Does God Exist?

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that philosophies of religion are divided into theistic, which argues in favor of the existence of God and atheistic, which denies the existence of God. The author points out that the theistic philosophies include teleological, cosmological, ontological, moral and arguments, arguments related to self-interest such as Pascal's "wager" and arguments rooted in the experience of miracles and in religious experience. The paper relates that atheistic refutations include the primary supposition that the burden of proof rests with the theist, that evil exists and that there is a conflict between divine omnipotence and human free will.

From the Paper:

"The cosmological argument in favor of the existence of God is similar in that it points to the physical universe as proof of God's existence. However, the cosmological argument seeks for an ultimate cause of creation. The primary objection to the cosmological argument raises the issue of the ultimate cause: if everything in the cosmos has a causal force, then what, if anything, can cause God? Some cosmological arguments are temporal in nature, that is, they refer to the nature time when determining the cause of creation. Because it is theoretically possible that God has no cause and is a causeless force or being, the cosmological argument cannot actually prove that God exists, only that God is one possible cause of the universe."

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