PHIL107 Philosophy of Religion: Essay on God's Existence Debate

This essay delves into the philosophical debate surrounding the existence of God, a central topic within the philosophy of religion. The introduction defines the field, emphasizing the analysis of religious concepts and arguments. The main body explores the ontological arguments in favor of God's existence, highlighting the belief in a divine presence that provides positivity and motivation. Arguments are presented to support the existence of God, based on the belief that God exists and is a perfect being. The essay also acknowledges arguments from design. The conclusion summarizes the strength of the ontological arguments and affirms the validity of God's existence, based on faith and the perception of a divine influence in the world, ultimately concluding that arguments in favor of God's existence are stronger. The essay references various philosophical texts and journals, supporting its arguments with scholarly sources.

PHILOSOPHY OF
WORLD
RELIGIONS

1

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................7
2

INTRODUCTION
Philosophy of religion is basically seen as the philosophical study which clearly defines
the nature as well as the meaning of the religion in detailed manner. This simply includes
analysis of religious arguments, terms, practices, concept, belief etc. Philosophy of religion
simply emphasises on the thought of the religious concerns and issues without concerning about
the act of faith (Harrison, 2018). It simply plays an essential role in supporting individuals about
developing their understanding several religions and how they are differentiated in terms of
tradition and alternatives. It is also popular in overlapping interest determined in philosophical
and religious traditions. The present essay discusses about the existence of god in which many
arguments are placed some are in the favour and others are shown in against.
MAIN BODY
Existence of god is considered as the most debatable topic in the philosophy of religion.
This is also highly popular in the culture too. It has been seen that many of the people have
expressed their statement in the favour as well as against of this topic. In the philosophy of
religion the people who have given statements as well as justification in the favour that means
according to them god do exists are basically falls under ontological arguments (Cross, 2018).
On the other hand a person who have expressed negative response towards the same that means
according to them it is not at all true as per their own experience god does not exists. Arguments
which are placed in the against of existence of god is termed as argument from design. This is
also called as the teleological argument.
The chosen topics highly debatable as lots of people have presented views in its favour
and against. Here, the main focus is placed on the favourers’ side of existence of god as it is
believed that god do exists in our surrounding which provides us positivity and also motivate us
to live our life effectively with prosperity (Alston, 2019). In order to support this many
ontological statements have been expressed in the detailed manner On the other hand, few
arguments are also given on the against side which was represented with the argument from
design.
The first and foremost ontological argument placed on the existence of god clearly states
that if there is the god than their existence is necessarily important and valid. This can be well
supported with the illustration given through the number of six. It has been analysed that six is
3

the smallest perfect number which is not at sort of thing which is just conceived as the truth. It
can be said that if individuals believes that number six exists and is also taken by them as the
perfect number then the same individual is also required to believe that god do exist in their life
(Fuenmayor and Benzmüller, 2018). Existence of god is formerly conceived by the people of
different culture in different manner. here, the faith in god provides major contribution of the
people in proving that existence of god is highly valid and true. In order to support this, another
one has given the old philosophical percept which clearly defines that the fact which depicts that
the something exist clearly shows that possibility of its existence is higher. A related principle is
that evidence that something exists is evidence that it is possible that such a thing exists.
Apart from this, it has been later analysed that if individual is successfully believing that
the god do exist in the surrounding then the feeling of the same person enhances their faith in the
god which motivates them to accept their perception as the truth (Oppy, 2019). Overall the cases
have been seen in the favour of this statement but it has also been analysed that the people have
opposed the same statement in order to express their denial towards the same. The first objection
made towards the ontological argument is that it simply raises questions begging towards the
nature and also creates question mark on the god and its existence. One can entertain the
existence of unicorns and their necessary features (that necessarily if there were unicorns, there
would exist single-horned beasts) without believing that there are unicorns (Silvestre, 2018). By
considering this, it can be said that the logics presented in ontological arguments are highly true
and valid. This clearly states that existence of god is very true.
In addition to this, some other ontological arguments placed by other author in terms of
philosophy of religion clearly specify that god’s existence is highly true. Supportive statement
given by different authors has been expressed one after another. The first one among them states
that god is being considered as the perfection (Sober, 2018). This simply states that if perfection
exists in the society and it do state that god also exists in the same world. Another one among
have stated that god is consisted as the non contingent being which simply means that either it is
not possible that God exists, or it is necessary that God exists. This simply specifies that
necessarily existence of god is true as God exist.
Here, another individual have expressed that the person itself exists then there is higher
probability that the god too exist. According to this person who has presented ontological
argument clearly specifies that if anything in the world exists then it simply provides the
4

justification that god do exist towards the same (Meyer, 2019). According to the presenter, it can
be said that god is available in every living and non living thing. Thus, if anyone watches
anything or something in their surrounding then they must not bring question mark towards the
existence of god in their mind.
Another one have specified that if individual himself exist in the world then it surely
specifies that God too exist. Also, it has been later seen that whole world is determined as the
property of the god which states that everything in the world is developed by the god and cannot
run without the support of the god (Walls and Dougherty, 2018). In order to support the same, it
has been determined that existence of the god’s property clearly justifies the existence of the god.
The God-properties include necessary existence, necessary omnipotence, necessary omniscience,
and necessary perfect goodness. Hence, there is a necessarily existent, necessarily omnipotent,
necessarily omniscient, and necessarily perfectly good being (namely, God).
On the basis of overall information presented, it can be said that existence of God is
acknowledged as the most emerging topic over which many philosopher have presented their
view point. Some among them thinks that it is highly true that God exists the surrounding
whereas another’s have denied to the same as according to them it is not at all true. The strong
point over which Ontological argument were placed was the existence of the humans, things,
property of the god whereas the arguments which were placed from the argument from design
specifies that god do not even exists in the society as no one has seen god this clearly specifies
that if no one has seen such creature then how it could exist in the society (Lancaster‐Thomas,
2018).
The overall arguments made have been clearly specified and analyzed in detailed manner.
from the overall evaluation it has been analysed that ontological arguments are highly stronger as
people in the society as well as society do believes that god exists as people have faith in it and
surely believes that existence of god is the only thing which influences motivates them and bring
positivity in their life (Lascano, 2019). It also supports them in living the better life.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of overall information made on the current chosen topic, it has been
analysed that arguments placed in favour of existence of god are highly stronger. The study have
also revealed that every topic has its two side among them few people provides their support in
the favour whereas others among them places their support in the against of it. Here, it has been
5

later determined that god is being the one which owes perfection. This simply means that
existence of god can be seen in the perfection. Also, the ontological arguments placed by
individual are stronger as compared to the one who have given arguments from design. From
this, it is being concluded that existence of god is valid.
6

REFERENCE
Books and Journal
Harrison, J., 2018. God, Freedom and Immortality. Routledge.
Clack, B. and Clack, B.R., 2019. The philosophy of religion: A critical introduction. John Wiley
& Sons.
Cross, R., 2018. Duns Scotus on God. Routledge.
Alston, W.P., 2019. Divine nature and human language: Essays in philosophical theology.
Cornell University Press.
Fuenmayor, D. and Benzmüller, C., 2018. A Case Study On Computational Hermeneutics: EJ
Lowe's Modal Ontological Argument. IfCoLog Journal of Logics and Their
Applications, 5(7), pp.1567-1603.
Oppy, G., 2019. Ontological arguments. The Philosophers' Magazine, (86), pp.66-73.
Silvestre, R., 2018. A Brief Critical Introduction to the Ontological Argument and its
Formalization: Anselm, Gaunilo, Descartes, Leibniz and Kant.
Sober, E., 2018. The design argument. Cambridge University Press.
Meyer, S.C., 2019. Return of the God Hypothesis. HarperCollins Publishers.
Walls, J. and Dougherty, T. eds., 2018. Two dozen (or so) arguments for God: The Plantinga
Project. Oxford University Press.
Lancaster‐Thomas, A., 2018. The E vil‐god challenge part I: History and recent
developments. Philosophy Compass, 13(7), p.e12502.
Lascano, M.P., 2019. Early Modern Women on the Cosmological Argument: A Case Study in
Feminist History of Philosophy.
7