The Existence of God

Scaling the Secular City

From Amazon Darwin's black box

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psa 19:1

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Rom 1:20

Contents:

Books
Natural theology vs Revealed theology
Scientific Arguments:
Anthropic Principle
Kalam cosmological argument:
Anselm's Ontological Argument
Thomas Aquinas
Pascal's Wager
Design The Teleological argument. (Paley)
Atheism (argument from evil)
Revelation of God in History - revealed theology
Miscellaneous

Books:

  1. God : The Evidence : The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in a Post-Secular World by Patrick Glynn. Written by an ex-atheist it deals with the Anthropic Principle, Near death experience and more, I found him very readable.
  2. God, Reason and Theistic Proofs (Reason and Religion) by Stephen T. Davis - this is a good primer on theistic proofs: ontological argument, cosmological argument, design argument, Kalaam cosmological argument, Pascals wager...
  3. The Creator and the Cosmos : How the Greatest Scientific Discoveries of the Century Reveal God by Hugh, Ph.D. Ross. One of the more readable accounts of the big bang and the Anthropic Principle.
  4. The Case for Faith : A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity by Lee Strobel. Very readable.
  5. Is There a God? by Richard Swinburne
  6. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Baker Reference Library) by Norman L. Geisler. This summarises many of the arguments made by the various philosophers and theologians, highly recommended for beginner to intermediate level.
  7. Beyond Death : Exploring the Evidence for Immortality by Gary R. Habermas, James Porter Moreland
  8. Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology by William Lane Craig, Quentin Smith
  9. Does God Exist? : The Debate Between Theists & Atheists by James Porter Moreland, Kai Nielsen (Contributor)
  10. Scaling the Secular City : A Defense of Christianity by J. P. Moreland
  11. The Existence and Attributes of God by Stephen Charnock
  12. The Existence of God by Richard. Swinburne
  13. Reasonable Faith : Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig
  14. Does God Exist? : An Answer for Today by Hans Kung, Edward Quinn (Translator)
  15. Does God Exist? Science Says Yes! by Alan Hayward
  16. Atheism : The Case Against God by George H. Smith
  17. Atheist Debater's Handbook by B. C. Johnson
  18. Atheism : A Philosophical Justification by Michael Martin
  19. The Miracle of Theism : Arguments for and Against the Existence of God by John L. MacKie
  20. Not a Chance : The Myth of Chance in Modern Science and Cosmology by R. C., Jr. Sproul. Not a Chance is Sproul at his best, which is very good. Reference to chance explains nothing, as he shows. But it is an essential factor in the struggles of atheism to appear rational in the face of the world where we live. He shows secularism to be what it now is: a desperate faith
  21. Natural Theology ; Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. Collected from the Appearances of Nature. by William Paley
  22. Darwin's Black Box by Michael Behe is a modern equivalent to Paley.
  23. On the Nature and Existence of God by Richard M. Gale

Natural theology links:

"Natural theology is the attempt to reach sound conclusions about (among other things) the existence of God based on human reasoning alone..." "It is to be contrasted with revealed theology..." Stephen T Davis in God, Reason and Theistic Proofs

Checked May 00

Introductory

  1. Does God Exist? By Justin Taylor
  2. The Existence of God from Evidences of the Christian Faith by Dave Greear
  3. The Existence of God an excellent overview from the Catholic Encyclopedia
  4. Does God Exist? - this covers most of these arguments in more detail
  5. Christian Philosophy Made Simple
  6. Proofs For And Against The Existence of God
  7. Medieval Proofs for the Existence of God Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas
  8. Proof for the Existence of God
  9. A few thoughts on the debate about God's existence
  10. Can Human Reason Lead Us to Believe in the Existence of God?
  11. Philosophy of Religion useful site

Scientific Arguments: Modern science has given us a universe with a beginning and designed for man.

  • The big bang theory of the universe means that the universe had a beginning, and it therefore requires a cause, see Kalam cosmological argument:
  • The fine-tuned nature of the physical constants suggest suggest that the universe was designed for intelligent life, see Anthropic Principle
  • The high information content found in DNA indicates an intelligent designer, see also William Paley
  • The amino acids produced in Miller's experiment in 1953 are 50:50 left and right handed, those in living cells are ALL left handed. Homochirality
  1. New Astronomical Proofs for the Existence of God by Hugh Ross, Ph.D.
  2. Quantum Mechanics, a Modern Goliath by Hugh Ross, Ph. D.
  3. The Real Issue Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God - Dr. Walter Bradley
  4. *The proofs for the existence of God in the light of modern natural scienceAddress of Pope Pius XII to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, November 22, 1951. Rather slow to load but actually a good read.
  5. Evidence for God from Science - Richard L. Deem (large site)
  6. Science and the Existence of God: Big Bang or Big Bust? By Matt Perman
  7. Are Science and Christianity Compatible? by J. David Hoke
  8. The Real Issue Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God
  9. Science vs. The Cosmological and Teleological Arguments Fritz Allhoff
  10. The 'Big Bang' Argument for the Existence of God (1998*) Theodore Schick Jr.
  11. Internal and External Causal Explanations of the Universe (1995) Quentin Smith
  12. A Practical Man's Proof of God -John N. Clayton Does God Exist? site
  13. Astronomical Evidences for the God of the Bible by Hugh Ross, Ph.D.

Anthropic Principle

The Anthropic Principle is an attempt to explain the observed fact that the fundamental constants of physics and chemistry are just right or fine-tuned to allow the universe and life at we know it to exist. (see Cosmic Matters)

"... the Anthropic Principle says that the seemingly arbitrary and unrelated constants in physics have one strange thing in common--these are precisely the values you need if you want to have a universe capable of producing life." Patrick Glynn
  1. Anthropic Principle on-site
  2. Design and the Anthropic Principle by Hugh Ross, Ph.D.
  3. The Anthropic Cosmological Principle. Review by Gert Korthof
  4. An Alternative to Deism Based on the Anthropic Principle by R. Michael Perry
  5. Does the Anthropic Principle indicate that God exists?

Kalam cosmological argument:

  1. Everything that had a beginning had a cause
  2. The universe had a beginning
  3. Therefore the universe had a cause
  1. The Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe William Lane Craig
  2. A Swift and Simple Refutation of the Kalam Cosmological Argument? William Lane Craig
  3. Kalam Cosmological Evidence for the Existence of God - Shandon L. Guthrie
  4. Evidence for the Existence of God by Shandon L. Guthrie (long version of above)

Anselm's Ontological Argument

  1. God is by definition that which nothing greater can be conceived
  2. It is greater to exist in reality than to exist only in the mind
  3. Therefore God must exist in reality. If he didn't exist, he would not be the greatest possible.
  1. The Evidence of the Existence of God
  2. Anselm's Ontological Argument
  3. Saint Anselm's Ontological Argument
  4. Anselm on God's existence
  5. An Examination of Anselm's Argument for the Existence of God

Thomas Aquinas

  • from motion to an Unmoved Mover
  • from effects to a First Cause
  • from contingent being to Necessary Being
  • from degrees of being to Most Perfect Being
  • from design in nature to a Designer of nature
  1. The Thomistic Cosmological Argument ~ For The Existence of God ~
  2. On the Proofs for the Existence of God of Saint Thomas Aquinas
  3. Thomas Aquinas and Big Bang Cosmology William Carroll

Pascal's Wager

God exists God does not exist
Wager for God Gain all Status quo
Wager against God Misery Status quo
  1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  2. Pascal's Wager

Design The Teleological argument.

The marks of design are too strong to be got over. Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is GOD.

  1. William Paley - on-site
  2. One Layman's Design Argument for the Existence of God
  3. A talk.origins Debate on Design
  4. Evidence of God in Human Physiology-- Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Phillip Bishop

Atheism Argument from evil

  • If God can prevent evil, but doesn't, then He isn't all-loving.
  • If God intends to prevent evil, but cannot, then He isn't omnipotent.
  • If God both intends to prevent evil and is capable of doing so, then how can evil exist?
  1. The Existence of God or Questions for Theists (1894) by Charles Watts (Atheist)
  2. Arguments for the Existence of God (atheist)
  3. Arguments in Favor of Atheism
  4. Reasons to Believe Atheism
  5. Atheism
  6. Atheism: Pro's and Con's
  7. Why the Burden of Proof is on the Atheist Professor Ralph McInerny
  8. Responses to Atheist Philosopher, Michael Martin
  9. A letter of Refutation to an atheist
  10. The Skeptical Theism Website American Humanist Association, Humanist Skeptical Issues
  11. God Exists - This testimony is about a former atheist.
  12. The Unreasonableness of Atheism and other barriers to belief on-site

This argument ignores the fact that God will get rid of evil in the future.
There is a Hell for the bad and a Heaven for the good.

Revelation of God in History - revealed theology

If there is a trancendant God then he must reveal Himself to His creatures.
To the Jews - see the Old Testament
Jesus as the Revelation of God - See John's gospel
The historical Jesus - see gospel of Luke and Acts
God's revelation to people in recent times - see biographies
The historic evidence for God is in the Bible - God made it easy for us
He made it even easier for us, the trancendant God became a man
  1. Articles Defending the Resurrection and Deity of Christ
  2. Articles Defending the Inspiration and Trustworthiness of the Bible
  3. What kind of proof does an atheist require?

The historic evidence for the existence of God is contained in the Bible. Personally, I find the historical evidence to be persuasive. Should I trust in Buddha or Muhammad? If Jesus historically rose from the dead, then he is God and Christianity is true. Did Buddha or Muhammad rise from the dead? Faith is rooted in evidence (historic evidence), it is not blind faith, or a leap into the dark, this is quite frankly nonsense. A god who required that we suspend our intellect is hardly worthy of worship. Many people dispute that the Bible is historically true and it is full of contradictions.

It should be noted that Christianity is not just a religion but is rather a relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a spirit to spirit or heart to heart thing, in which we give him our sins and he gives us his righteousness. We give him our life and he gives us his life.

Miscellaneous:

  1. Articles Defending the Existence of God good (Contend for the Faith)
  2. World Wide Christian Web Arguments for the Existence of God
  3. Reasons To Believe Biblically Based Reasons For The Existence Of God
  4. Of the Opinion of those who say that the Existence of God cannot he proved, being a Self-evident Truth
  5. Of the Opinion of those who say that the Existence of God is a Tenet of Faith alone and cannot be demonstrated
  6. Is there a God ? Review by Gert Korthof
  7. Outline studies of our confession of faith - The existence of God established
  8. I Believe in God - The Existence of God is Axiomatic
  9. Presuppositions and the Existence of God By Dennis McCallum
  10. Debate - Almost Overwhelming? are the Philosophical & Scientific Arguments for the Existence of God almost overwhelming?
  11. The Existence of God By; Larry Siekawitch How Do We Know God Exists?
  12. "Issues of distinction" The Existence Of God
  13. Big Bang and Materialism
  14. Evidence For the Bible and the Existence of God Jason D Browning
  15. Whether the existence of God is self-evident?
  16. Kant's 'appropriation' of Lampe's God
  17. Classical Arguments for the Existence of God
  18. The Heavens Declare God's Glory By Wayne Jackson
  19. On The Existence of God by Timothy Dwight
  20. Articles: Existence of God The Virtual Office of Dr. William Lane Craig
  21. Calvin and Hobbes A dialogue on the existence of God
  22. The Existence of God by James P. Dawson
  23. The Fernandes-Martin Debate (1997)
  24. Almost Overwhelming?
  25. Existence of God Feedback:
  26. Evidence For the Bible and the Existence of God Jason D. Browning
  27. The Transcendental Argument for the Nonexistence of God Michael Martin
  28. God is revealed to the Rational thinking Skeptic
  29. Arguments for and against the Existence of God
  30. The Existence of God By Nick Bibile
  31. The Character of God Quick Study His Existence: Part 2
  32. How do you know God exists?
  33. Losing your Religion? by Reggie Abraham
  34. Eighteenth Century European Philosophy
  35. Does God Exist? by J. David Hoke
  36. The Determinability of God's Existence Author: Richard Host Sydney, Australia, May 1994.
  37. God: Does He Exist? - Doug Sharp (revolution against evolution)
Creation main page
Evolution and the Christian Search Books. Links.
Phillip E Johnson The Existence of God Age of the Earth Michael J. Behe
Embryonic Recapitulation Atheism Transitional Fossils William Paley
Abiogenesis Haldane's Dilemma The Flood Anthropic Principle
Homochirality and Metamorphosis Essay . .
More topics
Home Revelation Commentary Homosexuality Images of the World Indian miniature paintings