“God is great… God is good,” are familiar phrases frequently said at the dinner table. God is a being— an idea— that provides comfort and happiness to many people’s existence. Discussing the existence or nonexistence of God is one of the most likely ideas to erupt an argument. It is my proposition that God defined from a Western perspective, (meaning that as a supreme being God possesses omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence), does not exist. This statement is carefully qualified because neither the idea of God from an Eastern perspective nor polytheistic beliefs are being considered in this argument.
God’s existence cannot be proven with any empirical evidence nor can its function as a creator be rationalized; thus, its existence cannot be assumed except by a leap of faith. This leap of faith is often touted by religion; however, it has been clearly illustrated that religion is developed and perpetuated by man. Moreover, an omnipotent and omniscient being would already be aware of the future and fate of humankind, which would negate free will. Logically, a supreme being would not create mortal beings with the ability to deny the existence of its own creator either. Finally, the mysteries of the world can be explained by natural and scientific theories; science already explains a prodigious amount of the universe. Theoretically, it will only be a matter of time before science discovers the answers to the universe’s mysteries or there could be scientific concepts that are beyond the understanding of the human mind that can explain the creation and workings of the universe.
Those who believe in God have often argued that God exists because he must have created the universe. This works on a syllogistic logical flow, which reasons that things in existence must have a cause and since the universe exists something (i.e. God) created it. Thomas Aquinas furthered these tricky semantics in his Summa Theologica, but if looked at closely from an objective eye the “cause” of the universe does not necessarily have to be a divine creator— a natural phenomenon could have easily accounted for its inception.
Science explains and rationalizes the laws of our natural world. For instance, the natural phenomenon of gravity can be explained by mathematical equations conceived in Sir Isaac Newton’s mind. He observed the attractive forces between massive bodies and attributed such behavior to the workings of the natural world instead of a supreme being. Apart from Newton and other scientists who have made contributions to the explanation of the universe, the scientists who developed superstring theory inch closer to giving us the answers to the mystery of the universe’s existence and function. This theory reconciles the discrepancies between quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theories of relativity; it proposes the universe is composed of ten dimensions represented by strings— all defined and explained by mathematical equations.
Religion, the foremost proponent of God’s existence, asks it followers to accept God’s existence based on faith. Religion is an institution developed by mankind for spiritual growth, as any other of mankind’s institutions it has its weaknesses and flaws. To have “faith” is to believe in the ideas about God that were conceived by man. The flaws and discrepancies that do exist in religious doctrine negate the omnipotence and omniscience of God. God’s messages would be perfect and only benefit the world, but God’s messages and the confliction of God’s messages has brought war, death, and corruption to the world— God is purported to protect mankind from sins instead encourage man to sin. Furthermore, God cannot feel jealous, angry, or happy because He/She/It is all these at once. The Bible and other religious texts describe God’s dispositions, humanizing an entity that cannot be humanized. Mankind seems to have a natural inclination to seek meaning in existence: God is the easy answer to meaning and purpose to many individuals. But while seeking meaning, mankind should not fabricate meaning where there is none: it pushes us farther from the true answer.
Presupposing God’s existence, He/She/It would have predestined the lives of every individual. Yet every day an individual can make the choice to deny God, create evil, and destroy the light one’s Creator supposedly provided. Thus, free will is mankind’s power over God; after one’s cerebrum computes this information God’s existence equates to logical fallacy or to the conclusion that free will is only an illusion. However, I find it more likely that mankind would more readily accept God’s nonexistence than accept free will as illusionary.
There are undeniably mysterious and inexplicable phenomena, many may call miracles, in this world, which contribute to the infinite doubt about the nonexistence or the existence of a special being of creation, which may or may not have infinite complexity. The human mind is hopelessly unable to understand such a thing at this time. Logically, belief and trust should be placed on the scientific and skeptical side of the balance until irrefutable evidence settles this debate.
Sources
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica. 1274
