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.

[OnceConvinced]

Where is my blind spot?

To begin with, admitting this:

Science isn't my best subject,

You will now be "enlightened" to the wonderful and logical world of science and how "factual" it is...in spite of the holes in the many theories...

Aren't people who admit their shortcomings and actually want to learn something and seek out knowledge wonderful!

Amen to that. Cog12 shows himself as being honest and with integrity and will gain respect because of it. What is disrespectful is trying to make out you know it all and trying to bluff your way through a debate. Some seem to think that is a virtue.

[twobitsmedia]

And when a Christian cannot come up with an explanation for something they say "Goddidit".

I can see why you gave up "Christianity." If that was my response for no explanation, I would give it up also.

[twobitsmedia]

Where is my blind spot?

To begin with, admitting this:

Science isn't my best subject,

You will now be "enlightened" to the wonderful and logical world of science and how "factual" it is...in spite of the holes in the many theories...

Aren't people who admit their shortcomings and actually want to learn something and seek out knowledge wonderful!

I will let you know when if and when the wonderful knowledge starts coming.

[OnceConvinced]

And when a Christian cannot come up with an explanation for something they say "Goddidit".

I can see why you gave up "Christianity." If that was my response for no explanation, I would give it up also.

Why would that make me give up? My beliefs about what God did do (mistaken or otherwise) has nothing to do with it. The main reasons for me leaving the faith was what God didn't do that he claimed he would do.

[twobitsmedia]

And when a Christian cannot come up with an explanation for something they say "Goddidit".

I can see why you gave up "Christianity." If that was my response for no explanation, I would give it up also.

Why would that make me give up? My beliefs about what God does or has done has nothing to do with it. The main reasons for me leaving the faith was what God doesn't and didn't do.

So, having no explanation for things wasn't a problem with you. I will not argue that point either. It is not something I take comfort in.

[OnceConvinced]

And when a Christian cannot come up with an explanation for something they say "Goddidit".

I can see why you gave up "Christianity." If that was my response for no explanation, I would give it up also.

Why would that make me give up? My beliefs about what God does or has done has nothing to do with it. The main reasons for me leaving the faith was what God doesn't and didn't do.

So, having no explanation for things wasn't a problem with you. I will not argue that point either. It is not something I take comfort in.

Damn, I did it again trying to edit things at the last moment. I wish I wasn't in such a rush to hit "submit" all the time.

"Goddidit" was an explanation of things I made from time to time, with things that didn't really matter. However when it came to things that really mattered, I didn't just jump to that conclusion. I had to be certain in my own mind. There are so many mysteries, particularly when it comes to creation and most of them don't really matter in the scheme of things. They're not going to be the things that turn your faith. eg the story of Noahs ark. Who cares if it really happened or not? My faith didn't revolve around stuff like that.

[daedalus 2.0]

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.

I like all those reasons, but I am not sure which category my main reason falls under.

You seem to have two arguments here:

Basically it is this... Assume that there exists a God who is to the universe what a computer programmer is to a computer program. How could you refute such an assumption? And what would the world be like if that was true? And what would God be trying to do?

This is argument by naked assertion: "assume there is a god"? That is a fallacy: it begs the question of whether a god exists or not. You have bypassed the argument for god and moved right to "what would a universe with god as designer look like?"

That is, where did you get the idea that a god existed in the first place for you to make assumptions taht it existed in the first place?

Just as I owe a loyalty to Queen Elizabeth II, I feel that I owe a loyalty to my God who may or may not exist, and I have found that there is enough evidence in my life to believe that he truly does exist, and he takes care of me. It is just the right thing to do. If I am wrong I will not lose anything in this life, as I have seen how non-believers live and my life is far more satisfying than theirs, even if all in my life is a delusion. A good delusion beats a bad reality any day.

This is a variation of Pascal's Wager - which has been refuted.

Our world is the crucible where God creates people that will love him and fellowship with him for eternity. It works for me.

Naked assertion. It assumes you already know the answer to the question we are trying to figure out.

Bob: Does Joe have a car?
Olav: Lets assume Joe has a Ford, what kind of Ford would it be? What would we expect to see if Joe had a Ford? We sure should like Joe's Ford, if we assume it exists, because it would be nice.
Bob: So.... uh... did that answer my question?
Olav: Well, it certainly beats believing that Joe DOESN'T have a car!

[olavisjo]

Basically it is this... Assume that there exists a God who is to the universe what a computer programmer is to a computer program. How could you refute such an assumption? And what would the world be like if that was true? And what would God be trying to do?

This is argument by naked assertion: "assume there is a god"? That is a fallacy: it begs the question of whether a god exists or not. You have bypassed the argument for god and moved right to "what would a universe with god as designer look like?"

That is, where did you get the idea that a god existed in the first place for you to make assumptions that it existed in the first place?

Okay, you can go the other way if you prefer, "assume there is NOT a god"? and then ask "what would a universe WITHOUT god as designer look like?"

1 In the beginning nothing created nothing.

2 And nothing was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the nothing. And nothing moved upon the face of the nothing.

3 And nothing said, Let there be light: and there was no light.

If there were no God, would there be a Daedalus?
Take a close look at that lovely train of though running through your head at this very moment, do you think that the machine in front of you will ever be able to feel this way about itself? Do you think that you will one day start pounding those keys on that keyboard and the machine will say "hey, Daedalus, take it easy, I am not in a mood to do word processing now, I had a rough night"?
You are the best evidence that there is a God.
You are therefore God is.

[olavisjo]

Sorry to hear about your probation, if you wrote the xxxx word with xxxx's then it was a bum wrap, but if you used the real letters, then you deserved it, you know better.

[Thought Criminal]

Okay, you can go the other way if you prefer, "assume there is NOT a god"? and then ask "what would a universe WITHOUT god as designer look like?"

It would look precisely as it does today. There is nothing in the world that is evidence of the existence of God.

Take a close look at that lovely train of though running through your head at this very moment, do you think that the machine in front of you will ever be able to feel this way about itself? Do you think that you will one day start pounding those keys on that keyboard and the machine will say "hey, Daedalus, take it easy, I am not in a mood to do word processing now, I had a rough night"?
You are the best evidence that there is a God.
You are therefore God is.

It's hardly clear what your argument is here. Are you suggesting that the evolution of consciousness is evidence of God? If not, then what are you saying?

TC