Does God Exist

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Does God Exist?

• Professor Scott Bowman
• University of South Australia

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Theology the study of God

• Atheist No god
• Theist Is god
• Agnostic Not sure
• if there is a god

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Theology

• Revealed theology
• How God reveals him/her self
• Bible, special revelation etc
• Bears on salvation
• Natural theology
• Science of God through reason
• Basic knowledge of God
• Bears on philosophical thought

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Natural Theology
Revealed Theology
God
God
People
People
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Arguments for God

• Cosmological
• Teleological Design
• Ontological
• Reformed Epistemology

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Cosmological

• The Universe did not just happen
• Must have been caused by something
• Must have been a 1st cause God
• Nothing comes from nothing
• Caused must be caused by uncaused
• Cause of the Universe - God

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Cosmological

• Premise some things move
• Premise - All that moves is moved
• Argument If everything that moves needs a mover
  then there can be no 1st mover hence nothing
  moves but there is movement.
• Conclusion There must be a 1st mover - God

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St Thomas Aquinas 5 Ways
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Teleological - Design

• We see design all around
• us
• There must have been a
• designer
• God

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Teleological

• Premise The purpose and organization of man
  made objects is evidence of the intelligence and
  purpose of the maker
• Premise The world contains natural objects
  which have purpose and the world is purposely
  organised
• Argument There must be a maker of the world who
  makes it by design God.

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William Paley (1743 1805)
Where did this come from?
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Darwin and Paley
Paleys watch analogy is striking but
irrelevant, at least after 1859, the year that
Darwin published the Origin of the
Species. Miller 1996
?
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Ontological

• God is the greatest or most perfect being
• A being that exists is greater or more perfect
  than one that does not exist
• Therefore God must exist

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Ontological

• Premise I possess the idea of the perfect
  being. The idea includes everything that belongs
  to such a being.
• Premise To exist in actuality is greater than
  merely to be possible
• Argument The idea of that, which is perfect
  includes the idea of its existence
• Conclusion Hence, that, than which nothing
  greater can be conceived, exists, and it is this
  that we call God

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Reformed Epistemology

• Belief in God is properly basic

There is within the human mind, and indeed by
natural instinct, an awareness of divinityGod
himself has implanted in all men a certain
understanding of his divine majesty . Men one
and all perceive that there is a God and that he
is their maker. John Calvin
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A few interesting issues!

• The big bang
• Evolution
• Science

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Robert Jastrow Astronomer
For the scientist who has lived by his faith in
the power of reason, the story ends like a bad
dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance
he is about to conquer the highest peak he pulls
himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a
band of theologians who have been sitting there
for centuries. 1978
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