinies without regard for our interests.
Aliens are our Gods
We have yet to establish contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. A possible solution to the paradox of the famous physicist Enrico Fermi is the concept of directed panspermia, which consists in the fact that aliens come to life on other planets, for example, send spores or probes to fertile planets, and then secretly control this process. Therefore, by definition, they are perceived by us as God.
Maya Muzashvili