The Christian God Does Not Exist

In this debate I wish to put forth the argument that the Christian conception of God does not exist. To begin, I would like to define the Christian God. I define it as: An eternally existent, morally perfect, immaterial being who created the universe and holds the attributes of omnibenevolence, omniscience, omnipotence, perfect mercy and perfect justice. If anyone disagrees with any of these attributes, I ask that they do not accept this debate, as my arguments are based on this definition. With God now defined, I wish to put forward three major arguments. The first is the problem of evil, which will present in both logical and evidential forms. The second is the problem of non-belief. The third is the problem of Hell. Each of these arguments will attempt to prove that the Christian God's attributes contradict either reality or Christian doctrine and therefore that he does not exist. I. The Problem of Evil One only needs to take a quick look at a newspaper or a history book to find numerous examples or suffering; we have the Holocaust, war, starvation, cancer, birth defects, and so on, all the way down to relatively trivial examples such as the common cold and receiving a sunburn. People have recognized since the days Epicurus that this poses an apparent contradiction with the idea of a supposedly all-loving, all-powerful God. Epicurus stated it as follows: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Whence then is evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " Before I continue, it is necessary to make a distinction between two similar arguments. The first is the logical problem of evil, which claims that a loving God is logically incompatible with suffering, and therefore cannot exist. The second is the evidential problem of evil which claims it is possible that loving God exists, but in light of evil, unlikely. I plan to defend the logical problem for this debate, and seeing as it is an argument that is generally regarded as refuted, thanks to Alvin Plantinga, it will be interesting to see how this debate turns out. It is also necessary to point out that while the argument is difficult to defend, if valid, it not only casts doubt on, but refutes Christianity. II. The Problem of Non-Belief A second problem with the Christian God is the vast amount of unbelief there is. While there are relatively few atheists worldwide, the number of non-Christians is staggering, at roughly 4.6 billion. One has to ask the question: "Why aren't there more Christians? " Since you clearly can't love someone you don't believe exists, it seems obvious that a loving God would make his existence far more believable. Once again, my opponent must explain how the Christian God does not contradict the reality we observe. III. The problem of Hell A major doctrine in Christianity is the doctrine of Hell, a place of unending grief and agony, where God sends those who disbelieve or break his commandments. It should be immediately obvious that this doctrine is not compatible with a loving deity and once again, I look forward to my opponent's responses to this argument In conclusion, I believe I have given three solid arguments as to why the Christian God is impossible. It my opponent wishes to defend his position, he must first refute each of these arguments, then resurrect a case for Christianity in its place.