Editing Existence of God (section)

==== Subjective arguments ====
===== Argument from religious experience =====
{{main|Argument from religious experience}}
The argument from religious experience holds that the best explanation for [[religious experience]]s is that they are actual perceptions of God's presence. Philosopher Robert Sloan Lee notes that this argument possesses an "unexpected resilience" despite seemingly being able to be easily defeated by simple objections, such as pointing out the existence of [[hallucination]]s.<ref name="lee">{{cite book |last=Lee|first=Robert Sloan|date=July 1, 2021 |editor-last=Branson|editor-first=Beau|title=Introduction to Philosophy: Philosophy of Religion|publisher=Rebus Community|url=https://press.rebus.community/intro-to-phil-of-religion/chapter/non-standard-arguments-for-gods-existence/ |chapter=Non-Standard Arguments for God's existence |isbn=9781989014233}}</ref> Philosopher [[William J. Abraham]] states "We do not generally believe that because some reports of ordinary natural objects sometimes involve illusion, hallucination, and the like, then all reports do so".<ref name="lee"/> He continues, "If we insist that they apply only to religious experience, then we face the embarrassing fact that we apply standards in the religious sphere which we do not apply elsewhere".<ref name="lee"/>

===== Arguments from witnesses' testimony =====

Arguments from testimony rely on the testimony or experience of witnesses, possibly embodying the propositions of a specific revealed [[religion]]. Swinburne argues that it is a principle of rationality that one should accept testimony unless there are strong reasons for not doing so.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Swinburne |first=Richard |title=[[Is There a God?]] |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-19-823545-3 |author-link=Richard Swinburne}}</ref>

* The [[witness argument]] gives credibility to personal [[witness]]es, contemporary and throughout the ages. A variation of this is the [[argument from miracles]] (also referred to as "the priest stories") which relies on testimony of supernatural events to establish the existence of God.
* The [[Argument from common consent|majority argument]] argues that the theism of people throughout most of recorded history and in many different places provides ''[[prima facie]]'' demonstration of God's existence.
* Islam asserts that the revelation of its holy book, the [[Qur'an]], and its unique literary attributes, vindicate its divine authorship, and thus the existence of God.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Islamic Awareness: The Challenge of the Qur'an |url=http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Miracle/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912050734/http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Miracle/ |archive-date=2016-09-12 |access-date=2016-08-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Inimitability of the Qur'an |url=http://www.hamzatzortzis.com/essays-articles/exploring-the-quran/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160922115521/http://www.hamzatzortzis.com/essays-articles/exploring-the-quran/ |archive-date=2016-09-22 |access-date=2016-08-28}}</ref>
* [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]], also known as [[Mormonism]], similarly asserts that the miraculous appearance of God, Jesus Christ, and angels to [[Joseph Smith]] and others and subsequent finding and translation of the [[Book of Mormon]] establishes the existence of God. The whole [[Latter Day Saint movement]] makes the same claim for example [[Community of Christ]], [[Church of Christ (Temple Lot)]], [[Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)]], [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)]], [[Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite)]], etc.{{Citation needed|date=June 2016}}
** The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), similarly asserts that the finding and translation of the [[Plates of Laban]], also known as the Brass Plates, into the [[Book of the Law of the Lord]] and [[Voree plates]] by [[James Strang]], [[One Mighty and Strong]], establishes the existence of God.{{Citation needed|date=June 2016}}
** Various sects that have broken from the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) (such as [[Church of Christ "With the Elijah Message"]] and [[Church of Christ (Assured Way)]]) claim that the message brought by [[John the Baptist]], One Mighty and Strong, to [[Otto Fetting]] and [[W. A. Draves]] in [[The Word of the Lord|The Word of the Lord Brought to Mankind by an Angel]] establishes the existence of God.{{Citation needed|date=June 2016}}

====== Arguments from historical events ======
* [[Christianity]] and [[Judaism]] assert that God intervened in key specific moments in history, especially at [[the Exodus]] and the giving of the [[Ten Commandments]] in front of all the tribes of Israel, positing an argument from empirical evidence stemming from sheer number of witnesses, thus demonstrating his existence.<ref name="Greco2013">{{Cite book |last=Greco |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CfVDG8aAcLIC&pg=PA134 |title=God and the Gods: A Compelling Investigation and Personal Quest for the Truth About God of the Bible and the Gods of Ancient History |date=26 June 2013 |publisher=iUniverse |isbn=978-1-4759-9597-8 |pages=134– |language=en-us}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=July 2020}}
* [[Christological argument]]s assert that certain events of the Christian [[New Testament]] are historically accurate, and prove God's existence, namely:
** The [[Resurrection of Jesus]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Polkinghorne |first=John |title=Science and Christian Belief |pages=108–122 |author-link=John Polkinghorne}}</ref> (an [[argument from miracles]])

====== Arguments from the authority of historical personages ======
These arguments are an [[appeal to authority]]:
* The claims of Jesus, as a morally upstanding person, to be the son of God 
* Jesus, said to be a wise person, believed that God exists 
* The belief of [[Lekhraj Kripalani]], who founded the [[Brahma Kumaris]] religion when God was said to enter his body<ref>"Based on our real life experiences we clearly know that it was God, the Supreme Soul, Shiva, Himself, had entered into his body. It was God who had revealed the truth about the coming destruction, and of the establishment of the heavenly world which would then follow. And it was God Himself who had given the sign that he, Dada, was to be His medium and the engine for creating such a divine world." {{Cite web |url=http://brahmakumaris.org/about-us/history/60.html |title=Divine Descent of God |access-date=March 6, 2011 |archive-date=July 25, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725102100/http://brahmakumaris.org/about-us/history/60.html }}</ref><ref>Babb, Lawrence A. (1987). Redemptive Encounters: Three Modern Styles in the Hindu Tradition (Comparative Studies in Religion and Society). Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-7069-2563-7}}.</ref>

===== Anecdotal arguments =====

{{See also|Anecdotal evidence}}

* The sincere seeker's argument, espoused by Muslim Sufis of the Tasawwuf tradition, posits that every individual who follows a formulaic path towards guidance, arrives at the same destination of conviction in the existence of God and specifically in the monotheistic tenets and laws of Islam. This apparent natural law for guidance and belief could only be consistent if the formula and supplication were being answered by the same Divine entity being addressed, as claimed in Islamic revelations. This was formally organized by Imam Abu Hamid [[Al-Ghazali]] in such notable works as "Deliverance from Error" and "The Alchemy of Happiness", in Arabic "[[Kimiya-yi sa'ādat]]". The path includes following the golden rule of no harm to others and treating others with compassion, silence or minimal speech, seclusion, daily fasting or minimalist diet of water and basic nourishment, honest wages, and daily supplication towards "the Creator of the Universe" for guidance.<ref name="Ghazali 1100">{{Cite book |last=Ghazali |first=Abu Hamid |url=http://ghazali.org/books/md/gz101.htm |title=Deliverance from Error |year=1100 |access-date=2016-08-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160825093541/http://ghazali.org/books/md/gz101.htm |archive-date=2016-08-25 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Ghazali 1105">{{Cite book |last=Ghazali |first=Abu Hamid |url=http://www.ghazali.org/books/alchemy/ |title=The Alchemy of Happiness |year=1105 |access-date=2016-08-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911101949/http://www.ghazali.org/books/alchemy/ |archive-date=2016-09-11 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* The [[Argument from a proper basis]] argues that belief in God is "properly basic"; that it is similar to statements like "I see a chair" or "I feel pain".{{Citation needed|date=June 2016}} Such beliefs are non-falsifiable and, thus, neither provable nor disprovable; they concern perceptual beliefs or indisputable mental states.
* In [[Germany]], the School of [[Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi]] taught that human reason is able to perceive the suprasensible. Jacobi distinguished three faculties: sense, [[reason]], and understanding. Just as sense has immediate perception of the material so has reason immediate perception of the immaterial, while the understanding brings these perceptions to a person's consciousness and unites them to one another.<ref>([[A. Stöckl]], ''Geschichte der neueren Philosophie'', II, 82 sqq.)</ref> God's existence, then, cannot be proven (Jacobi, like Immanuel Kant, rejected the absolute value of the principle of causality), it must be felt by the mind.
* The same theory was advocated in Germany by [[Friedrich Schleiermacher]], who assumed an inner religious sense by means of which people feel religious truths. According to Schleiermacher, religion consists solely in this inner perception, and dogmatic doctrines are inessential.<ref>(Stöckl, loc. cit., 199 sqq.)</ref>