Term Papers on The Existence Of God

Term Paper Title	The Existence Of God
# of Words	1337
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.35

The Existence of God

     The existence of a God has for generations been the topic of fierce
debate.  This most usually occurring between members of the religious society
and, everybody else.  As a matter of fact the religious world itself has not
always been able to agree on God.  This has resulted in many a holy man to take
up the fight for his deity through the realm of words.  Many theories have been
proposed, and all think that theirs proves beyond a doubt on whether or not God
exists.  To write this paper I read four of those theories by assorted men of
the cloth, who all attempt to make the argument for a God in the Christian sense.
     The first of the theories I looked at was that of St.Anslem of
Canterbury.  He supplies the ontological argument for the existence of God.  The
ontological argument states that by understanding the nature of God himself, we
come to realize he exists.  He explains this argument by first defining what God
is.  Anslem says that God is a being than which nothing greater can be conceived
to exist, that it can not even be considered not to exist.  In short, the fact
that said being can not be considered not to exist, would thereby make it
greater than any that could be considered not to exist.  This would in all
reality be the secret to God's omnipotence in Anlsem's eyes.  Another point that
he stresses is that just be understanding the concept of what a God is, you are
proving his existence.  This is because if you understand who God is, you can
also accept his existence, and therefore cannot conceive that he does not exist.
Therefore making him that which nothing greater can be conceived of, and which
cannot be conceived not to exist which we have already defined as God.
     The second argument for a God comes from St. Tomas Aquinas, who argues
for the cosmological point of view.  The cosmological argument states that all
things in this universe have a cause, and since these causes cannot go on for
ever there must be a first cause, i.e. God.  He argues that there are five ways
to argue for the existence of God, the first is the argument from motion.  This
states that everything in this world has certain potentials for motion.  It also
states that for these potentials to be met another object n motion must set off
said potential.  That object in turn would have to have been put in motion by
something else, and so on and so on.  All of this ultimately culminating to one
object which started all this motion, that one being God.
     The second argument he makes says that there are many things that happen
in this world, and they are effects derived from a cause.  The effects in turn
can be the cause of something else and so on and so on.  Yet nothing can be the
cause of itself, so therefore there must be a first efficient cause, that sets
off other intermediate causes, in hopes of reaching a ultimate goal.  Therefore
the first of all the efficient causes would be God.
     The third argument Aquinas uses is that of possibility and necessity.
This argues that everything in this world has possibility to be and not to be.
So if there is the possibility that everything at one time or another cannot-be,
then at one time there was nothing, because everything that could've been wasn't.
Yet if there was nothing at one time, then there was nothing that could be, and
so there would still be nothing.  Therefore there had to be something that
existed to cause all the possibilities of everything else.  But to be necessary
something has to have something else cause it's necessity, which has something
else causing it's, ect.  This as with everything else stated before cannot go on
indefinitely, so there has to be a beginning which would be God.
     The fourth argument says that there is a gradation of everything, and
that at the top of every gradation there is a maximum of the genus.  He says
this in tu...

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