December 1, 2018
Term Paper
Many philosophers have questioned
the existence of God over the years.
Does God exist? Is God dead? From
Buddah and the Sophists to Thomas Aquinas and Friedrich Nietzsche, the topic of
God’s existence has been questioned and debated since the beginnings of
philosophy. As the first humans began to
orient themselves into ever larger groups that stayed in a single location for
generations, they began to have societies based on deities related to earthly
materials, actions, emotions, amongst other experiences that needed explaining
so that humanity could thrive. Eventually, the notion God became the dominant
force throughout much the modern world. While God is an entrenched force, a
similar idea has continuously been parallel to God and that there is simply no
God. This question has mostly been unrefuted throughout the text by various
philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas and Immanual Kant. Yet some philosophers
have had success in at least pushing the conversation of questioning whether God
exists, like Friedrich Nietzsche. It is also wise to remember that because God
has affected so much of humanity, that is important to remember the affects it
has on an informed individual in today’s modern society and look at how the
belief in God has affected how humanity has changed over time.
Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) believed
that he could prove the existence of God using his infamous Five Ways. The first Way is Motion, which states that an
object is put into motion only by something else that is already moving (p.
225). The second Way is Cause, which states that “in order to cause itself, a
thing would have to precede itself.” (p. 226) The third Way is Necessity, which
can be summed up as, “Our existence is contingent, dependent on something
else.” (p. 227) These arguments don’t prove or disprove God as a loving and
compassionate deity, but merely restate Aristotle’s ideas on nature, which also
failed to describe a God. The fourth Way
is Degree. Degree is a metaphysical
argument about “the hierarchy of souls,” (p. 228) meaning that everything that
is living belongs in a linear progression from smallest to largest, from the
smallest life form through the angels and up to God (p. 228). The final Way,
the fifth Way, can be described as the “Intelligent Design” argument that we
already know from conservatives in the United States. This Way discusses how humanity is so complex
and unknown that we needed to be created from something with a higher
intelligence (p. 230).
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) argued that because there is a
belief in God, a God must exist (p. 262-263).
One cannot think up a higher power without an actual higher power giving
them the thought. He goes on to say,
“(A)lthough it may be the case that one idea gives birth to another idea, that
cannot continue to do so indefinitely.” (p. 262) Descartes rejected the Five
Ways provided by Thomas Aquinas because he felt like one cannot simplify God
into a series of arguments about how the physical realm can prove (or disprove)
God’s existence. Indeed, Descartes
argues that we cannot quantify God into anything other than thought. The mere fact that we can think about a higher
power means that a higher power must exist, according to him.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) believed himself to be the
first person to know that God is dead.
What he meant by this is that faith should be replaced with scientific
knowledge, because “authentic faith in God is not possible in the modern
world.” (p. 468-469) Nietzsche believed that religion was dying out and
eventually would be replaced with science. He believed Darwin’s theory of
evolution and spoke of Copernicus and Galileo as having changed the path of
religion towards scientific discovery.
Nietzsche argued that “the universe lacks objective meaning and purpose.”
(p. 470)
Rabbi Chana Johnson believes in God and believes that there
is no way to empirically prove that God exists or doesn’t exist. “God is in
everything,” she stated. While she believes that the scholars were attempting
to quantify a metaphysical reality, she believes that God can only be felt
within, not quantified with science. “Science and religion could exist
peacefully if they’d both realize that there are gaps in each that can only be
answered by the other.”
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy published an article by
C. Stephen Evans listing the five most common arguments for morality or worth
in their article. Evans referenced
philosophers throughout history who argued that morality cannot exist without a
higher power, such as Imannuel Kant, Robert Adams, and Richard Swinberg. The
last philosopher stated that if a deity exists at all, “(God has) significant
reason to bring about conscious beings with moral awareness.” (p. 7) Indeed “If
God exists, God is the reason why there is a natural world and the reason for
the existence of the causal processed of the natural world.” (p. 8)
I personally do not think that God can be quantified, and I
am not a fan of “Intelligent Design” as an argument. I think that Thomas
Aquinas and Rene Descartes were trying to scientifically prove a theological
argument that has no scientific proof.
While I agree with Aquinas, Descartes, and Rabbi Johnson that God is
real, and disagree with Nietzsche that God is dead, my only proof cannot be
pulled out and empirically evaluated. It exists in a realm that science cannot
define or sense. That is how I
approached the scholarly article. For me, I personally agree with the scholarly
article when it says, “If God exists at all, God is not an entity within the
natural world but the creator of that natural world, with all of its causal
processes.” (p. 8) That sums up my own view.
In Conclusion, there is more than one way to approach the
idea of whether God exists. Some philosophers, like Rene Descartes and Thomas
Aquinas, who proclaimed that God does exist without a shadow of a doubt. While
others, such as Friedrich Nietzsche would argue against the idea of the
existence of God. Others around them are also important to helping understand
of whether God exists. Philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes, and
modern philosophers like Robert Adams and Erik Wielenberg all want to
empirically prove the existence of a being we cannot see, hear, taste, or touch
using scientific thought. Still others,
such as Friedrich Nietzsche will claim God does not exist. I personally prefer
to believe in God, no matter the consequences.
Word Count:
1,083
References
Soccio, Douglas J. Archetypes
of Wisdom (9th edition). Cengage Learning. 2016
Johnson, Chana. Personal Interview. 21 November 2018
Evans, C. Stephen, "Moral
Arguments for the Existence of God", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018
Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/moral-arguments-god/>.
Grade: 35/35
Professor Comments: Good summation on the chosen theme.
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