Editing Existence of God (section)

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The '''existence of God''' is a subject of debate in the [[philosophy of religion]] and [[theology]].<ref>''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]]''.</ref> A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of [[God]] (with the same or similar arguments also generally being used when talking about the existence of multiple [[deities]]) can be categorized as [[logic]]al, [[Empirical research|empirical]], [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]], [[Subjectivity|subjective]], or [[Science|scientific]]. In [[Philosophy|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 [[Value theory|theory of value]] (since some definitions of God include perfection).

The [[Western philosophy|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 argument]]s. Other arguments for the existence of God have been proposed by [[Anselm of Canterbury|St. Anselm]], who formulated the first [[ontological argument]]; [[Thomas Aquinas]], who presented his own version of the cosmological argument (the [[Five Ways (Aquinas)|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 philosopher]]s 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 [[Platonism in Islamic philosophy|Neoplatonic arguments]].

In philosophy, and more specifically in the philosophy of religion, [[atheism]] refers to the [[proposition]] that God does not exist.<ref name ="Draper">{{cite web |last1=Draper |first1=Paul |title=Atheism and Agnosticism |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |date=2022}}</ref> 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 [[philosophy of religion|philosophers of religion]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cruz De |first1=Helen |last2=Nichols |first2=Ryan |title=Advances in Religion, Cognitive Science, and Experimental Philosophy|date=28 January 2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |pages=135 |isbn=978-1-4742-2382-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iKfnCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA135}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |title=PhilPapers Survey 2020 |url=https://survey2020.philpeople.org/survey/results/4842?aos=22 |website=PhilPapers}}</ref> 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 (philosopher)|Paul Draper]], [[Quentin Smith]], 
[[J. L. Mackie]], and [[J. L. Schellenberg]].