Existence of God - Essay Example

Existence of God Introduction The existence of God is a topic that lot of people have explored through various theories and arguments. Many people have argued as to whether there is existence of God and where the evidence that God really exists is. As a result, several theories have been advanced to explain the origin of the world, our purpose and the existence of God. One of the bases for the argument of the existence of God is the teleological argument that God exists based on the design of the world. The world was created in a way that human beings have no control or clue of the occurrence or existence of different phenomena. This essay is going to explore and affirm that God exists through the argument for design. Thesis Statement: The coordination and the intricate way in which human beings live by purpose suggest the existence of an intelligent designer. Overview Our lives in the world are inspired by the events and activities that we, human beings, undertake. However, in the process we have questions on our existence and, most importantly, on whether God exists. An argument by design explains the existence of God through the use of facts, theories and examples of how God created life. The world is meant for human inhabitation because there is a pattern in which life occurs and exists. It is true to argue that the world and life were designed by someone or a spirit that is unexplainable due to the following facts: Teleological orders: This is used to explain how order in the world occurs since everything in the world seems to follow a certain pattern. Teleological order can exist as spatial and temporal order whereby spatial order explains the co-presence while the latter explains succession. It is easy to look at the world and wonder at the facts of co-presence and succession. For instance, the human body is made up of millions of parts which interact with one another to come up with a complex living creature. William Paley who was an advocate of natural teleology argued that as a watch is a timepiece that is made up of millions of parts, then also the world and human life is designed that way. Another advocate of the teleological argument was Thomas Aquinas who argued that we see the world as being made up of many things some of which lack knowledge. He elucidates that these beings act for an end and this is evident by the small animals of living things (Sweet 95). As a result, a thing that does not have knowledge cannot move towards and end but only if it is directed by an intelligent being. Apart from humans who possess knowledge, natural things cannot move towards an end and therefore, what drives their move towards end is an intelligent being who in this sense is God. Paley’s argument is that the world is created in a perfect manner different from a watch due to several reasons. For instance, in his natural teleological argument he says that “as a watch is perfectly crafted and a well oiled machine,” then the world is also perfect. For instance, in the world there is enough oxygen for everybody. It is not less because it would not support life and again, it is not a lot because it could lead to easy combustion. Apart from William Paley’s theory, other scientists have supported the analogy of design through the positioning of the earth. For instance, if we look at the way earth is positioned, it not so close to the sun because it would cause problems to people and life would not be supported. Furthermore, if the sun was in a far position from the earth, then life would not be supported in the world (Sweet 102). The look of the universe from this view presents us with conclusion that God was involved in the creation of the world. This is summed by Isaac Newton who said that the most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets can only proceed through the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being. Criticisms: The William Paley analogy created a lot of criticism from a lot of quarters, especially from David Hume. The first argument he puts forward is that yes, it is only intelligent being who can craft nice things. This is because we have witnessed them making these artefacts, but we cannot claim to know the people or person who makes the world. He further notes that there seems to be a lot of imperfections in the nature and the world. The existence of diseases such as AIDS, floods and countless disasters means that the creator did not have to be perfect. He argues that maybe the world was made by a junior deity who was still learning to make the world since the world is far from being perfect (Ashton 94). Hume is backed by James Clark who argues that for a person to believe the natural anthology, he/she has first to be a believer in existence of God since it is difficult to imagine an intelligent or powerful Being as an intelligent designer of the world without believing in existence. Facts The teleology theory tries to give evidence and support of the existence of God and this law has been effective in doing so. Moreover, if we look at this theory, it is divided into temporal order and spatial order which give us accounts of existence of God. These analogies are based on order, beauty and design that led to the existence of God. Temporal Order: The natural teleology is heavily supported by the temporal order whereby the order in which the world is arranged is too big to be explained by science. It takes more than one scientific formula to prove something. For instance, the operation of Kepler’s law is explained in terms of Newton’s laws while Newton’s laws rely on Einstein’s field of equations. Science is used to explain different sets of phenomena and low level laws are explained by higher level laws. As a result, it is difficult to explain high level law through the use of science since these laws are the ones which explain all phenomena. We also need to examine the accounts of science based on its powers and liabilities. All objects in space have the power of attracting each other through the use of gravitational forces (Swinburne 1). It is has been found that particles have the same characteristics over time. The orderliness of the nature and the world has a vast majority of uniformity in terms of powers and liabilities. Through the use of science, we can find out that there are certain explanations as to why powers and liabilities of bodies hold. Science has not been able to explain why all these bodies hold the same general powers and liabilities. Another form of proof for the existence of a design in the creation of the world has been advanced by criticisms created by Hume. Hume criticises the natural teleology by stating that even if this theory was true, then there would have been several deities which would have been responsible for the world. His postulation of many people or deities being responsible for the order in the universe is wrong. This is because his reasoning is based on theism, so we would expect some uniform order in the world. But even in the process of building a house, if more than one deity was responsible for the order in the universe, then we would expect some handiwork from one of these deities (Sweet 103). Then in one part of the world we could experience a gravitation pull while in another part of the world we would expect to find an inverse square of the law. This is not true since the world observes a uniform order of forces such as gravitational pull. The temporal order of the world leads us to conclude that there is a God who observes and is responsible for order. Spatial Order: This is another form of order that explains the order of the universe and how the order is maintained in the universe. For instance, when we look at a vast majority of objects in the world, we come to the point that the uniformity is difficult to achieve in a world where God is present. The world is made up of complex systems and objects and yet in all this orderliness, there is no mention of God but a certain kind of uniformity that came about due to coincidence. The complexity of the different bodies is quite vast, yet we witness that there is the same orderliness of identical powers and components which are embodied. This complexity in a vast number of bodies is quite unexplainable and only pushes us to conclude that there is a common power behind these bodies. Human beings, as a result, love doing things in order to produce beauty and this has done for a long period of time. In this sense God also does things in order so that beauty of the world can be seen. Beauty is one of the reasons that God undertakes to explain how he works on different heavenly bodies. God created finite beings under a temporal order so that these people would gain knowledge and power (Swinburne 1). In some aspects God created the world a little imperfect or ugly so that people would appreciate the beauty in the world. Therefore, we can conclude that the order we find in the world is due to the existence of God. Everybody in this world would admit that every living thing and animals are beautiful and thus, it shows that God is present. Conclusion The creation of the world and life can only show that God exists and this has been proven though the use of the teleological theory. The world was created through the purpose and design of a great Being. Through the use of temporal and spatial analogies we understand that God designed the world for humans and other creatures. There is a lot of evidence that how the world operates is only through the great work and design of a transient being. Therefore, we can only conclude that God exists. Works Cited Ashton, John, and Michael Westacott. The Big Argument: Does God Exist? London: Penguin Books, 2006. Print. Sweet, William. God and Argument. Boston, MA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009. Print. Swinburne, Richard. “Argument from Design.” N.p., 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles2/SwinburnDesign.php. Read More