even though it is retarded to argue over religion on this forum... I find that religion and science DO NOT conflict... they complement each other. it is a mater of fact that science does not prove that God does not exist... it can't. I personally do not believe in evolution, and science does not prove evolution... evolution does not prove that God does not exist because no matter what everything came from something, and even evolution does not explain where the first elements of matter came from... so i would appreciate that anyone who is interested in this topic read my essay that i wrote below...
Philosophic Explanation on discovering the existence of God through Human Reason
Using only the human reason, it is possible to discover that an all-powerful God exists. There are primarily two main ways, which are called arguments, which our reason can use to come to the conclusive decision that God exists. These two main ways are by contemplating our universe and by contemplating the human nature, these two primary methods are then broken down into the various arguments which confirm the judgment that God exists. By contemplating the universe one comes to two arguments: the Teleological Argument and the Cosmological Argument; and by contemplating the human nature one comes upon: the Moral Argument and the Historical Argument. Through these arguments one can come to the rational conclusion that there is a God.
The Teleological Argument rests its case on the order and plan in our universe. Our reason tells us that where ever one sees order and plan it shows that an intelligent being is at work; and because every affect has a cause, the greater the plan and order the higher the level of intelligence is required perform it. Therefore when one sees our universe which is so full of an unimaginable amount of plan and order shown through the universe’s natural works of art full of beauty, grandeur, perfection and variety that greatly overshadows any human craftsmanship, one can only come to the reasonable conclusion that it was all created by an All-powerful God. The Teleological Argument has been attacked by unbelievers with several arguments; the greatest of these is the blind chance argument which tries to attribute the order and plan in the universe to random chance. This false notion has been recently resurfaced by Darwin and his evolutionary theory, but this theory is proven wrong because it contradicts Newton’s law of entropy, that all things in nature degrade for the worse, entirely destroying the “blind chance” theory, not to mention that “blind chance” does not give any explanation of the original source of the universe. Another common refutation of the Teleological Argument is that nature contains many things that have no apparent “purpose” such as rudimentary body organs, but as scientists have been discovering, many of these “worthless” items do have vital purposes. Another attempt to refute the Teleological Argument is the presence of pain, suffering, pests, vermin, and disease in the world, but in perspective each has it purpose and in the case of pain and suffering it was sent as a punishment after Adam fell, and as a way not only for God to punish men, but for man to atone for his sins.
The Cosmological argument proves that God exits through showing that all matter, force and motion must have a cause, which is God. Nothing can come from nothing, therefore something, a Necessary Being, must have created all matter and life. In addition, our universe is filled with motion and according to Newton’s first law which states that every object will remain at rest unless force causes it to move and that once in motion an object will remain in motion until force causes it to rest. Since there would be no motion without a God, the only sensible conclusion is that evidently there is a God because something must be the primary all powerful Force behind all motion in the Universe. There have been several attempts to refute the Cosmological argument: that motion is an attribute of matter, but this has been renounced by Newton’s First Law of Thermodynamics; that life simply sprung from matter, which was proven as false by the scientific work of Louis Pasteur; and the commonly used argument against the fact of God’s creation of all things is that ex nihilo nihil fit (nothing is made out of nothing) but God did not create the universe from nothing. God is thee necessary and self-sufficient Being, so when He created the universe it came from an act of His infinite Will, meaning that in fact the universe did not come from nothing.
The Moral Argument rests mainly on the fact that man has a conscience which is the sense of right and wrong written in the hearts of all men, along with a sense of moral obligation to do right. That voice in our heads, which tells us what is right and wrong, torments us when we have done wrong, rewards us when we have done good and forces a moral obligation upon us, is the conscience. All mankind has a conscience and even though man is free, he is governed by this conscience. When taking these facts about the conscience into consideration, it becomes evident that the conscience must be the tool God uses for instructing and enforcing His natural laws. The conscience is and always has been seen as a foreign voice, because it often contradicts one’s will; therefore, man has always recognized the conscience as the voice of God. The Moral argument has been challenged by unbelievers who claim that the conscience is a result of an education and environment, but it is easy to see how this is false when the basic principles of morality are held in high esteem by all men: from the most uncivilized and ignorant to even the most highly cultured and extensively educated.
The Historical Argument shows that there is a God because not only is man religious by nature but that all nations, civilized or not, have held knowledge of a Supreme God who created man and rules over them. By looking at history anyone can see that man has always worshiped some god/s which they attributed the creation of the universe, and through the voice of their conscience man has realized that their god must be the author and enforcer of moral law. When looking at this fact the inevitable conclusion is that man is religious by his nature and will; man’s knowledge of a God is an instinctive thing, and as Aristotle said “what all men, impelled as by instinct, hold to be true, is a natural truth”.
Through these arguments it becomes clear that man, through his reasoning, can easily discern that there is a God. Through the Teleological Argument we can see that there is a God through the order and plan in our universe. By the Cosmological argument we can prove that God exits through laws of the universe. And through the Moral and Historical Arguments we can prove God’s existence by through man’s religious nature and mans historical record of acknowledging a Supreme Ruler and Creator. Therefore, through His infinite Goodness, God has given man the means of knowing and proving His existence so that all men can believe in Him with an unshakable Faith.
Last edited by IsaacLeavitt (2007-01-18 08:10:17)
