Editing Existence of God (section)

==== 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.