Why do you believe in God?

[McCulloch]

The arguments for believing that there is a God can be categorized as follows:

1. Four Classical Arguments
2. The Argument from First Cause
   1. Everything must have a cause
   2. Causal Chains cannot go on forever
   3. Therefore there must be a first cause, and that is God.
3. The Argument from Design
   1. Something in the universe or the universe itself seems to be designed
   2. Therefore a designer must exist and that is God
4. The Argument from the Anthropic Principle
   1. The universal constants are fine tuned for the existence of humans.
   2. Therefore there must have been a God to fine tune the universe for our existence
5. The Ontological Argument
   1. God is a being than which nothing greater can be conceived.
   2. Assume that God does not exist.
   3. An existent God is a being greater than a non-existent one
   4. If God did not exist, then we could conceive of a being greater than God -- A God that exists.
   5. This is a contradiction, therefore (2) must be false and God exists
   Courtesy of Saint Anselm.

1. Four Subjective Arguments
2. The Argument from Coincidence
   1. There have been some remarkable coincidences.
   2. There must be a reason for those coincidences.
   3. That reason is God.
3. The Argument from Prophecy
   1. A holy book makes prophesies.
   2. A holy book or the adherents of it report that those prophesies have come true.
   3. Therefore whatever else is in the book, such as the claim that God exists must be true.
4. The Argument from Subjectivity and Faith
   1. People feel sure that God exists.
   2. Therefore God exists.
5. The Argument from Divine Interventions, Miracles and such
   1. A miracle occurs, perhaps as a response to prayer.
   2. God exists as evidenced by the divine intervention

1. Four Psycho-Mathematical Arguments
2. The Argument from Redefinition
   1. God is Love or Goodness or some other such thing.
   2. Love, goodness or whatever, clearly exists.
   3. Therefore God exists.
3. The Argument from Cognitive Tendency
   1. Some cognitive tendencies suggest the existence of an all-powerful agent.
   2. God must be that all-powerful agent
4. The Universality Argument and Morality
   1. Across cultures, the similarities in moral values are quite apparent.
   2. They must come from God
5. The Gambling Argument
   1. We can choose to believe or not in God.
   2. If we choose wrongly then negative consequences of choosing to disbelieve are greater than the negative consequences of choosing to believe.
   3. Therefore it is prudent to believe.

The classifications and much of the synopses are from John Allen Paulos, Professor of Mathematics at Temple University, in his book Irreligion, A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up As fallacious as these might seem, these seriously are the arguments put forth by philosophers, theologians, saints, apologists and preachers.

These are the arguments for God. There are numerous subtle variations on them, but essentially, as far as I can tell those who claim that God exists do so based on one or more of these arguments and nothing else.

Why should I believe that there is a God? What are your reasons? Are any of these reasons valid? If your reasons do not fall into any of the above groupings, please let us know why you believe. If you believe for a combination of these reasons, select the strongest one and explain why.

[Goat]

Oh olavisjo, I'm not here to proselytise, I want to actually discuss something in a meaningful fashion.

As an aside, if Big Bang sounds to you like Genesis 1:1, you must have skipped all the bits on primordial elements, cosmic microwave background radiation, galactic evolution, redshift, Hubble's law and expansion of space, FLRW metric and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovi effect.

Happy reading!

Would you be so kind as to explain how any of those things support a universe that came into existence without a God creating it.

Do you know where the singularity came from?? For that matter, do you know what the singularity is? How do you know that the singularity from which the universe expanded "was created', and 'not eternal'?

[olavisjo]

Do you know where the singularity came from?? For that matter, do you know what the singularity is? How do you know that the singularity from which the universe expanded "was created', and 'not eternal'?

The singularity had a life time of less than a second, eternal things tend to last a little longer. The original singularity was a point containing all the matter and energy that became our known and unknown universe. But, since the law of gravity had not yet been ratified it exploded and expanded.

[Goat]

Do you know where the singularity came from?? For that matter, do you know what the singularity is? How do you know that the singularity from which the universe expanded "was created', and 'not eternal'?

The singularity had a life time of less than a second, eternal things tend to last a little longer. The original singularity was a point containing all the matter and energy that became our known and unknown universe. But, since the law of gravity had not yet been ratified it exploded and expanded.

and how do you know that? We do not understand the expansion from anything beyond 10 ^ -43 seconds after the expansion started, but 'I don't know' doesn't mean it came into existence at that time.

"I don't know" doesn't mean 'God did it"

[olavisjo]

and how do you know that? We do not understand the expansion from anything beyond 10 ^ -43 seconds after the expansion started, but 'I don't know' doesn't mean it came into existence at that time.

"I don't know" doesn't mean 'God did it"

I am sure that before that time it was not just sitting around twiddling its thumbs. 'Somethingdidit', you connect the dots.

[Goat]

and how do you know that? We do not understand the expansion from anything beyond 10 ^ -43 seconds after the expansion started, but 'I don't know' doesn't mean it came into existence at that time.

"I don't know" doesn't mean 'God did it"

I am sure that before that time it was not just sitting around twiddling its thumbs. 'Somethingdidit', you connect the dots.

I don't know doesn't mean that "something did it'. It just means it might have existed in a different form.

[olavisjo]

I don't know doesn't mean that "something did it'. It just means it might have existed in a different form.

That is a big 'might have', are we grasping at straws? Science and religion are both against you, if you go that way.

[Goat]

I don't know doesn't mean that "something did it'. It just means it might have existed in a different form.

That is a big 'might have', are we grasping at straws? Science and religion are both against you, if you go that way.

No, science is not against me.. since science will acknowledge that before planck time, it's one big 'we do not have the math to accurately describe the situation. They will acknowledge that it goes at that point to 'I don't know'

We do know that the universe has to be either expanding or contracting. Some theorize that our 'universe' started when the previous condition went from contracting to expanding. Me, I don't know.

[Fallibleone]

I am probably just totally backward, but why on earth is 'I don't know' considered such an inadequate answer to some of the big questions by believers? I just don't get it. What is the rush to fill the 'I don't know' hole with some explanation? There are plenty of questions, the answers to which I will never know. Other questions I may be able to answer in the future. I can live with that.

[Pazuzu bin Hanbi]

Because if a prophet came with the revelations of the one and only true god then he would have all the answers since god created and knows everything. Any doubt automatically disqualifies the prophet from having a divine connection, hence why people have to fill all gaps with Goddidit.

[OnceConvinced]

So far since leaving the faith I have found that I do and that things are getting better all the time.

I suppose that is one way to get Satan of your case.

Difficulties are still there. Life is full of them. I also feel the same condemning and negative attacks I once attributed to the devil. Life is tough. There's no need to attribute anything to an imaginery evil being though.

No, I don't see any need for adopting new theologies. There's no need to accept any particular philosophies.

Convince yourself. We need answers to the 'why' questions more than the who, what, where when.

I have no need to try to convince myself of anything, because I am no longer a Christian. Not every human being needs answers. You may need them, but don't try to project your needs onto others. Answers would be nice, but are not necessary to live a fulfilling life. I suggest you do a study on personality types and you will see everyone is different and that we definitely don't all have the same values, wants and needs.

He is calling you right now, he asked you to read Luke 15.

No he is not calling me right now. That was YOU asking me to read Luke 15 and you are not God. I don't even recognise you as one of God's spokespeople. If God really wanted me to read that I'm sure he would have laid it on my heart. Should I accept your word that you are a representative of God, just because you say so? Would you believe everything another Christian told you?

Wishful thinking on your part, Olavisjo.

By the way, I am very familiar with the story of the Prodical Son. I have read it and studied it many times over the years.

God did his part, you have been sustained. I think that you may have missed some of the fine print, God is the Lord, you are the servant.

Once again wishful thinking on your part, but you have not been part of my life so you can't claim to know whether he's done his part of not. I know the fine print, I was a loyal servant of his for many years.