Philosophy 102: Exposition - Literature Survey: Does God Exist?

This essay, written for a Philosophy 102 course, undertakes a literature survey on the question of God's existence. It examines various philosophical arguments, including the ontological, cosmological, and design arguments, as well as the viewpoints of key figures such as David Hume, Nietzsche, St. Anselm, and Gottfried Leibniz. The essay explores the historical context of these arguments, contrasting the views of theists and atheists/agnostics. It also addresses the Cartesian dualism and the concept of consciousness. The author concludes that the arguments in favor of God's existence are sufficiently convincing, providing a comprehensive overview of the ongoing debate and its diverse perspectives.

Running head: EXPOSITION: LITERATURE SURVEY 1
Philosophy 102: Does God Exist?
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Does God exist?
The existence of God is a debate that has continued to intrigue scholars and philosophers
for over centuries. The attempt to establish and prove the existence of God has been going on
since ages, and philosophers have developed several arguments to support their views. It is not
necessary that the contributions have been made only by Christian philosophers, for both the
Muslim and the Jewish have also explained various theories pertaining to it (Philosophy of
religion, 2010). Recently, the classical theistic arguments have been revived and further refined,
which has added to the refreshing outlook and revised form of this subject. This has added a
whole new angle to how the matter is perceived, and it can be said with a certain amount of
emphasis that there are proofs that validate the existence of God. The following essay holds the
notion that yes, God exists.
The question whether God exists or not is a rather fascinating one, probably because it
gives rise to many more questions in return. These questions deal with the proof that support the
claim, or the arguments that validate that there isn’t one. The existence of God has been
questioned by many philosophers over the past many centuries. They have wondered whether it
is something that can be defended with evidence, or if it is something that is based wholly on
human faith and understanding, devoid of any real, palpable logic. There are several arguments,
which are philosophical in nature, that corroborate the belief that God does exist.
David Hume is one of the philosophers who can be said to be an atheist, as believed by
his contemporaries. Nietzsche is also famous for making the statement “God is dead”, which
shook the very foundations of deeply religious Europe during his time. Hume can be said to be a
skeptic who valued human reasoning and stressed that it must not surpass itself (Strawson,
2014). Although he may not be strictly called an atheist, he can perhaps be classified as an

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agnostic, since his argument is applicable to those who believe in God as well as those who do
not. Nietzsche, on the other hand, was a philosopher who was deeply afraid of nihilism, and was
an atheist for a greater part of his life. As stated by Stauffer and Bergo (2008), this was quite
possibly due to the fact that philosophy had shown to him, that there need not be any divine
entity for the legitimate governance of everything on this earth.
The classic argument or ontological that God must exist if the notion of an all-perfect
being is true can be mentioned here. St Anselm had first articulated this in 1070 AD, where he
had explained that there has to be something or someone, who is greater than anything else and is
above all (Nagasawa, 2011). His logic was, that if this “someone” was merely an idea just in our
minds and not in reality, then it would be not as perfect as it would be if it truly did exist. The
Cosmological argument is also one that philosophers often use to validate the existence of God.
They believe that there must have been something that had helped the Universe to come into
being, and they also support the argument that every event has a cause that makes it happen, and
this chain of events or causes is infinite, which is not possible (Holder, 2017). Therefore, there
needs to a cause that is unconditioned, which only points their belief to the fact that there is a
supreme power or a God that exists.
Gottfried Leibniz argued that there is a reason for the existence of everything, and that
there must be something out there rather than “nothing”. He believed that nothing could exist
without a necessity, and no statement would be true if it did not have a reason behind it (Griffin,
2013). Even the Design Argument further states that the universe and the numerous miraculous
phenomena that occur in it are an indication that there is a being of greater intelligence that exists
and controls it (Craig, 2008), whom the philosophers have chosen to call God.

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There might be no working theory pertaining to consciousness, but this has led to the
development of the Cartesian dualism, which states our inability to decipher or understand it. It
stresses the two types of substances – the material and the mental (Mehta, 2011). Using this
argument, theists have often articulated that a realm that is distinct and independent from the
physical world does exist, and they have utilized it to infer and support the validity of an
immaterial entity, which is God. Therefore, it can be said that God as an entity does exist, since
the theories and arguments put forward in its favor are sufficiently convincing.

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References
Craig, W. L. (2008). God Is Not Dead Yet. Christianity Today, 52(7), 22.
Griffin, M. V. (2013). Leibniz, God and necessity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Holder, R. D. (2017). God, the multiverse, and everything: Modern cosmology and the argument
from design. New York: Routledge.
Mehta, N. (2011). Mind-body dualism: A critique from a health perspective. Mens Sana
Monographs, 9(1), 202.
Nagasawa, Y. (2011). The existence of God: A philosophical introduction. New York: Routledge.
Philosophy of religion. (2010). Arguments for the existence of God. Retrieved from
http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/theistic-proofs/
Stauffer, J., & Bergo, B. (Eds.). (2008). Nietzsche and Levinas: "After the Death of a Certain
God". New York: Columbia University Press.
Strawson, G. (2014). The Secret Connexion: Causation, Realism, and David Hume: Revised
Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.