How Philosophy and Religion are Related
Many philosophers started trying to find ways to prove or to disprove the existence of God based on their ideas. Anselm, Guanilo, Maimonides, Aquinas, and Descartes all attempt to prove the existence of God using logic and rationalism. There are many arguments that philosophers use to justify the existence of God. It is very possible that these philosophers aren’t religious.
They believe in God because they don’t believe or don’t feel like they can prove that the earth came into existence in any other way. Belief in God is in essence a religious idea and it will always be. The existence of God cannot be proven because it is based on faith and many philosophers have none.
People seek to prove the existence of God more many reasons. The main reason is because people fear death. They want to be assured that they will live forever. According to the Bible, God promises His believers everlasting life. People also need something that lives forever to assure their survival, and God is that something that lives forever.
Many people do not have faith, so they use philosophy to prove the existence of God. Faith is the essence of God. God’s existence is faith. God’s existence cannot be proven or disproved. Faith is defined as: “Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material
evidence.” There is no logical evidence that God exists, and there is no logical evidence that He does not. Believing in God takes faith.
It takes trust, understanding, and love. God’s existence is a topic that has been debated since the beginning of time. There are no definite answers and there never will be.
When I think about faith in God, I am reminded of two Bible stories. I am first reminded of Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection. There is nothing logical about that. No ordinary person would have the power to resurrect themselves. This Bible story shows that Jesus is an extraordinary being. He is God and He was human. There will never be another being like Jesus ever again.
I am also reminded of the Bible story where Jesus feeds a hungry crowd of people with a small amount of fish and bread. He created enough food for those people. This is yet another story that illustrates what an extraordinary being that God is. Faith is also extraordinary. Faith can also be defined as belief in something that cannot be seen or felt by the senses. Philosophy uses the senses and faith does not. Philosophy is not extraordinary and can not prove the existence of an extraordinary being.
Anselum believed that not believing in the existence of God is irrational.
He had many arguments to support this claim. He said that everyone has an idea of God even people that do not believe in Him because not believing in God is an idea. Someone that believes in God could say why they believe in God and list His attributes and that those thoughts are ideas as well. Anselum also makes the statement that it is possible to say that there is no God but that is just a verbal trick. Anselum likely means that if a person says that they do not believe in the existence of God they are likely saying that just to cast doubt on the existence of God.
Anselum then says that God is a being which nothing greater can be conceived. God, if He exists, is all knowing and all powerful meaning that nothing is greater then He is and He is therefore the Supreme Being. Anselum then says that if God is conceived as non existing then God is not a being in which nothing greater can be conceived. Anselum goes on to say that if God does not exist then He is not a being in which nothing greater can be conceived and that fact contradicts the fact that everyone has an idea of God so therefore God exists.
Anselum attempted to prove the existence of God using these points, but I don’t believe that this argument is at all convincing, because a non believer could just say that he has an idea that God does not exist and because of that idea he can say that there is no being in which nothing greater can be conceived. Someone who does not believe in God may have a different theory of how the earth came about that does not include a Supreme Being. Believing in God is also irrational. There is nothing logical about God. The theory of evolution is much more rational and logical. Anselum attempts to prove the existence of God using logic and rationality, but it cannot be done because God is not logical or rational. God is faith. Faith is not a sense. Philosophy uses the senses so it cannot be used to prove the existence of God.
Gaunilo, although he believed in God, had an opposition to Anselum’s argument. He said that conceiving does not necessarily indicate that God exists because people can have an idea that there is no supreme being. Guanilo believes that people that believe in God must have faith in Him and that God’s existence can not be proven or disproved by Anselum. Guanilo perhaps was religious and he obviously had faith. He is the only philosopher that we have studied that actually acknowledges that Faith is the essence of belief in God. Guanilo was not an average philosopher because he used faith to prove the existence of God.
Maimonides also believes that God exists, but he attempts to prove it by negation or stating what God is not. In his writing “Guide for the Perplexed,” he gives his readers an example of why the existence of God must be proven by negation. He says that if a person was looking at an object from a great distance they would not be able to see it clearly. If they asked someone about it, they could be told that the object is a living being. From that a person could gather that the thing was an object and not a human, plant, or animal. The only thing that people know about God if He exists is that God is a living being. So therefore, all we know is that He is a being because He is not an object. According to Maimonides, only God’s existence and not His essence or attributes can be proven.
All of His attributes such that He is, for example kind, loving, and good are attributes and are left up to chance and cannot be proven. Therefore, according to Maimonides, the only things humanity knows about God are known by negation. God cannot really be defined in human language because He is not a human being. Therefore, God cannot be proven because His existence cannot be proven by what He is. People must first be able to say what something is before they can say what it is not. The attributes that humans give God cannot be validated because they are spoken in human language, and God is not human. Philosophy is spoken about in human language. God cannot be defined in human language much less can His existence be proven by humanity.
Thomas Aquinas used five articles or proofs much like other philosophers in attempt to prove God’s existence. He uses the motion argument, the nature of efficient cause’s argument, the argument of possibility and necessity, the degrees of excellence argument: argument from the gradient to be found in things, and the argument from the governess of world theological proof. He uses the motion argument to say that motion has a cause and that there must be a being that created the force that caused motion in the first place so therefore God must exist.
He uses his degrees of excellence theory to say that there must be a greater being then humans. Aquinas then uses his teleological proof that God put goal orientation in all of us to believe that God exists so therefore God must exist. These arguments are good if a person believes in Creation. Aquinas uses the senses in an attempt to prove God’s existence, but God’s existence cannot be proven by human senses because He is divine. In being a divine power, He defies motion, efficient cause, possibility and necessity, and the degrees of excellence. God is beyond all of these proofs, so they cannot be used to justify His existence.
Decartes believes that God exists because he exists. Decartes begins to question all that he has been taught in his education. As he studied what he had learned, he began to believe that most of this knowledge that he gained was false and served him no purpose. He then doubts everything that cannot be proven. The only things that he decides that he knows for certain are that he exists and that God exists because God created him. He says the only reason he knows that God exists is because he exists.
He is skepticism and unlike other philosophers he uses his skepticism to justify the existence of God.
Decartes believes that God exists because he exists. Decartes begins to question all that he has been taught in his education. As he studied what he had learned, he began to believe that most of this knowledge that he gained was false and served him no purpose. He then doubts everything that cannot be proven. The only things that he decides that he knows for certain are that he exists and that God exists because God created him.
He says the only reason he knows that God exists is because he exists. He is skepticism and unlike other philosophers he uses his skepticism to justify the existence of God. Skepticism cannot be used to justify the existence of God. Skepticism implies that a person does not believe in something. Belief in God is not for the skeptic. Faith is believing in things that are not logical and a skeptic uses logic. Skeptic can be defined as: “One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions.”
God can easily be doubted because He is not logical. Skeptics need logical proof. Decartes will not find logical proof that God exists. Decartes saying that God exists because he does is the only good point that he makes in his argument, because it casts doubt that God may not exist. There are many other accepted theories on how humanity was created.
All of these arguments that these philosophers use in attempt to prove the existence of God are incomplete. God cannot be proven by these arguments because believing in God takes faith. Many things in life that cannot be proven are still valid. Philosophers do not have to prove God’s existence to believe in Him. There are not answers to all of life’s questions and there never will be. Philosophy is based on the senses and on reason, and God is based on faith. Therefore, philosophy cannot be used to validate the existence of God.
Pojman, Louis. Classics of Philosophy: New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
The Catholic Youth Bible. Minnesota: Christian Brothers Publications, 1993.
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