SPECIFIC PURPOSE: To persuade my audience to believe the probable existence of God.
ATTENTION GETTER: A new Harris Poll finds that a strong majority (74%) of Americans believe in God.
RELEVANCE: I believe God’s existence is relevant to all demographics of people, because “God” applies to all beliefs, races, cultures, etc.
CREDIBILITY: Along with my extensive research on this, I am also a confirmed Roman Catholic, which may make me a bit biased but nonetheless I have been had plenty of resources throughout my 18 years to determine whether or not there is a God.
CENTRAL IDEA: God’s existence can be determined by 3 different arguments, including the Cosmological argument, the Teleological argument, and the Moral Law argument.
TRANSITION: However,
…show more content…
This argument is basically a cause and effect argument. It goes like this: the world could not have just existed by itself so there must have been something that brought the world into existence. The first cause is God.
In other words, the universe did not just magically appear from nothing because God created it.
TRANSITION: My next argument is called the Teleological argument.
MAINPOINT2: Otherwise known as the “design” argument.
The basic idea of this argument is that there is too much intricate detail in the universe for it to not have a creator.
According to the City University of New York, William Paley, a theist, had a famous argument called the “watch” argument. It goes by this: a watch has many complex parts in order to keep time, too complex to be made randomly, thus it must have a creator. This is like the universe.
TRANSITION: My third and final argument is called the Moral Law argument.
MAINPOINT3: The Moral Law argument differs from the other two arguments because it has nothing to do with the natural world.
The Moral Law basically says that all humans have morals because there is a
God is defined as a spirit or being that has great power, strength, knowledge, that can affect nature and the lives of people. Many individuals around the world believe in the existence of a higher being known as God. The dilemma of God existing has troubled and people for thousands of years. Labeling “God” for most people is not an easy task because everyone has their own concept of who and what God means to them. In this paper, I would like to show that there is a God and he is not dead. The two arguments in favor of the existence of God are reason and experience. The Teleological and Ontological are two moral arguments that effect reasoning in connection to experience. Reason is an ontological argument by St. Anselm of Canterbury in the
1. The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God is based on the principle of cause and effect. What this basically means is that the universe was the effect of a cause, which was God. One of the oldest and most well known advocates of the Cosmological Argument was Thomas Aquinas who outlines his argument for the existence of God in his article entitled The Five Ways. The first way in his argument is deals with motion. Aquinas says that in order for something to be in motion something had to move it because it is impossible for something to move without the presence of some sort of outside force upon it. Therefore the world around us, nature, and our very existence could not have been put into motion without the influence of the
Some of the three major arguments for the existence of God are cosmological, ontological, and teleological arguments. Cosmological argument is the reasoning that the being of the universe is powerful proof for the existence of a God who made it. There are two main forms of cosmological argument, the modal and temporal. Modal cosmological argument, also known as the argument from contingency, recommends that because the world may not have existed, we then need some clarification of why it does exist. When there is more than one likelihood, something has to decide which of the possibilities is understood clearly. Therefore the world is contingent, because there has to be a logical reason for its existence. This form of argument also claims that the only type of existence that doesn’t need any clarification is a being that does not failed to exist such as God. Temporal cosmological argument, also known as the Kalam argument, contends that all evidence are that there is a point in life at which the world began to exist, and that this starting must either have been caused or uncaused. The cosmological argument used by Aquinas declares that since nothing originates from nothing. Therefore the world must have been brought into reality by something outside it, which can be called "God".
1. Examine the strengths and weaknesses of the argument for the existence of God based on religious experience. (18) 2. ‘The argument merely indicates the probability of God and this is of little value to a religious believer.’ Discuss. (12)
There are three arguments for the existence of God, and it is important that we should learn, understand, and use these arguments. The first argument is the cause and effect argument. The cause and effect argument uses the principle of cause and effect. The principle of cause and effect is that every measureable effect has a cause.
With the passage of time, there also have been scriptures appearing that support the existence of God. Stories, events and many supernatural occurrences that is beyond human’s intellect. The Myths of Fire, Water, Earth and Air were famous for their supernatural existence in the Roman Era. Before the Ancient Greek religion turned into mythology, existence of God was well practiced by the Greek people. Homer, a famous Greek writer, writes in the ‘Odyssey’ about how if man does not follow the God and believe in them, then man will fall and be doomed. The Greeks were a very religious civilization. They showed that one could believe in the gods without having solid, concrete proof. Looking at this religion we can see that God does exist.
4. The existence of God remains a matter of faith since it’s difficult to "prove" God to someone who does not believe.
The Cosmological Argument attempts to prove that God exists by showing that there cannot be an infinite number of regressions of causes to things that exist. It states that there must be a final uncaused-cause of all things. This uncaused-cause is asserted to be God. Arguments like this are thought up to recognize why we and the universe exist.
The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Cosmological Argument for the Existence of God The cosmological argument seeks to prove the existence of God by looking at the universe. It is an A posteriori proof based on experience and the observation of the world not logic so the outcome is probable or possible not definite. The argument is in three forms; motion, causation and being. These are also the first three ways in the five ways presented by Aquinas through which he believed the existence of God could be shown.
The cosmological argument is an a posteriori argument which intends to prove that there is an intelligent being that exists; the being is distinct from the universe, explains the existence of the universe, and is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and omnibenevolent. The basic notion of cosmological arguments is that the world and everything in it is dependent on something other than itself for its existence. It explains that everything has a cause, that there must have been a first cause, and that this first cause was itself uncaused.
Many writers refer to this argument as the uncreated creator proof. All things in nature are transitory and thus may exist or not exist. Because nature is time limited things of the world either exist or they do not. Natural things cannot exist and not exist at the same time. Because of that reality, we can reason that at one time nothing temporal existed. Through this line of thinking we can conclude that not all beings exist as contingent beings but there must be a being that exists because of its own necessity. This being is the uncreated creator that we know as God. This uncreated creator brings all
The philosophical arguments presented in this document are not of religious text, nor scientific observation or established fact. Rather the premise of this God proof is bring together and share the various theories on which other God proofs have established foundations. I have heard it quoted that “Philosophy goes where hard science can 't, or won 't. Philosophers have a license to.” Therefore, with this in mind, I attest that it is more than problematic to construct an argument authenticating the unequivocal proof of the existence God. If nothing else this may be food for thought.
Aquinas says we experience causality Nothing is the cause of itself causes are other than their effects. There cannot be an infinite regress of caused causes. If there were an infinite regress, the effects we experience here & now would not exist. Therefore, there must be some first cause and this we call "God." There is also the law of argument by design, we naturally work towards a goal, we also lack the knowing of the outcome, but we reach our goal by being pointed in the direction, therefore there is an intelligent being pointing us in the direction and that would be proof of “God”.
The existence of God has been in question for as long as mankind has existed and thought logically. Many questions have plagued the human mind in regards to God, and there have been many arguments drawn with the hopes of proving the existence of a supreme being whom we know as God. The “God” question has been presented to every individual at some point in their lives. It is a topic that will bring forth never-ending questions and an equal amount of attempted answers. Many philosophers have formulated different rationales when examining the topic of God, some of which include how the word itself should be defined, what his role is in human existence, whether or not he loves us, and ultimately, if he even exists at all. Mankind cannot
I believe that that the Cosmological argument gives good reason to believe in the existence of God. The Cosmological argument focuses on everything having a cause except one thing that started it all, this starter is known as the “Prime Mover”. The Prime Mover is the one that starts everything without anything having a previous effect on it. With that people have assumed that the logical answer to who the prime mover is, is God. This to me seems the most logical of arguments because although there is the idea of eternity and an eternal cycle there has to be a starting point. I do not believe the argument is successful.