The Existence of God

This argument is purely for the purpose of debating the topic at hand and is in no way meant to offend anyone"s personal beliefs or to glorify my own. I would like to begin by defining the word "God. " According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "God" is "the Being perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness who is worshiped as creator and ruler of the universe. " For the sake of this argument, I will assume that the god referenced is the Christian God. Contention 1: The belief that God created the universe is the best explanation for its existence. The String and Big Bang Theories, while providing a good explanation as to how the universe grew to its tremendous size, do not explain precisely where the particle that started it all came from. In other words, these theories are saying that something came from nothing, which is unfathomable. It makes no sense. Some say that the universe is eternal, that it has no beginning or end, but this theory is unreasonable. To say that there was no beginning would be to say that the past is infinite, but with no evidence of infinity existing in nature, this argument is invalid. . http://www.princeton.edu... . http://www.space.com... Contention 2: The existence of God is the best explanation for the intricate order and regularity of the workings of the universe. The universe displays an overwhelming amount of intelligibility. Each organ in the human body performs a task separate from the one next to it, but somehow they work perfectly together to sustain life. Even the inner workings of something as small as a single cell are so organized and complex that it"s hard to think that it wasn't purposefully designed. Something as delicate as life has such specific requirements in order to be maintained that it would only make sense that the order possessed by the universe is a product of intelligent design. Anything designed needs a designer, which in this instance would be God. Some may argue that it is by chance, not intelligent design, that the order of the universe is so overwhelmingly intricate and complex. However, "chance" being defined as "the unknown and unpredictable element in happenings that seems to have no assignable cause," would require some sort of background and expectation in order for the outcome to be unknown or predictable. For example, a man takes the train to work every morning, and it is by chance that he meets a woman who also decided to take the train to work that morning. In this scenario, the man only expected to commute to work. It was unknown and not previously predicted that he would also meet this woman. In the case of the universe, thinking of chance as the ultimate source would be to say that order originated from chance, which is impossible. The example previously given shows that there has to be an existing scenario in order for a chance event to occur. Therefore, order must come before chance. In other words, order must be previously created before it can function in a specific way by chance. My final contention is that there is no evidence that atheism is true. Atheists have been working to disprove God"s existence for as long as theists have been working to prove it. With no convincing argument that God does not exist, where is the proof that atheism is true?