The debate over existence and non-existence of God has always existed. But it has become widespread and has gained more attention during the latter half of 20th century with an additional flavor besides the conventional philosophical approach. One of the salient features of these debates is use of arguments based on reason, logic, established scientific facts and scientific theories proposed by leading scientist in various fields of study.
Philosophical atheist thought appeared as early as 5th/6th century BC. However, the phenomenon of religion-bashing (which was naturally followed by questioning the existence of God) based on reason and arguments from science found its roots in Europe during the age of enlightenment and renaissance. This phenomenon and anger against religion gradually came into significance as a counter-reaction of common masses against the excesses committed on them by the church over many centuries in medieval Europe. On the other hand, the non-European eastern world has a different historical experience and they got introduced to this phenomenon as a by-product of the colonial rule of European powers over the countries of eastern world. And due to these different social, religious and historical experiences of the western and eastern world, we see atheism being comparatively more prominent in western world than the eastern world.
As we moved into the period of modern era into 19th, 20th and 21st century, this phenomenon gained more recognition and found place in various western philosophical thought like Marxism, secular humanism, secular feminism, existentialism, objectivism etc. Today, approximately 2.3% of world population describes itself as atheist and another 11.9% as nonreligious.
I have been exploring and studying this topic in depth for a while now. Based on my experience, it would be safe to say that Atheism is actually concerned with 'social effects and consequences' of religion (which derives itself from belief in God) than the idea of 'concept of God' itself. Also, more often than not, all the different religions are treated as one and the same based on the European historical, intellectual and religious experience. However, if we go into details of history we find that different religions have undergone different historical and political experiences which has, directly or indirectly, shaped these religions. Hence, while studying theism, in context of a given religion, it is important to take into consideration the historical experience of that religion. During this series of blog, if I ever needed to touch upon the concept of God (it’s different from question of existence of God), I will be talking about concept of God in Islam [1]. If you are a theist believing in a particular religion’s concept of God, feel free to post a comment if you feel the concept of God as per your religion provides argument in support of your theism.
In this blog, my focus is on ‘theist versus atheist’ debate on existence of God as an entity (and not on the concept of God). And I will be discussing about the arguments put forward by theists and atheists in support of their proposition. My purpose of writing this blog is not to put forward the proof of existence or non-existence of God but rather to bring forward the various arguments and counter arguments that are popular and frequently discussed among theist and atheist circles. It is up to the reader with interest to explore the topic to his/her satisfaction till he/she finds an answer.
In my personal experience, I have seen different people responding differently to same arguments. Some people get convinced and find their answer on listening to one or more arguments and end up on one of the two sides (theist or atheist). Some people exhaust all arguments and still do not find themselves convinced and end up being agnostic. And some people keep on changing their minds, depending on his/her judgment of, as to which side is making a stronger argument in favor of their proposition. I think, where does a person end up, in such kind of debates/discussions depends a lot on the person himself/herself. The way he/she interprets things around him/her, his/her background, personal experiences and level of self-consciousness. And probably this is why we see so many types of atheism/agnosticism around us: weak/strong, implicit/explicit etc.
I will try my best to remain neutral while putting forward arguments and counter arguments from both the theist and atheist sides. However, I myself is a theist and hence, it might happen, unintentionally or inadvertently, that sometimes I might get slightly soft or inclined toward the theist side. If you are an atheist reading this blog, please fill free to leave a comment and point the place where you feel so. Also, I am a full time software developer and hence I do not have enough time after my work to do my own original research on the topic. Hence whatever arguments and contentions I will be putting up here on this blog series will be taken from works of subject matter experts on the topic that I have been studying and researching for a while. The main arguments that are frequently discussed between theist and atheist can be broadly categorized as [2]:
Each of the argument category mentioned above is complex enough to deserve a separate blog post for its discussion. Hence, I will be writing a series of blogs with separate blog posts covering each of the above mentioned arguments (and its counter argument) in detail. Before I conclude this introductory post to the series, I would like to point out that reason, logic and scientific method of study resides on sense deception and rationality and hence applying it is of great benefit for all those cases where sense deception and rationality works. However, during exhaustive debates and discussions on existence of God (or a supernatural being), often times reasoning hits it tipping point and we find that there still remains many unanswered questions but knowledge can no further be acquired by any epistemology involving sense deception and rationality. And this leads to a new dimension of discussion in this God debate. However, this blog series in not intended on exploring this dimension and I will be typing down a separate blog post (or series) addressing this dimension.
Till I post the next part to the series, may God's peace and mercy for evermore be with you :).
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[1] Though i have studied about other religion a lot but i would still defer to talk about concept of God in other religions in a manner which represents those religions because I think people who have deeper knowledge of those religion are in a better position to do this.
[2] If you feel that this list is missing any major arguments that theist/atheist put forward during their debate and discussion, please feel free to point it out in comments section. I will add that to the list.
Philosophical atheist thought appeared as early as 5th/6th century BC. However, the phenomenon of religion-bashing (which was naturally followed by questioning the existence of God) based on reason and arguments from science found its roots in Europe during the age of enlightenment and renaissance. This phenomenon and anger against religion gradually came into significance as a counter-reaction of common masses against the excesses committed on them by the church over many centuries in medieval Europe. On the other hand, the non-European eastern world has a different historical experience and they got introduced to this phenomenon as a by-product of the colonial rule of European powers over the countries of eastern world. And due to these different social, religious and historical experiences of the western and eastern world, we see atheism being comparatively more prominent in western world than the eastern world.
As we moved into the period of modern era into 19th, 20th and 21st century, this phenomenon gained more recognition and found place in various western philosophical thought like Marxism, secular humanism, secular feminism, existentialism, objectivism etc. Today, approximately 2.3% of world population describes itself as atheist and another 11.9% as nonreligious.
I have been exploring and studying this topic in depth for a while now. Based on my experience, it would be safe to say that Atheism is actually concerned with 'social effects and consequences' of religion (which derives itself from belief in God) than the idea of 'concept of God' itself. Also, more often than not, all the different religions are treated as one and the same based on the European historical, intellectual and religious experience. However, if we go into details of history we find that different religions have undergone different historical and political experiences which has, directly or indirectly, shaped these religions. Hence, while studying theism, in context of a given religion, it is important to take into consideration the historical experience of that religion. During this series of blog, if I ever needed to touch upon the concept of God (it’s different from question of existence of God), I will be talking about concept of God in Islam [1]. If you are a theist believing in a particular religion’s concept of God, feel free to post a comment if you feel the concept of God as per your religion provides argument in support of your theism.
In this blog, my focus is on ‘theist versus atheist’ debate on existence of God as an entity (and not on the concept of God). And I will be discussing about the arguments put forward by theists and atheists in support of their proposition. My purpose of writing this blog is not to put forward the proof of existence or non-existence of God but rather to bring forward the various arguments and counter arguments that are popular and frequently discussed among theist and atheist circles. It is up to the reader with interest to explore the topic to his/her satisfaction till he/she finds an answer.
In my personal experience, I have seen different people responding differently to same arguments. Some people get convinced and find their answer on listening to one or more arguments and end up on one of the two sides (theist or atheist). Some people exhaust all arguments and still do not find themselves convinced and end up being agnostic. And some people keep on changing their minds, depending on his/her judgment of, as to which side is making a stronger argument in favor of their proposition. I think, where does a person end up, in such kind of debates/discussions depends a lot on the person himself/herself. The way he/she interprets things around him/her, his/her background, personal experiences and level of self-consciousness. And probably this is why we see so many types of atheism/agnosticism around us: weak/strong, implicit/explicit etc.
I will try my best to remain neutral while putting forward arguments and counter arguments from both the theist and atheist sides. However, I myself is a theist and hence, it might happen, unintentionally or inadvertently, that sometimes I might get slightly soft or inclined toward the theist side. If you are an atheist reading this blog, please fill free to leave a comment and point the place where you feel so. Also, I am a full time software developer and hence I do not have enough time after my work to do my own original research on the topic. Hence whatever arguments and contentions I will be putting up here on this blog series will be taken from works of subject matter experts on the topic that I have been studying and researching for a while. The main arguments that are frequently discussed between theist and atheist can be broadly categorized as [2]:
- The kalam cosmological argument
- The teleological argument
- The argument from intelligent design
- The multi-verse theory
- The argument from objective morality
- The problem of evil
- The problem of free will
- The linguistic and literary inimitability of Quran (put forward by Muslim theists)
Each of the argument category mentioned above is complex enough to deserve a separate blog post for its discussion. Hence, I will be writing a series of blogs with separate blog posts covering each of the above mentioned arguments (and its counter argument) in detail. Before I conclude this introductory post to the series, I would like to point out that reason, logic and scientific method of study resides on sense deception and rationality and hence applying it is of great benefit for all those cases where sense deception and rationality works. However, during exhaustive debates and discussions on existence of God (or a supernatural being), often times reasoning hits it tipping point and we find that there still remains many unanswered questions but knowledge can no further be acquired by any epistemology involving sense deception and rationality. And this leads to a new dimension of discussion in this God debate. However, this blog series in not intended on exploring this dimension and I will be typing down a separate blog post (or series) addressing this dimension.
Till I post the next part to the series, may God's peace and mercy for evermore be with you :).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Though i have studied about other religion a lot but i would still defer to talk about concept of God in other religions in a manner which represents those religions because I think people who have deeper knowledge of those religion are in a better position to do this.
[2] If you feel that this list is missing any major arguments that theist/atheist put forward during their debate and discussion, please feel free to point it out in comments section. I will add that to the list.
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