God doesn't exist.

Firstly, I will respond to 2 statement Pro makes. "There simply is no proof that god exists. For centuries, Christians claimed that people were created by god but in 1859, Charles Darwin published a book saying that people were created through evolution" I have given 2 proofs that God exists. So in order for Pro to back up the statement "There simply is no proof that God exists", he has to refute my two arguments, and there has not been any attempt so far. My opponent then claims that Evolution proves that people were not created by God (or something like that). But in no way does evolution disprove the existence of God! In fact, there are many Christians and theists that assert that evolution and theism can easily coexist. ( . http://en.wikipedia.org... ) If the argument pro is setting put is as follows: 1) Evolution happned 2) Therefore God does not exist This is blatantly a non-sequetor. It simply does not follow. Moreover, there is no reason to think that God couldn't have divinely guided evolution as to give the end product of mankind. This doesn't at all go against theistic belief. "Now is there any proof that god created people and that god placed dinosaur fossils for people to have some sense of history? None of what you wrote in the previous round is proof of god creating people. And that alone proves that god doesn't exist. There is one big assumption in this statement - and that is that all theists assert Young Earth Creationism. But this is just not true. There are many, many theists that believe that the earth is old and that dinosaurs existed, and Pro does not take into account these considerations. My opponent then says "None of what you wrote in the previous round is proof of god creating people. ". No, it isn't! But if God exists, and we also exist, then it is evident that God created us! The argument is set out a bit like this: 1) If a Maximally Great Being (God) exists, then it created the whole universe and everything in it. 2) We exist inside of the universe 3) Therefore if a Maximally Great Being (God) exists, we were created by it I have given evidence that God exists that is yet to be refuted, so it stands that God created people. PRAYER My opponent says that 'Prayer does nothing'. But in order to prove this is literally impossible - there is a huge burden of proof on Pro to show that during 2000 years of prayer, not 1 of them did anything. And what if I could show that prayer did do something? I will cite from my personal experience why I think prayer works. Because when I first started out as a Christian, my faith was very weak and shaky. I constantly had doubts about God and they troubled me very much. But I asked my Christian friend, "what should I do? " and she said "Pray to God for firm belief in him'. And that is exactly what I did; I prayed very hard and sincerely, I asked God for firm belief, and to stop all my doubts. Many prayers later, I am now a firm believer in the Christian faith. I think this alone proves that prayer does indeed work, and there is the testimony of billions of Christians to back it up. In addition, it is very important to remember that God is NOT going to answer every single prayer everyone asks. Sometimes, the answer is simply 'no', or 'not yet'. God is entirely in his rights to do this. I think it is obvious that if someone prays for a pizza, God is not going to magic one into existence. There is no contradiction to this. I personally think that God will ONLY answer prayer if we pray for the Holy Spirit. I think that is all he is going to provide for us, as it is all we need and should want from him. Anything else is unnecessary. WHY ARE THERE DIFFERENT BELIEFS ABOUT GOD? I think the simple answer here is that God has given us free-will. That is, God has given us choices - the choice to do what we want and whether to believe in him or not. We can choose what religion to follow which is why there are so many religions. The doctrine of free-will is essential to Christianity, and so Pro's statement "God would have made it so that people would believe in him from the time they were born" is certainly opposite to Christianity and any other theistic belief for that matter. EVIL Here, Pro cites the atrocities committed by Stalin, Hitler and Mao, and if God exists, then he would intervene. But again, the concept of free-will certainly comes into practice here. God has given all human the choice to sin. Stalin, Hitler an Mao chose to sin. For God to intervene would mean stripping humans of free-will, and this is entirely against God's Nature. THE BIBLE What proof is there that the Bible is the word of God? Well, beliefs about this differ from Christian to Christian. The more conservative Christians believe that God directly wrote the Bible though the authorship of men. The more liberal Christians believe that the Bible is an ACCOUNT of God's interaction with man. Both are feasible positions. But to provide proof that the Bible is the word of God, one might look to the fulfilled prophesies ( . http://www.reasons.org... ), or the reliability of the Gospels ( . http://www.reasonablefaith.org... ), that could not have happened if the Bible were not the word of God. EVIL CAUSED BY RELIGION I don't think that this is at all relevant to the existence of God. I have already stated that I agree that religion has been manipulated and used in order for certain individuals to exploit their power. But it really doesn't follow that God doesn't exist! Let me lay it out in argument form to show the fallacy. 1) Religion has been exploited in order to carry out evils (as with the crusades, inquisition etc. ) 2) therefore God does not exist As you can see, this just doesn't follow. The moral atrocities cause by religion doesn't prove the non-existence of God. CONCLUSION Overall, I have presented 2 arguments for God's existece, that have not yet been countered by Pro. If he is to successfully defend the motion 'God does not exist', then he needs to refute these evidences. I have also shown why Pro's arguments against God do not work, and so I think that it is entirely fair to say that God exists. SOURCES Alvin Plantinga: Warranted Christian Belief . http://en.wikipedia.org... . http://www.reasons.org... . http://www.reasonablefaith.org...