Arguments about the Existence of God

Abstract

Historically many people (religious and non-religious) have believed in the existence of God. Or, if not God, they have believed in an Ultimate Reality of some sort that transcends the material universe. Even with the incredible advances of science and technology over the past few hundred years, there is still widespread belief in the existence of a transcendent reality. In fact, recent advances in science—most notably in physics and cosmology—have infused new life into this ancient topic. Traditional arguments for the existence of God have been rethought, and some of them have evolved from antiquated relics to contemporary defenses of the rationality of belief in God. In this chapter, two of these arguments will be explored. But it is not only arguments for the existence of God that have experienced revival; arguments against the reasonableness of belief in a transcendent reality, in particular the God of theism, are also on the rise. To one of these arguments—the argument from evil—an entire chapter in this book has been devoted. Two additional arguments will be examined in this chapter.