Is_God_Real_or_a_Myth

Erika Edwards December 19, 2010 PHI-103 Intro to Philosophy and Ethics Is God Real or a Myth How do we know God Exists, or if in fact he truly exists' What proof is out there to help guide us to the truth' Is it just by faith or is it by senses that let us know if something is concrete or not. If one did a survey of this question what would be the results' Before I took philosophy my answer would be that the majority of people would answer, God is real. Now, I honestly don’t know what the top answer would be. It is astounding to learn that not everyone believes in God. The numerous worldviews I’ve learned about, remarkably illustrate the chaos that we hear occurring in this world. There are groups that believe God exist and there are groups who believe there is no God; they claim he is a myth, made up by humans. So are they trying to say God is made up like Santa Clause' This is funny because I see Old St Nick at the mall once a year and still conclude that he is a fictional character. True, he looks real, he can even talk to me, but he is just a man impersonating the made up character of Christmas. My proof that he doesn’t exist came to me as a child, when I learned that it was my parents who in fact supplied the gifts that I once thought was provided by Santa. This illustration does not apply to God, He is a matter of faith and other reasons I’ll show later. Other groups hold on to their beliefs of God as well, each claiming that they have proof to their claims. In this essay I will identify the defensibility and validity of God with Naturalism and Rationalism. “Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving: that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms,” quoted by Bertrand Russell (Nash 1999). Naturalists believe that the physical universe is all that the world is made of, a world that consist of only matter. In their attempt to deny the existence of God, naturalists argue that the world came into existence by cause. How is this possible' Nash argues this by asking, how can uncaused universes exists from nothing (Nash 1999)' Early naturalists like Domocritus summed it up in two words; atoms and the void (Nash 1999). He proposed that the basic building blocks of the universe are atoms which move haphazardly through empty space. They have no properties and characteristics and only differ in size or shape, never in quality. They just move about colliding into each other at times producing the many different things that we see in our world. When the atoms breakup the thing they once made ceases to exists, leaving individual atoms to exist forever (Nash 1999). Naturalist believing that the physical universe is the sum total of all that is, brings them to the belief that divine creation of the universe is false by definition (Nash 1999). Believing that everything that happens is caused by what exist in the natural world and not the supernatural world, point blank says God does not exists. “Sense of Deity inscribed in the hearts of all” (John Calvin). Nash States that reformed theologian John Calvin held that God has implanted in us a tendency to accept belief in God under certain conditions (Nash 1999). This brings us to rationalism, which believes that not all human knowledge comes from senses. I want to point out Rene’ Descartes view on rationalism. After doing further investigation, I learned that he encouraged everyone to accept nothing until we learn the truth (The World Book Encyclopedia pg, 130). This can be done by breaking down the problem into smaller units to make it simple to see its self-evident truth. Descartes believed the starting point of our investigation was in our own existence. From this line of reasoning he proved the existence of God, arguing that our mind cannot give us the idea of a perfect being. Why, because God is the only perfect being who can give humans a perfect idea and perfect cause' Proving the existence of a physical world is due to a good God who wouldn’t allow us to believe false existence (The World Book Encyclopedia pg, 130). A genuine rationalist believes there are reliable intellectual intuitions that are not dependent on prior sense experience. Take for instance our existence; this is just one example of intellectual intuition. If one exists surely there can be others. Rationalist views are constructed by arguing the cases through content, and concepts that are bigger than senses, next we need to explain how reason provides the information as proof. Christians believe God created the world making humans able to attain knowledge of his creation. God endowed our minds with the ability to attain knowledge and communicate information about him in our language. Nicholas Wolterstorff explains by way of Thomas Reid’s thoughts that somewhere in the history of humans certain belief dispositions are found which were endowed by our creator. They belong to our human nature, we come with them, and they are innate in us (Nash 1999). . Learning of these different views has taught me that we may believe in something even though we don’t have proof of it. Whether it is a child believing in Santa Clause or a rationalist believing in the existence of God, there is something that binds us to these beliefs. Proof is always good to have; this is my opinion on the matter. It may not be an obvious answer, we may have to look around, observe and analyze the situation. Regardless there are ways to come to an answer or link that shows us we are either wrong or right. Some people may disagree with how I look at it, and it’s ok, only time will tell who was on the right path. References Nash, R. H. (1999). Life's Ultimate Questions. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. The World Book Encyclopedia, F volume 7, copyright, 1965, U.S.A. By FIELD ENTERPRISES EDUCATIONAL CORPORATION