Like many debates in philosophy, the dispute over the nature/existence of God has no clear answer. In this particular argument, the ball lies in the court of the theist, giving them the chance to create a logical argument deriving God as a conclusion from justifiable premises. There are many ways theists have done this. Some, Read more

The French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal had an argument about God. Unlike many of his predecessors, however, this argument was not one for God’s existence. It was an argument for why a rational person should believe in God. He called it Pascal’s Wager. The premises of the argument are simple. With these options, we Read more

Disclaimer: I am Agnostic The problem of evil is one of, if not the, most famous arguments in philosophy of religion. It capitalizes on the common, Western understanding of God as a force that is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnibenevolent (all-good). If one accepts that their God embodies these three tenets, then the occurrence Read more

The ontological argument is often discarded as a relatively weak proof for the existence for God. While this is true, and some formulations such as Anselm’s can be immediately dismissed, stronger proofs do exist. Alvin Plantinga’s ontological argument is proof of this. Plantinga’s makes use of modality, or possibility, in conjunction with perfection to make Read more

Intro As far as I can tell, the cosmological argument remains the sole most convincing argument for God’s existence. Whether in William Lane Craig’s Kalam or Leibniz’s contingency form, both pose God as the unmoved mover, a being whose existence is necessary in order for the universe to be explained. Both arguments also make some Read more

Boethius was a 6th-century Roman philosopher best known for his work The Consolation of Philosophy. Interestingly, Boethius wrote this work while in prison. He was imprisoned under the charge of treason by the Ostrogothic King Theodoric and was awaiting execution. His text was written with the purpose of finding intellectual and spiritual consolation in the Read more

Also known as the teleological argument, the argument from design is one of the most popular proofs for God’s existence. I’ll recount a version I saw on an instagram street interview. For background information, the street interview involved an atheist in a jacket and another man, a preacher, who attempted to prove God’s existence to Read more

Descartes’ version of the Cosmological Argument is referred to as the stronger of his two arguments. There are countless different cosmological arguments for the existence of God, dating back to the ancient Greeks. Some types are still being debated today. What these arguments have in common is a reference to the principle of causality. It Read more

After proving the existence of his mind, Descartes figures that the next logical thing to prove is the existence of God. He does this in two ways. I will explain one of them here, and then provide arguments against it. I’ll explain the other, much more complicated one later, when I better understand it. Descartes’ Read more