The existence of God is a subject of debate in theology and the philosophy of religion.[1] A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God can be categorized as logical, empirical, metaphysical, subjective or scientific. In philosophical terms, the question of the existence of God involves the disciplines of epistemology (the nature and scope of knowledge) and ontology (study of the nature of being or existence) and the theory of value (since some definitions of God include "perfection").
The Western tradition of philosophical discussion of the existence of God began with Plato and Aristotle, who made arguments for the existence of a being responsible for fashioning the universe, referred to as the demiurge or the unmoved mover, that today would be categorized as cosmological arguments. Other arguments for the existence of God have been proposed by St. Anselm, who formulated the first ontological argument; Thomas Aquinas, who presented his own version of the cosmological argument (the first way); René Descartes, who said that the existence of a benevolent God is logically necessary for the evidence of the senses to be meaningful. John Calvin argued for a sensus divinitatis, which gives each human a knowledge of God's existence. Islamic philosophers who developed arguments for the existence of God comprise Averroes, who made arguments influenced by Aristotle's concept of the unmoved mover; Al-Ghazali and Al-Kindi, who presented the Kalam cosmological argument; Avicenna, who presented the Proof of the Truthful; and Al-Farabi, who made Neoplatonic arguments.
In philosophy, and more specifically in the philosophy of religion, atheism refers to the proposition that God does not exist.[2] Some religions, such as Jainism, reject the possibility of a creator deity. Philosophers who have provided arguments against the existence of God include David Hume, Ludwig Feuerbach, and Bertrand Russell.
Theism, the proposition that God exists, is the dominant view among philosophers of religion.[3] In a 2020 PhilPapers survey, 69.50% of philosophers of religion stated that they accept or lean towards theism, while 19.86% stated they accept or lean towards atheism.[4] Prominent contemporary philosophers of religion who defended theism include Alvin Plantinga, Yujin Nagasawa, John Hick, Richard Swinburne, and William Lane Craig, while those who defended atheism include Graham Oppy, Paul Draper, Quentin Smith,
J. L. Mackie, and J. L. Schellenberg.
^The Rationality of Theism quoting Quentin Smith "God is not 'dead' in academia; it returned to life in the late 1960s". They cite "the shift from hostility towards theism in Paul Edwards's Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967) to sympathy towards theism in the more recent Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
^Draper, Paul (2022). "Atheism and Agnosticism". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
^Cruz De, Helen; Nichols, Ryan (28 January 2016). Advances in Religion, Cognitive Science, and Experimental Philosophy. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-4742-2382-9.
existenceofGod is a subject of debate in theology and the philosophy of religion. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existenceofGod can...
the belief that the existenceofGod is unknown or unknowable. Some theists view knowledge concerning God as derived from faith. God is often conceived...
Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of...
spectrum of theistic probability—the likelihood that each assigns to the statement "God exists". Before the 18th century, the existenceofGod was so accepted...
Argument for the existenceofGod (TAG) is the argument that attempts to prove the existenceofGod by arguing that the existenceof necessary conditions...
Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existenceofGod, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. Another definition provided is...
ontological basis, that is advanced in support of the existenceofGod. Such arguments tend to refer to the state of being or existing. More specifically, ontological...
philosopher and logician of the tenth century of the Nyaya school who attempted to devise a rational theology to prove the existenceofGod using logic and counter...
existenceofGod. The original title for this discourse was to be Faith Seeking Understanding. The Proslogion marked what would be the beginning of Saint...
and God include the use of mathematics in arguments about the existenceofGod and about whether belief in God is beneficial. In the 1070s, Anselm of Canterbury...
belief that one god is the only deity. A distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, in which the one God is a singular existence, and both inclusive...
(/ˌæpəˈθiːɪzəm/; a portmanteau of apathy and theism) is the attitude of apathy toward the existence or non-existenceofGod(s). It is more of an attitude rather than...
argument for the existenceofGod or, more generally, that complex functionality in the natural world which looks designed is evidence of an intelligent...
argument, in natural theology, is an argument which claims that the existenceofGod can be inferred from facts concerning causation, explanation, change...
connection between the idea ofGod and God's appearance or disappearance. No statement about God whatsoever may establish God'sexistence. Kant makes a distinction...
the existenceof such a gene would not be incompatible with the existenceof a personal God: "Religious believers can point to the existenceofGod genes...
completely infinite in all of his attributes, who has no partner or equal, being the sole creator of everything in existence. In Judaism, God is never portrayed...
of evil is the philosophical question of how to reconcile the existenceof evil and suffering with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God....
More simply stated, Deism is the belief in the existenceofGod (often, but not necessarily, a God who does not intervene in the universe after creating...
in nature. In The God Delusion he focuses directly on a wider range of arguments used for and against belief in the existenceof a god (or gods). Dawkins...
limited state of the unlimited existenceofGod's absolute singularity. All existence emanates from and rests on God independently of time, for God is the timeless...
being exists of and from itself. It refers to the Monotheistic belief that God does not depend on any cause other than himself for his existence, realization...
contemporaries, although nowhere in his work does Spinoza argue against the existenceofGod. This can be explained by the fact that, unlike contemporary 21st-century...
Existentialism is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the issue of human existence. Existentialist philosophers explore questions related to...
within God's self. The unity ofGod is such that God's essence is the same as God'sexistence. In Thomas's words, "in itself the proposition 'God exists'...
Meditations on First Philosophy, in which the existenceofGod and the immortality of the soul are demonstrated (Latin: Meditationes de Prima Philosophia...
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