PART III Philosophy of Religion If God exists, then the grounding reality is not ultimately groundless, the supporting reality is not ultimately unsupported, and evolving reality is not ultimately...

PART III Philosophy of Religion

If God exists, then the grounding reality is not ultimately groundless, the supporting reality is not ultimately unsupported, and evolving reality is not ultimately without aim. affirmation of God implies
an ultimately justified fundamental trust in reality. If someone affirms God, he knows why he can trust reality.

Mans Kung,
Does God Exist?
The basis of iireligious criticism is this: man makes religion; religion does not make man. Religion is indeed man’s self-consciousnessand self-awareness so long as he has not found himself or has lost him- self again. But man is not an abstract being, squatting outside the world. Man is the human world, the state, society. This state, this soci- ety, produces religion, which is an inverted world consciousness, because they are in an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, its general basis of consolation and justifi- cation. It is the fantastic realization of the human being inasmuch as the human being possesses no true reality. Religious suffering is
at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sen- timent of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

Karl Marx,
Critique of Hegel
Does God exist? Is there a supremely powerful, completely benevolent being who created the universe and all that is in it and who is presently and providentially active in caring for us? The question is perhaps the most profound that human beings ask. It is the ulti- mate metaphysical issue, for if there is such a being, then it is of paramount importance that we come to know that fact and as much as possible about God and his or her plan.
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TRADITIONAL ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

Implications follow that affect our understanding of the world and ourselves. If God exists, the world is not accidental, a product of mere chance and necessity, but a home that has been designed for rational and sentient beings, a place of personal purposeful- ness. If there is a God, we ought to do everything possible to discover this fact, includ- ing using reason to make the discovery itself or to test its validity.
On the other hand, perhaps a supreme, benevolent being does not exist. Karl Marx may be right: religion may be just a human invention, the “opium of the people.” But if there is no God, we want to know this, too. Whether or not we believe in God makes a differ- ence in the way we view the universe and in the way we live.
These are two extremes: (1) a supreme being who is all-powerful (omnipotent), all- knowing (omniscient), and all-good (omnibenevolent); or (2) no deity at all. The belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent deity, who is providentially active in the world, is called
theism
(from the Greek word for God,
theos)
or
monotheism,
the belief in one god. The belief that there is no god is called
atheism.
There are positions in between these:
deism,
the belief that an ingenious being designed and created the world but then left it;
polytheism,
the belief in many gods;
pantheism,
the belief that every- thing is God; and
limited theism,
the view that God is very powerful but not omnipo- tent and omniscient. While all of these positions are interesting, the Western tradition, influenced by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as well as Greek philosophical monothe- ism, has been theist. The central debate has been between theism and atheism or
agnos-
ficism, the view that we cannot know whether there is a God. The readings in this part reflect this central debate.
Philosophy of religion is the study of the concepts and arguments surrounding the idea of a supreme being or beings, a God or gods. Even if God does not exist, the argu- ments centering on this quest are interesting for their ingenuity and subtlety. It may be argued that the Judeo-Christian tradition is so important in the world, especially in Western civilization, that every person who wants to be well-informed must come to grips with the arguments and counterarguments surrounding its claims. Hence, even if you reject the assertions of religion, it is important to understand what you are reject- ing and why.
In the first two sections (A and B) of this part, we examine arguments for and against the existence of God: the cosmological argument, the teleological argument, the onto- logical argument, the argument from religious experience, and the argument from evil. In section C, we examine the relation of faith to reason, asking whether it is rational to hold religious beliefs and to live a life governed by those beliefs.
A . TR AD I T I ONA L OR GU MENT S FOR THE Ex I ST ENCE OF G or
Can the existence of God be demonstrated or made probable by argument? The debate between those who believe that reason can demonstrate that God exists and those who do not has an ancient lineage, going back to Protagoras and Plato. One of the earliest references to arguments for the existence of God is found in Plato’s Laws, where the following dialogue takes place:

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