There is no reason to believe in God

God (IPA: /ɡɒd/) most commonly refers to the deity worshiped by followers of monotheistic and monolatrist religions, whom they believe to be the creator and overseer of the universe.[1] Theologians have ascribed a variety of attributes to the various conceptions of God. The most common among these include omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent".[1] These attributes were all supported to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologian philosophers, including Augustine of Hippo,[2] Al-Ghazali,[3] and Maimonides.[2] Many notable medieval philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God,[4] attempting to wrestle with the apparent contradictions implied by many of these attributes. Philosophers have developed many arguments for and against the existence of God. Contents [hide] * 1 Etymology and usage * 2 Names of God * 3 Conceptions of God * 4 Existence of God * 5 Theological approaches o 5.1 Theism and Deism * 6 History of monotheism o 6.1 Monotheism and pantheism o 6.2 Dystheism and nontheism * 7 Scientific positions regarding God * 8 Distribution of belief in God * 9 References * 10 Notes * 11 External links Etymology and usage Main article: God (word) The earliest written form of the Germanic word "god" comes from the 6th century Christian Codex Argenteus. The English word itself descends from the Proto-Germanic *ǥuđan. Most linguists agree that the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form *ǵhu-tï¿½-m was based on the root *ǵhau(ə)-, which meant either "To call" or to "invoke." The capitalized form "God" was first used in Ulfilas' Gothic translation of the New Testament, to represent the Greek Theos. In the English language the capitalization continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic "God" and "gods" in polytheism.[5][6] In spite of significant differences between religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, the Bahï¿½'ï¿½ Faith, and Judaism, the term "God" remains an English translation common to all. The name may signify any related or similar monotheistic deities, such as the early monotheism of Akhenaten and Zoroastrianism. Names of God Main article: Names of God Conceptions of God can vary widely, but the word God in English and its counterparts in other languages are normally used for all of them, such as Latinate Deus, Greek Θεός, Slavic Bog, Sanskrit Ishvara, or Arabic Allah. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, Yahweh, harking back to the religion's henotheistic origins. God may also be given a proper name in monotheistic currents of Hinduism which emphasize the personal nature of God (Bhakti), mostly either of Shiva, Vishnu (or Krishna) or Shakti. It is difficult to draw a line between proper names and epitheta of God, such as the names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, the 99 Names of God in the Qur'an and the various lists of thousand names of God in Hinduism. Conceptions of God Main article: Conceptions of God Detail of Sistine Chapel fresco Creation of the Sun and Moon by Michelangelo (completed 1512). Detail of Sistine Chapel fresco Creation of the Sun and Moon by Michelangelo (completed 1512). Conceptions of God vary widely. Theologians and philosophers have studied countless conceptions of God since the dawn of civilization. The Abrahamic conceptions of God include the trinitarian view of Christians, the Kabbalistic definition of Jewish mysticism, and the Islamic concept of God. The dharmic religions differ in their view of the divine: views of God in Hinduism vary by region, sect, and caste from monotheistic to polytheistic; the view of God in Buddhism is almost non-theist. In modern times, some more abstract concepts have been developed, such as process theology and open theism. Conceptions of God held by individual believers vary so widely that there is no clear consensus on the nature of God.[7] The contemporaneous French philosopher Michel Henry has however proposed a phenomenological approach and definition of God as phenomenological essence of Life.[citation needed] Existence of God Main article: Existence of God Many arguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed and rejected by philosophers, theologians, and other thinkers. In philosophical terminology, such arguments concern schools of thought on the epistemology of the ontology of God. There are many philosophical issues concerning the existence of God. Some definitions of God are so nonspecific that it is certain that something exists that meets the definition; while other definitions are apparently self-contradictory. Arguments for the existence of God typically include metaphysical, empirical, inductive, and subjective types. Arguments against the existence of God typically include empirical, deductive, and inductive types. Conclusions reached include: "God exists and this can be proven"; "God exists, but this cannot be proven or disproven" (theism in both cases); "God does not exist" (strong atheism); "God almost certainly does not exist"[8] (de facto atheism); and "no one knows whether God exists" (agnosticism). There are numerous variations on these positions. A recent argument for the existence of God is intelligent design, which asserts that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection."[9][10][11] It is a modern form of the traditional argument from design, modified to avoid specifying the nature or identity of the designer. Its primary proponents, all of whom are associated with the Discovery Institute,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] believe the designer to be the Abrahamic God.[19] Theological approaches Main article: Theology Theologians and philosophers have ascribed a number of attributes to God, including omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has been described as incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable being existent.[1] These attributes were all claimed to varying degrees by the early Jewish, Christian and Muslim scholars, including St Augustine,[2] Al-Ghazali,[4] and Maimonides.[2] Many medieval philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God,[4] while attempting to comprehend the precise implications of God's attributes. Reconciling some of those attributes generated important philosophical problems and debates. For example, God's omniscience implies that God knows how free agents will choose to act. If God does know this, their apparent free will might be illusory, or foreknowledge does not imply predestination; and if God does not know it, God is not omniscient.[20] The last centuries of philosophy have seen vigorous questions regarding the arguments for God's existence raised by such philosophers as Immanuel Kant, David Hume and Antony Flew, although Kant held that the argument from morality was valid. The theist response has been either to contend, like Alvin Plantinga, that faith is "properly basic"; or to take, like Richard Swinburne, the evidentialist position.[21] Some theists agree that none of the arguments for God's existence are compelling, but argue that faith is not a product of reason, but requires risk. There would be no risk, they say, if the arguments for God's existence were as solid as the laws of logic, a position summed up by Pascal as: "The heart has reasons which reason knows not of."[22] allow for the existen