Why Would an Intelligent Person Not Believe in God - Essay Example

Why would an intelligent person not believe in God? The main reason why intelligent person does not believe in God is due to the fact that His existence cannot be verified by the senses. There is also no scientific evidence to His existence and nobody has actually personally known God to conclude outright that He really exists. Inferring to this lack of evidence and inability to verify and experience God, an intelligent and logical mind may be led to conclude that because there are no physical evidence to God’s existence, God therefore does not exist. This sentiment of non-belief because God’s existence cannot be verified has been articulated by many thinkers that includes Feuerbach, Freud and Marx. Feuerbach and Marx dismissed God and His expression in religion to be an illusory of projections of what is lacking in man. Feuerbach argued that God is really just a dream of the human mind, an illusion that became sacred, a projection of man’s unfulfilled desires. For Feuerbach, the idea of God’s magnificence is just a projection of man’s failure to realize its full potential and His holiness is just man’s expression of guilt towards his sin. In a way, Feuerbach believed that God is just a defense mechanism of man’s inadequacy and his attempt to fill it through the idea of God. Marx, shares many of Feuerbach’s argument that God is just an illusion and projection. But Marx went as far as dismissing God and religion as an “opium” that impedes development. And for man and society to progress, that opium has to be removed. For Marx, God is not only non-existent, but He is also an inconvenience and a stumbling block towards progress that needs to removed. Freud argued his skepticism on the existence of God according to his expertise in psychoanalysis. But his argument is still consistent with Feuerbach “illusory and projection” argument. In principle, their argument was the same only that Freud uses the language of his psychoanalytic profession that God really is just man’s attempt to fulfill his subconscious wishes. The belief in God, His holiness, his power, his magnificence is just a projection of the mind which became the case when we believed it to be. 2. Why would an intelligent person believe in God? An intelligent man who is predisposed to reason and logic goes beyond the physical evidence to believe that there is God. By just looking around, he would realize that there is a Supreme Being, a Supreme Intelligence who created it all. He knew that everything in this universe is made of a single element of carbon and there must be Somebody greater than man who created it. But merely believing on the existence of God by sheer faith renders that belief not only vulnerable but also unreasonable thus can easily be dismissed. It has to be supported by reason not only to convince, but to establish God’s existence according to the language of an intelligent man, which is reason. There were philosophers who established God’s existence through reason. Among them were Anselm, St. Aquinas, and the great scientist, Blaise Pascal. Anselm ontological premises raised the first argument on the existence of God. His argument purports to a priori proof of God’s existence which is independent of any proof or observation. He argued that because God is God, His existence does not need to be validated by experience to justify that He exists. He concludes that because there is nothing that exists to be greater than God, then it is unimaginable to think that there is no God. St. Aquinas took a different route from Anselm in explaining the existence of God. He was a cleric but he argued God’s existence from the point of view of reason. For St. Aquinas, he posited that God’s existence can be known without relying on mere faith and the Scripture because God’ existence is not self-evident but has to be argued. He argued that God does exist but the mode of knowing should be proportional to what is being observed. Man, being just a created being, cannot be proportionate to the understanding required to comprehend God because God being above all things, is above knowledge. He has to be understood on a higher plane of understanding or through “divine light”. Blaise Pascal, being a scientist, took side in behalf of the existence of God from the pragmatist point of view. Perhaps he knew that arguing for and against the existence of God will not end so he posited his argument from a practical point of view which is famously known as Pascal’s Wager or Pascal’s Gambit. Pascal persuaded those non-believers that it is always beneficial to believe in God, because the benefit that will be gained from believing in God is always greater than the expected value from dismissing God. He did not argue for the existence of God but rather sided or just persuaded that is always better to believe in God. In plain language, his practical persuasion was, if I believe in God and there is God, I am okay; and if I still believe in God but in fact there is really no God, I am still fine”. So it is always better to believe in God. 3. What is your opinion about God’s existence and nature? Personally, I believe that God exists. Nature is one of the evidences of His existence. Nature cannot exist without a creator. It did not exist by just sheer coincidence or a product of evolution but rather from a deliberate Intelligence greater than ours. The universe in itself, if one has to consider its vastness and complexity, yet works in perfect in harmony, cannot exist just by itself. Even our consciousness, our capacity to comprehend, imagine and think has divinity in it that it would be difficult to dismiss that it is just a product of evolution or coincidence. Somehow, somewhere, there is a God that exists. Perhaps St. Aquinas was right that it is really difficult to fathom God’s existence by relying merely on human wisdom because its capacity to know is not proportional to understand what is greater than it. But whatever our reason for believing God, we can always find solace on the persuasion of Blaise Pascal that it is always beneficial for us to believe in God. Even if for the sake or argument, that the non-believers were right that there is no God after all, it still does not hurt to believe in God. Read More