Editing Existence of God (section)

=== Theism ===

{{Main|Theism}}

The Catholic Church, following the teachings of [[Paul the Apostle]] (e.g., {{Bibleverse|Romans|1:20|ESV}}), [[Thomas Aquinas]], and the [[First Vatican Council]], affirms that God's existence "can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason".<ref>Vatican Council I, ''Dei Filius'' 2; quoted in ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'', 2nd edition (New York: Doubleday, 1995) n. 36, p. 20.</ref>

==== Traditional religious definition of God ====

In [[classical theism]], God is characterized as the metaphysically ultimate being (the first, timeless, absolutely simple and sovereign being, who is devoid of any [[Anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]] qualities), in distinction to other conceptions such as [[Theistic Personalism|theistic personalism]], [[open theism]], and [[process theism]]. Classical theists do not believe that God can be completely defined. They believe it would contradict the [[Transcendence (religion)|transcendent]] nature of God for mere humans to define him. [[Robert Barron]] explains by analogy that it seems impossible for a two-dimensional object to conceive of three-dimensional humans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barron |first=Robert |title=Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith |publisher=The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group |year=2011 |isbn=9780307720511}}</ref>

In modern Western societies, the [[Conceptions of God|concepts of God]] typically entail a [[Monotheism|monotheistic]], supreme, ultimate, and [[Personal god|personal being]], as found in the [[Christianity|Christian]], [[Islam]]ic and [[Judaism|Jewish]] traditions. In monotheistic religions outside the [[Abrahamic religion|Abrahamic traditions]], the existence of God is discussed in similar terms. In these traditions, God is also identified as the author (either directly or by inspiration) of certain texts, or that certain texts describe specific historical events caused by the God in question or communications from God (whether in direct speech or via dreams or omens). Some traditions also believe that God is the entity which is currently answering prayers for intervention or information or opinions.[[File:Ibn rushd.jpg|thumb|Ibn Rushd, a 12th-century Islamic scholar]]

Many Islamic scholars have used philosophical and rational arguments to prove the existence of God. For example, [[Averroes|Ibn Rushd]], a 12th-century Islamic scholar, philosopher, and physician, states there are only two arguments worthy of adherence, both of which are found in what he calls the "Precious Book" (The Qur'an). Rushd cites "providence" and "invention" in using the Qur'an's parables to claim the existence of God. Rushd argues that the Earth's weather patterns are conditioned to support human life; thus, if the planet is so finely-tuned to maintain life, then it suggests a fine tuner—God. The Sun and the Moon are not just random objects floating in the [[Milky Way]], rather they serve us day and night, and the way nature works and how life is formed, humankind benefits from it. Rushd essentially comes to a conclusion that there has to be a higher being who has made everything perfectly to serve the needs of human beings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ibn Rushd (Averroes) |url=https://www.iep.utm.edu/ibnrushd/#H4 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509151451/https://www.iep.utm.edu/ibnrushd/#H4 |archive-date=2018-05-09 |access-date=2018-05-09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Quranic Parable |url=https://quran.com/25/61 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509151127/https://quran.com/25/61 |archive-date=2018-05-09 |access-date=2018-05-09 |website=Quran.com}}</ref>

Moses ben Maimon, widely known as [[Maimonides]], was a Jewish scholar who tried to logically prove the existence of God. Maimonides offered proofs for the existence of God, but he did not begin with defining God first, like many others do. Rather, he used the description of the earth and the universe to prove the existence of God. He talked about the Heavenly bodies and how they are committed to eternal motion. Maimonides argued that because every physical object is finite, it can only contain a finite amount of power. If everything in the universe, which includes all the planets and the stars, is finite, then there has to be an infinite power to push forth the motion of everything in the universe. Narrowing down to an infinite being, the only thing that can explain the motion is an infinite being (meaning God) which is neither a body nor a force in the body. Maimonides believed that this argument gives us a ground to believe that God is, not an idea of what God is. He believed that God cannot be understood or be compared.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Seeskin |first=Kenneth |title=Maimonides |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/maimonides/#GodViaNeg |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180526073550/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/maimonides/#GodViaNeg |archive-date=2018-05-26 |access-date=2018-05-14 |website=plato.stanford}}</ref>

==== Non-personal definitions of God ====

In [[pantheism]], God and the universe are considered to be the same thing. In this view, the natural sciences are essentially studying the nature of God. This definition of God creates the philosophical problem that a universe with God and one without God are the same, other than the words used to describe it.

[[Deism]] and [[panentheism]] assert that there is a God distinct from, or which extends beyond (either in time or in space or in some other way) the universe. These positions deny that God intervenes in the operation of the universe, including communicating with humans personally. The notion that God never intervenes or communicates with the universe, or may have evolved into the universe (as in [[pandeism]]), makes it difficult, if not by definition impossible, to distinguish between a universe with God and one without.

The ''[[Ethics (Spinoza book)|Ethics]]'' of [[Philosophy of Baruch Spinoza#Substance of God|Baruch Spinoza]] gave two demonstrations of the existence of God.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spinoza |first=Benedictus de |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ethics_(Spinoza)/Part_1 |title=Ethics |at=Part 1, Prop. 11}}</ref> The God of Spinoza is uncaused by any external force and has no [[free will]], it is not personal and not anthropomorphic.

==== Debate about how theism should be argued ====

In Christian faith, theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas made a distinction between: (a) preambles of faith and (b) articles of faith.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sommer |first=Josh |date=2022-03-31 |title=Philosophy & Preambles of Faith |url=https://thebaptistbroadcast.com/philosophy-preambles-of-faith |access-date=2023-10-24 |website=The Baptist Broadcast |language=en-US}}</ref> The preambles include alleged truths contained in revelation which are nevertheless demonstrable by reason, e.g., the immortality of the soul, the existence of God. The articles of faith, on the other hand, contain truths that cannot be proven or reached by reason alone and presuppose the truths of the preambles, e.g., in Christianity, the [[Trinity|Holy Trinity]], is not demonstrable and presupposes the existence of God.

The argument that the existence of God can be known to all, even prior to exposure to any divine revelation, predates Christianity.{{clarify|date=April 2022}} [[Paul the Apostle]] made this argument when he said that pagans were without excuse because "since the creation of the world God's invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made".<ref>{{Bibleverse-lb||Romans|1:20|NIV}}.</ref> In this, Paul alludes to the proofs for a creator, later enunciated by Thomas Aquinas<ref>For the proofs of God's existence by Thomas Aquinas see [[Quinquae viae]].</ref> and others, that had also been explored by the Greek philosophers.

Another apologetical school of thought, including Dutch and American [[Reformed Churches|Reformed]] thinkers (such as [[Abraham Kuyper]], [[Benjamin Warfield]], and [[Herman Dooyeweerd]]), emerged in the late 1920s. This school was instituted by [[Cornelius Van Til]], and came to be popularly called [[presuppositional apologetics]] (though Van Til felt "transcendental" would be a more accurate title). The main distinction between this approach and the more classical [[Evidentialism|evidentialist]] approach is that the presuppositionalist denies any common ground between the believer and the non-believer, except that which the non-believer denies, namely, the assumption of the truth of the theistic worldview. In other words, presuppositionalists do not believe that the existence of God can be proven by appeal to raw, uninterpreted, or "brute" facts, which have the same (theoretical) meaning to people with fundamentally different worldviews, because they deny that such a condition is even possible. They claim that the only possible proof for the existence of God is that the very same belief is the necessary condition to the intelligibility of all other human experience and action. They attempt to prove the existence of God by means of appeal to the [[Transcendence (philosophy)|transcendental]] necessity of the belief—indirectly (by appeal to the unavowed presuppositions of the non-believer's worldview) rather than directly (by appeal to some form of common factuality). In practice this school uses what have come to be known as [[Transcendental argument for the existence of God|transcendental arguments]]. These arguments claim to demonstrate that all human experience and action (even the condition of unbelief, itself) is a proof for the existence of God, because God's existence is the necessary condition of their intelligibility.

Protestant Christians note that the Christian faith teaches "[[salvation]] is by faith",<ref>{{Bibleverse-lb|2|Timothy|3:14–15|NIV}} <cite>NIV</cite> "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." ''The Holy Bible, New International Version''. International Bible Society. 1984.</ref> and that faith is reliance upon the faithfulness of God. The most extreme example of this position is called [[fideism]], which holds that faith is simply the will to believe, and argues that if God's existence were rationally demonstrable, faith in its existence would become superfluous. [[Søren Kierkegaard]] argued that objective knowledge, such as 1+1=2, is unimportant to existence. If God could rationally be proven, his existence would be unimportant to humans.{{Citation needed|date=February 2012}} It is because God cannot rationally be proven that his existence is important to us. In ''The Justification of Knowledge'', the [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] theologian [[Robert L. Reymond]] argues that believers should not attempt to prove the existence of God. Since he believes all such proofs are fundamentally unsound, believers should not place their confidence in them, much less resort to them in discussions with non-believers; rather, they should accept the content of revelation by faith. Reymond's position is similar to that of his mentor [[Gordon Clark]], which holds that all worldviews are based on certain unprovable first premises (or, axioms), and therefore are ultimately unprovable. The Christian theist therefore must simply choose to start with Christianity rather than anything else, by a "[[leap of faith]]". This position is also sometimes called [[presuppositional apologetics]], but should not be confused with the Van Tillian variety.