The timeless argument over God, metanoded for your viewing pleasure.

Everything2 has collected a surprising number of arguments as to whether or not God exists. I should point out that we are here talking about the Judaic-Christian-Muslim god although if you have interesting nodes about other pantheons, please /msg me! You will find some very good arguments for both sides, and you you may find some interesting points not covered in your standard theology coursework. So... Here's God in a nutshell.

Survey
Beyond Belief: Why God Cannot Exist
Ten reasons to believe in God

Didn't help? Well, let's go into it in a bit more detail.

Argument from the Holy Book (A weak 'YES')
Argument from the Holy Book

Argument from Non-Belief (An okay 'No')
Argument from Non-Belief
Free will defense

God as a contradiction in terms (Another 'No')
Omnibenevolence and Omnipotence
God has no free will

"God" Doesn't mean what you think it does (A 'Wait A Moment!' from the wings)
Even God doesn't have the right to utterly destroy children

First Cause (A 'Yes!')
First cause argument
Cosmological Argument

Argument From Contingency (A variation on that last 'Yes!')
Argument From Contingency
The Principle of Sufficient Reason

Ontological Argument (One in a long chain of yeses).
Ontological argument
God and the Idea of Perfection The Original!
The Cartesian Argument for the Existence of God

God is Redundant
The Philosophy of Atheism

Argument from design (A quite pleasing 'Yes')
Argument from Design (+ listed sub-nodes)
The Blind Watchmaker
God's shoddy workmanship

Argument From Math (A not quite so pleasing 'Yes')
Guido Ubaldus' proof of the existence of God

Argument from Evil (The best 'NO!' I've seen)
Argument from Evil
Argument from Non-Belief

Problem of Evil
God can't be all good and all powerful at the same time
Theodicy
Free will defense
Why would a god let so many of his "flock" stray?
Dear God: how about that whole holocaust thing?
God is good, people are screwed up

Transcendental Argument for God (A confusing 'yes')
Transcendental Argument for God
The Anthropic principle may come into play here.

Other (This stuff just goes on forever...)
Omniscience and free will are contradictory
Mandelstahm's proof of the existence of God

Mental Exercise: Refute Spinoza
Spinoza's Argument for the Existence of God

Maybe you should also read
The three cosmogenic paradoxes

Humor
Existence of the System Administrator


Have more? Of course you do! /msg me.

Arguing about God usually a unproductive activity. At least, arguing whether or not God exists, that is.

My reasoning goes like this:

  • Most people who believe in God have one or more of the following beliefs (w/o the fancy words for them):
    1. God created the world
    2. God can do anything
  • AND, most people who believe in God also believe that God wants the "best" for people.
  • So if a believer thinks that arguing or advertising God's actual existence in a way so as to definitely convince everyone was the "best" thing for people, I would them the following:
    1. If you believe that God created the world, why didn't God arrange the stars to spell out the words "God Exists". Or plant islands in the sea spelling this out. Or put up some giant billboard on the moon. Black out the sun to form the words.
    2. If you believe that God can do anything, why doesn't God just zap people into believing? Why didn't Jesus just zap the letters into the sky, "I AM", in front of crowds? Why didn't Jesus perform miracles for Herod?
  • The answer (I think) is that...God wants people to figure out God's existence for themselves. What should be the role of a believer? Well Christ said our love for our neighbor would convince people of God's love. Spread the good news? Yes, by leading a moral life, by loving enemies (yikes! loving the nonbelieving sinner).
  • Why hasn't Christianity worked? What is the biggest problem with Christianity? Reportedly, Chesterton answered these questions with "It has never been tried" and "I am".

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.