Philosophy of religion is a very complex, yet intriguing topic. It deals with exceedingly complicating theories and ideas about the creation and existence of the universe. What exactly is philosophy of religion? It’s a part of philosophical phenomena that many should ponder. It is not just addressing questions whether or not god is real. The real questions come when you ask if God indeed is present, then what is he like, or, what does it exactly mean or represent to us. There are many religions in the world and all of them have certain beliefs and philosophies. Many religions believe in many gods which is polytheism, some believe in just one God which is monotheism, and others believe in no god at all which is atheism. All of these scenarios fall into three major categories which includes; theist, agnostic, and atheist. To be considered a theist, one needs to believe in God as a creator and the sole ruler of the universe. On the other hand, to be considered atheist, one has no belief in god. To be considered agnostic, one has no idea of what is going on in the universe and just lives his/her life without exploring these serious questions.
There has been an abundance of arguments to prove or disprove the existence of god. Three main arguments include; ontological argument, cosmological argument, and teleological argument that work toward proven the existence of God. These arguments not only tackle the question of God’s existence, but also his own nature such as what he is like. Ontological argument takes a leap to prove the existence of a paragon being, who represents perfection. Cosmological arguments try to prove the existence of a necessary or eternal creator. It claims that all things in nature depend on something else for their existence. Teleological argument aims to prove the existence of a creator concerned with humanity.
Ontological argument or a priori arguments states that the very notion of an all perfect being means God has to be real, therefore, has to exist. This classical argument was first introduced in 1070 by St. Anselm. Saint Anselm is considered to be one of the most important Christian thinkers of the 11th century. In his argument, he stated that we have a perception of an all perfect being, which he defined as, “that than which nothing greater can be conceived”. He clearly articulated that God is a being who possesses all perfection. Additionally, he states that if we only had the idea of this being in our minds, then it would be less perfect if it actually existed. Unfortunately, this argument is limited with the production of evidence because it is tautological, and it fails to take the empirical evidence into account.
Cosmological argument also known as the first cause argument tries to explain that something must have caused the universe to exist. This argument tries to prove the existence of God by perceiving the world around us and acknowledging that something caused the universe or everything in it to exist. It is well argued that the things we observe are God type thing, means he is a creator of them. Well known philosophers who advocated for this argument are Plato, Aristotle, and Saint Thomas Aquinas. This argument explains that everything has a cause. Which also bring the question about the first cause. If there was an affect, then there had to be a cause, and that first cause is uncaused because its God himself.
Teleological argument also known as the argument for design. Here we see the arguments from order in the universe to the existence of God. Mainly this argument was brought about by Saint Thomas Aquinas, where he used Five Ways of knowing that god really exists. These Five Ways include; Argument from Motion, which states that the god is the first mover of everything, Argument from Efficient Causes, which is God the first cause, Argument from Possibility and Necessity, God cause the universe to continue to exist, Argument from Gradation of Being, which is God is the source of the hierarchy of perfection we observe in the universe, and Argument from Design, which is God is the intelligence that guided nature. These arguments attempt to prove that God exists by showing that there cannot be an infinite number of regressions of causes to things that exists. It states that there must be a final uncaused-cause of all thing. This uncaused-cause is claimed to be God.
I think according to my understanding of religion, I would consider myself as a monotheist. I somewhat believe that there is one god who is responsible for all of the creation of the universe. I was raised in the belief that God single handedly created the entire universe, making everything designed as perfect as he is. Which also means, I believe in an ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments. However, I think I am very narrow minded and don’t think about other possible outcomes. When I hear about different religions and how they have different Gods or God, I somehow doubt the existence of my own God. Of course, most of the religions have different Gods, but they all mean the same.
However, there are times when I completely doubt the existence of God. Children are dying, women are getting raped, and a lot of people still see race as problem. If there was God, why wouldn’t he just make all of these problems disappear. Bible states that God has a plan for everyone; so, does that mean that all of the horrible acts that happened around the world are just God’s plan? Additionally, I love facts or any information that can be proven with substantial amount of evidence. I do not believe that God created our world or us in that matter. Science can explain a lot of things, and with help of evolution I can see that there is a massive possibility that we have evolved over time from apes to become who we are right now. Furthermore, to stay neutral in this difficult, yet, intriguing topic I will be satisfied with the conclusion that God created evolution. If I believe this, then most of the things about God make a lot of sense. If we God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent then he is diffidently responsible for every single thing that exists in the world; including evolution.